Mission College Reaches Monetary Settlement With Victim and Her Family in Assault Case
Mission College, Santa Clara, CA, Sept. 20, 2022 – Mission College today announced that a monetary settlement has been reached with the victim and her family in the case of a former contract employee accused of assaulting a female student on campus in 2020.
“Mission College takes seriously our commitment to student safety, but failed in this case to ensure the well-being of one of our female students in the Program for Students with Developmental Disabilities,” said Bradley Davis, Chancellor of the West Valley-Mission Community College District. “We sincerely apologize to the victim and her family and hope that this settlement provides some measure of relief for their pain and suffering.” The settlement agreement of $7.6 million will be paid largely through the college’s insurance.
The contract employee, Raymond Ruiz, worked as a licensed caretaker in the PSDD program, which had been operated on the Mission campus under contract from the San Andreas Regional Center. He was immediately fired from his position with the college upon notification of the victim’s allegations in June 2020.
The West Valley-Mission District police conducted a joint investigation with the Santa Clara police, with the full cooperation of college administrators and staff, resulting in Ruiz’s arrest in July 2020. He is currently jailed and awaiting trial. The PSDD program has not operated on campus since the COVID shutdown.
“We want to assure our current and future students, faculty, staff and parents that the college is committed to making certain that this type of behavior never again occurs on campus or during college-sponsored activities, and that steps have been taken by the department of public safety and department of human resources to improve safety protocols and protections at all levels,” Davis said.
Among the steps taken in response to the charges, the college has:
- Established new mandatory training for all employees on the reporting of inappropriate and abusive behavior on campus;
- Committed to a program whereas future cases alleging crimes against individuals on campus will be submitted to the Santa Clara District Attorney for review, regardless of the severity of the alleged act;
- Established new hiring and administrative protocols to ensure managers have no direct or indirect responsibilities over relatives. Ruiz’s wife had a supervisory role in the PSDD program. She was also dismissed from the college effective June 2020.