A teacher in San Jose, California, has been arrested after being accused of raping a student 20 years ago and then coercing her to have an abortion.
Shawn Thomas was a teacher at Leigh High School, as well as a football and track and field coach at Los Gatos High School. The alleged abuse took place between 2002 and 2003, but the victim did not report the crime to police until March 3, 2024.
She has also filed a civil lawsuit against San Jose’s Campbell Union High School District, claiming that after forcing her to have an abortion, Thomas continued to abuse her — even though she reported the crimes to the school’s dean, who happened to be Thomas’ wife.
According to the lawsuit, Thomas groomed the student when she was a 15-year-old freshman before repeatedly raping her. Thomas’ wife, Sarah, allegedly walked in on the abuse once but failed to report the rape. After the victim got pregnant, she was coerced to have an abortion, but she then confided in Sarah Thomas about the abuse — only for Sarah to blame the young teen, asking how the student could “do this to her.”
No one reported the abuse to police or took any action to protect the victim from Thomas.
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“It has impacted every facet of her life. It has changed the trajectory of her life,” attorney Lauren Cerri, who is representing the woman, told CBS News Bay Area. “So that is why most people remain silent, because they’re not believed, and they’re victim blamed, and that’s exactly what happened here.”
Cerri also told NBC Bay Area that the abortion was difficult for the victim as well. “He impregnated her, forced her to have an abortion,” she said. “It was so difficult for her to have to do that and make that decision at such a young age. But he insisted on it, to the point she had it at 16 weeks.”
At 16 weeks, preborn babies can respond to light stimuli and have a hormonal stress response to invasive procedures, according to the Endowment for Human Development. The most commonly used abortion procedure in the second trimester is a D&E dismemberment abortion during which an abortionist uses a Sopher clamp to tear the baby’s arms and legs from her body before crushing her skull.
The victim’s sister also said that the victim didn’t understand the depths of the crimes committed against her at first.
“For so many years, my sister thought it was her fault. She felt so much shame and guilt, especially after being forced to abort her child. Mrs. Thomas blamed her, so she blamed herself,” the sister said. “She’s just now for the first time after 20 years, coming to the realization that she was just a child.”
Thomas was still teaching at Leigh High when he was arrested.
Abortion is a commonly used tool by sexual predators to prevent their crimes from being discovered. All too often, abortion staffers ignore the red flags and look the other way, pocketing money for the abortion and returning the victim to her abuser.
