Randi W. is a 13-year-old minor who attended the Livingston Middle School where Robert Gadams served as vice principle. On February 1, 1992, while Randi was in Gadams's office, Gadams sexually molested Randi.
Gadams had previously been employed at the Mendota Unified School District (from 1985 to 1988) During his time of the employment there, Gadams had been investigated and reprimanded for improper conduct with female junior high students, including giving them back massages, making sexual remark to them, and being involved in “sexual situations” with them.
Gilbert rosette, an official with Mendota, provided a letter of recommendation for Gadams in May 1990. The letter was part of Gadams’s placement file at Fresno Pacific College, where he had received his teaching credentials. The recommendation was extensive and referred to Gadams’s “genuine concern” for students, his “outstanding rapport” with everyone, and concluded, “O wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Mr. Gadams for any position.”
Gadams had also previously been employed at the Tranquility High School District and Golden Plains Unified District (1987 – 1900). Richard Cole, an administrator at Golden Plains, also provided a letter of recommendation for the Fresno placement file that listed Gadams’s “favorable” qualities and concluded that he “would recommend him foralmost any administrative position he wishes to pursue,” Cole knew, at the time he provided the recommendation, that Gadams had been the subject of various parents’ complaints, inclulding that he “led a panty raid, made sexual overtures to students, swxual remarks to students.” Cole also Knew that Gadams had resined under pressure because of these sexual misconduct charges.
Gadams’s last place of employment (1990-1991) before Livingston was Muroc Unified School District, where disciplinary actions were taken against him for sexual harassment. When allegations of “sexual touching” of female student were made. Gadams was forced to resign from Muroc. Nonetheless, Gary Rice and David Malcolm, officials at Muroc, provided a letter of recommendation for Gadams that described him as “an upbeat, enthusiastic administrator who relates well to the student,” and who was responsible “in large part,” for making Boron Junior High School (located in Muroc) “a safe, orderly and clean environment for student and staff.” The letter concluded that they recommended Gadams “for an assistant principalship or equivalent position without reservation.”
All of the letters provided by previous by previous administrators of Gadams were sent in on forms that included a disclosure that the information provided “will be sent to prospective employers.”
Through her guardian, Randi W. filed suit against the districts, alleging that her injuries from Gadams’s sexual touching were proximately caused by their failure to provide full and accurate information about Gadams to the placement service.