San Ramon Valley Unified Agrees to Pay Nearly $7 Million Over Alleged Sexual Abuse

San Ramon Valley Unified School District has agreed to a nearly $7 million settlement involving the alleged sexual abuse of two students by a former high school theater teacher.

In the lawsuit against the district, two students allege that Ryan Weible, a former educator at San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, leveraged his position of authority and trust to groom and abuse the then-minors over several years, including on school grounds, his apartment and during a school-sponsored senior trip to New York City.

Weible was the assistant head of school for Bentley School, a private K–12 school with campuses in Lafayette and Oakland, as recently as last year, according to the school’s website.

The suit filed last year alleged that Weible, 47, began grooming one student, identified as Jane Doe in court filings, beginning in the 2009–10 school year. He bought her her meals and gifts, and spent time alone with her in the windowless theater room, the suit claimed.

The following school year, Weible allegedly abused her in the theater room on campus in the middle of the night. The school’s alarm system went off and police responded, the suit said.

In an interview with KQED, the former student, who asked not to be named for this story, said that Weible shoved her into a closet after hearing police arrive, and she snuck out, running through the middle of campus.

“If they checked their security cameras the next day, they would have seen me running across campus at full speed, just afraid and panicking and not sure what to do,” she said. “I was never approached by the school about it; they never talked to me about it. They never talked to me about him at all, actually.”

Through his attorney, Weible denied the allegations.

Records obtained by KQED from San Ramon Valley Unified show that in 2011, police and district personnel found unused condoms on the desk, a condom wrapper on the ground and a used condom in the garbage can. The district reprimanded him, instructing him to “refrain from inappropriate conduct while on school property” and to stop staying overnight on school property.

In the records, Weible argued that the professional theatre industry uses condoms as a protective measure against the moisture damage of wireless body microphone transmitters. He said his sound manager had accidentally purchased the wrong type of condoms.

The suit claimed that Weible’s inappropriate behavior was frequently on display. He gave students side hugs, hand massages and had female students sit on his lap, the suit alleged.

“They’re an institution managing multiple schools, and you’re just going to keep blowing clear, crazy red flags off? How many kids are you going to hurt to protect your reputation?” Doe said.

In a written statement, district Superintendent CJ Cammack said the allegations are deeply disturbing, and the case does not reflect “the high quality of our SRVUSD teachers and staff.”

Cammack said the district followed all legally required hiring practices and, in recent years, has made comprehensive improvements to its hiring and background check procedures.

“I am confident that our current staff are committed to acting responsibly and with vigilance in support of student safety,” Cammack wrote.

Weible resigned from San Ramon Valley Unified in 2012. Records obtained by KQED show that as part of his separation agreement, the district promised only to share basic details of his job, like dates of employment.

The district also agreed not to provide any negative comments or give a negative impression about Weible.

“Who does that protect?” said Lauren Cerri, the attorney representing the victims. “It doesn’t protect the students. It protects the district and it protects him.”

According to Cerri, San Ramon Valley Unified did not report Weible to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the state agency with the authority to revoke teaching credentials.

After the lawsuit was filed in February 2024, a second victim came forward, alleging Weible sexually assaulted her on school grounds from the beginning of the 2011 school year at San Ramon Valley High School. Jane Doe 2 alleges in the suit that Weible told her he loved her and wanted to marry her.

By December 2024, months after the lawsuit was filed and more than a decade after he left the district, San Ramon Valley Unified reported Weible to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, records show.

Jane Doe said the process of seeing the district’s response to the civil complaint has worn her down, and she no longer believes the school district will change its policies “or suddenly start following them.”

But she hopes speaking out can at least raise awareness in the community.

“I want to do everything I can to get some sort of change, because it does not sit well with me at all that they could be so blasé with me and everything that happened to me, with all the red flags that they had,” she said.

“We can’t let this slide,” she said. “I cannot let it slide.”