How CA Disciplines Teachers Accused of Sexual Harassment

Here are the morning’s top stories on Tuesday, May 12, 2026

• Driven by concerns that Democrats could be locked out of this year’s governor’s race, a new ballot initiative seeks to repeal California’s top-two primary system.
• State lawmakers are considering a bill that would require California’s DMV to notify vehicle owners when their towed cars are sold for profit.
• An investigation from KQED and ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network found dozens of cases where California has not revoked educators’ teaching credentials, despite schools determining they committed sexual harassment or misconduct of a sexual nature.

Should California Change It’s Primary System?

Under the current system, Californians can vote for any candidate in the primary, regardless of party affiliation. The top two vote-getters move to the general election. That means two Democrats or two Republicans might face off in November.

This year, Democrats fear that two Republican candidates for governor could advance, as a crowded field of democratic candidates threatens to split the Democratic vote.

The ballot initiative was filed by Democratic Strategist Steve Maviglio, who hopes the measure will be placed on the 2028 ballot. The initiative aims to repeal a state proposition passed in 2010 that put all candidates (regardless of political party) on the same primary ballot for most state and federal offices.

DMV May Soon Notify Car Owners When Their Towed Car is Sold For Profit

State lawmakers have pushed forward legislation that would change a decades-old state law allowing the Department of Motor Vehicles to receive millions of dollars from auctioned cars without telling the owners.

State law does not require the agency to tell people that they could claim their money, and after three years, owners lose their right to the money.

Storage yards, towing companies and car repair shops can auction vehicles when the owners don’t pay and pick up their vehicles. The auctions are known as lien sales.

The legislation would require the department to notify owners within 14 days of receiving the surplus, detailing the amount and how the owner can claim their money. It would also require the notice to be sent through certified mail with a return receipt.

How a Teacher Kept Their Credentials after Being Fired For Sexual Harassment Claims

Jason Agan was impossible to miss at Angelo Rodriguez High School. The San Francisco Bay Area teacher was loud and gregarious, a fixture on campus since the Fairfield school opened in 2001. He ran the student government and called himself the man behind the curtain, organizing pep rallies and prom. Some considered him a mentor who inspired a love of math — and even a second father.

But for years, students also whispered about Agan’s behavior, according to interviews with 14 Rodriguez High graduates, most of whom he had taught. He touched some of them in public in ways that made them uncomfortable, they said, including hugging students and massaging their shoulders. By January 2019, the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District had taken steps to fire him, suspending him without pay.

An independent panel convened by the state to hear his case deemed him “unfit to teach.” The panel’s decision meant that the popular educator was officially out of the job where he had spent his entire teaching career. But the panel’s review only addressed his employment at this one school district, and its finding was not shared publicly. Over the next three years, Agan was hired at a second school and then a third.

A broad look at California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing by KQED and ProPublica shows a pattern of delays and inaction, combined with a lack of transparency, that has allowed educators to continue teaching after school districts reported them to the state for sexual harassment or other misconduct of a sexual nature.

Agan’s case is one of at least 67 in which the state has not revoked the professional licenses of educators after school districts determined they had sexually harassed students or committed other types of sexual misconduct, according to a review of available records from 2019 through 2025 obtained by the news outlets.