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It’s been a week since students have returned to Menlo-Atherton High School, but one teacher remains absent from the classrooms — Mike Molieri, a varsity basketball coach and special education teacher who was placed on paid administrative leave in August 2024.
Molieri has been at home for over a year while the Sequoia Union High School District investigates allegations of misconduct. In the administrative leave notice sent to him on Aug. 5, 2024, the district stated it was investigating allegations involving a violation of student rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Act, student confidentiality and privacy laws. However, Molieri said the district’s allegations are unclear and keep changing.
He said current allegations also involve his relationship with his brother and private investigator Dan Molieri and for welcoming students who were not supposed to be in his classroom. Dan Molieri is involved with the legal team representing the arrested Menlo-Atherton student in April 2023.
Before he was placed on leave, Molieri communicated to administrators his confidentiality concerns for the arrested student, referred to in the lawsuit as K.C. In 2023, the student’s private records were allegedly released to the police by an undisclosed staff member without the student’s permission. Molieri also said he heard of an audio tape being shared with people that contained the student’s confidential information.
After missing an entire year of school and a season of basketball, Molieri said that he is hurting “emotionally and socially” after 22 years of working with M-A students, specifically students of color. At the beginning of the investigation, he started to develop symptoms of severe depression, which he said was a new experience.
“I got to a point where I was one day away from being hospitalized with my first-ever clinical depression of five weeks, which can be described as hell,” he said.
His experience is parallel to those of eight former Sequoia Union High School District staff of color who spoke to The Almanac in December 2024 alleging discriminatory behaviors from the district. Staff members shared their struggles with panic attacks, anxiety and depression after working in what they say is a hostile work environment.
Molieri said he is similarly dealing with chronic mental health struggles after a turn of events that he believes is motivated by his Latino heritage and his actions to protect students of color. Over the past year, he has been receiving treatment from a psychiatrist and has been prescribed medication.
‘Shining star on the hill’
Parents and students who have worked with Molieri refer to him as “Coach Mo,” someone whom they recognize as family. Several parents who spoke to The Almanac said their kids wouldn’t have graduated without his support.
When Michelle and Alfred Frazier’s daughter was procrastinating with schoolwork, acting up in class and not turning in assignments, Molieri took it upon himself to call the Fraziers to let them know what was happening and offered his help. He “pushed us to push her (to succeed),” Alfred Frazier said.
Molieri said he has been supporting disadvantaged students throughout his career, offering his classroom as a safe space for all students but primarily for African American and Pacific Islander students. The M-A 2024-25 school profile reports that 4% of students are African American and 4% are Pacific Islander.
According to Molieri, school administrators would often send at-risk students to his classroom because they knew he would be able to help them. He told The Almanac that without his support there would be many students who would be “another statistic, another African American student not graduated.”
“Having a door open for all students of color when they need safety or they may need just a little sleep before they go to their first class, all of a sudden, those activities have become allegations,” he said.
Tamica Garner, a mother of a former M-A student, lived in Stockton while her son was enrolled at M-A. She and her son would leave their house at 5 a.m. in order for her to get to work, leaving her son extremely fatigued and on campus before school hours.
“(Molieri) would get to school early to unlock his door so that (my son) could rest before school would start,” she said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever met a tired teenager, but it’s horrible. And so it would be hard for him to get through the days.”
Garner said Molieri also spoke to each of her son’s teachers to explain his situation and help other educators understand why he may be acting a certain way. Her son has since graduated from high school and is now playing football at Oregon State University.
Another parent, Virginia Davis, said Molieri was “a shining star on the hill.” He was her son’s case worker through the special education program.
He was known for giving the kids “tough love,” she explained. Molieri would hold students accountable for their actions, push them to reach their potential and show compassion for everyone, Davis added.
“I could just see the interaction of how much the kids loved him, looked up to him, respected him, and that’s a hard thing to garner nowadays with kids,” said Davis. “Unless there’s people like Mike (Molieri) in that school district, it’s going to fail.”
These parents and others would like to know why the district has kept Molieri at home.
“If he’s getting punished for going over and beyond, that’s a shame,” said Alfred Frazier. “When Menlo-Atherton didn’t support us, Mr. Mo did.”
Lack of obvious progress in investigation
When Molieri reaches out to the district for an update on his case, he said he always receives the same “copy and paste response” from the district’s attorney — ongoing interview processes and evidence gathering.
After receiving the administrative leave notice, the district provided a vague list of allegations. Specific information could not be provided by the district upon request, said the Sequoia District Teachers Association in a letter to the district on Aug. 6.
By September 2024, the union and California Teachers Association filed a charge with the Public Employment Relations Board alleging that the district did not provide sufficient information for Molieri to prepare for an interview on the investigation. A timeline within the letter states that the interview continued to be delayed by the district and was scheduled for June 2025 — eight months after he was placed on leave.
The SDTA’s letter requests that Molieri be reinstated to his position as a special education teacher and varsity basketball coach. “It is unconscionable that the district has had Mr. Molieri out of work for a full year and with no indication of a date for his return,” writes SDTA President Edith Salvatore.
“It can feel like the district can put you on leave because they don’t like you and they can make up their mind on what the allegations are later,” said Salvatore to the Board of Trustees during a meeting on Aug. 20.
The school district did not respond to a request for comment on Molieri’s investigation.
A retaliation and discrimination claim that Molieri filed against the district in April has gone unanswered. When no action is taken on a government claim within 45 days, the claim is rejected and the individual can then file a lawsuit.
“This is a disturbing and unique case. I can’t for the life of me figure out why the district would want to deprive students of a man who has taught, coached and mentored so many,” said Harry Stern, Molieri’s attorney. “They have subjected him to administrative purgatory in an apparent attempt to punish and silence him for his previous whistleblower activities.”
Stern and his legal team are currently collaborating with the district’s teacher union in hopes that Molieri will be able to return to his classroom, but “when it is absolutely clear that our collective efforts are futile, we will be forced to sue,” said Stern. He expects they will reach this point in the next month.
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The new update is Bonnie Hanson latest reply about on-going investigation is another of many lies the Board, and districts administrators continue while wasting everyone time and tax payers money. Investigator for law firm quit. She was smart enough to not ruin her career over those folks. Smart move by her.
I am so proud of Coach Mo and the families in this article for using their voices and speaking out. This was very sad to read and brought back a lot of memories of how great H1 was before the district completely ruined it. The fact that Edith from the SDTA has made a statement is huge. Would Edith be putting her name on the line, and the SDTA’s reputation on the line, if even one allegation were true? Think about it. Will the district ever admit they orchestrated this entire thing to push Mo out? Probably never, unless leadership changes.
Unfortunately, the superintendent Crystal Leach, HR, and the school board have completely failed the community when it comes to holding administrators accountable, retaliation, racial trauma and abuse, hostile work environment, student and staff safety issues, and more. There are other districts who have removed superintendents and replaced the entire school board for less. But those communities were educated, knew their rights, and had high standards beyond optics and marketing.
Every year, people have come forward to bring up major issues, trying to find creative ways to get their attention including protests, community events, forums, walk outs, emails, databases, surveys, speaking out in news media, social media, and more. The community is desperate for a response that is anything other than the typical legal non-response they get, and the community ultimately gets ignored. If there are any doubts, look at the “response” they chose to provide in this article.