SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The San Ysidro School District and several employees face a new lawsuit after 23-year-old Jaime Godinez, a teacher’s aide at Sunset Preschool, allegedly sexually assaulted a 4-year-old girl during nap time.
Parents in the district say they’re standing in solidarity with the family of the young girl and continue to demand accountability to prevent something like this from happening again.
“How do I know my daughter wasn’t affected?” said Roxane Palestino, a parent in the San Ysidro School District.
Palestino says during the 2022-2023 school year, Godinez worked as a teacher’s aide in her daughter’s classroom at the Smythe Child Development Center.
“My biggest concern was my daughter coming home with bruises, her being nonverbal, still needing help at that time to use the restroom,” she said.
While she doesn’t know what led to these bruises on her daughter’s leg, the incident raises new concerns.
“They fired Jaime right away, but it made me think what about the teacher?” one dad said who didn’t want to be identified for fear of retaliation.
A newly filed civil complaint names SYSD, Godinez, the preschool teacher Victoria Boni, and other unnamed employees as negligent in the sexual assault of the 4-year-old girl.
“They said that the room was very, very dark, that the kids, some of their kids were scared to go to nap time,” Palestino recalled hearing from other parents.
According to the complaint, during nap time on Jan. 15, Godinez apparently placed his hand down the back of the girl’s pants and molested her.
“They say that they haven’t done anything differently, so this incident could easily happen again,” the dad who didn’t want to be identified said.
The child’s guardian claims the district and the teacher failed to restrict Godinez’s access to the child, adding they either ignored or concealed what happened by failing to warn or report the incident.
“It was much more serious than they were making it out to be,” the dad who didn’t want to be identified said.
The district was not available for comment on Thursday, but in a previous statement says, “Our district has strict safety protocols in place, including fingerprinting and background checks for all employees, mandatory student safety training, and a strict supervision policy requiring multiple staff members to monitor preschool students at all times.”
“Nothing she can say to make this better,” Palestino said.
The unidentified dad says he enrolled his daughter a year early at Sunset Preschool, but now plans to take his daughter out of the school.
“I wonder if it was the right decision,” he said. “It would kill me if something would happen to her that would mark her for life.”
Other parents are demanding more transparency and accountability from the district.
“We’ll be strongly supporting this family,” Palestino said. “Justice for that little girl.”
Palestino says other parents in the district will join her at the next board meeting on Oct. 16 to talk about their concerns.
As for Godinez, he’s due in court on Oct. 8 for the criminal case.
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