The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Charges unsettle campus

Football coach arrested on charges of sexual misconduct with students

By Katherine Petersen and Natasha Collins

Some Homestead students were stunned by the news. Others weren't all that surprised.

But the story about a popular coach and teacher arrested Sunday on charges of sexual misconduct with two students was on virtually everybody's mind.

Jeff Lamson, the school's football coach since 1990, was charged last week with one count of oral copulation with a 16-year-old girl and one count of penetration with a foreign object. Both crimes are alleged to have happened during the 1990-91 school year. Both charges are felonies.

He was also charged with a misdemeanor count of "annoying or molesting" a 14-year-old girl during the 1996-97 school year.

Moreover, court records contain reports from two other former Homestead students--one who said Lamson fondled her during a sleepover and another who said she had sex with him during her second year at college. No charges have been filed in connection with the last two allegations.

Lamson, a Sunnyvale resident, was released from jail Monday on $100,000 bail and is scheduled to enter a plea Sept. 8.

Some students at Homestead said Lamson had for some time been suspected of having relationships with students. Rumors flew around campus until at least 1993 that Lamson and a student were romantically involved.

"People said that Lamson had been seeing a student," said Casey Evans, who graduated from Homestead this summer. "It almost seemed well known that he'd dated a student."

But others found the charges unbelievable. Hazel Ang, a sophomore who was in Lamson's leadership class, called the news "shocking."

"I don't know if I believe it. He was real nice to me."

Tom Langjahn, a football player, said, "He was a great coach. He made sure I came out for practice and weightlifting."

Near the end of last year, right around graduation, rumors surfaced once again about Lamson. Students suspected he was in trouble but didn't know the cause.

"A lot of girls were attracted to him," Evans said. "He was always one of the best-looking teachers on campus. I never heard stories about people feeling unsafe or uncomfortable around him, though."

If convicted on all counts, Lamson faces a maximum sentence of four years and eight months of incarceration--three years and eight months in state prison for the felony charges and one year in county jail for the misdemeanor.

When the 14-year-old's mother brought the alleged relationship to the school's attention early this summer, Superintendent Joe Hamilton called police the same day.

"I put Lamson on administrative leave immediately," Hamilton said. "We continued our own investigation, and then he essentially resigned on his own. We have, of course, transmitted a letter to the California Teacher Credentialing Commission about the circumstances under which he resigned."

The 14-year-old's mother told police she found love letters to her daughter--one of them apparently signed by Lamson. When the coach was confronted about the letters in July, he confirmed writing at least one of them, according to a police report.

In the handwritten letter, Lamson told the girl she was "a great friend and lover," and "I love rubbing your legs and holding you tight."

Another passage read: "It can't be bad when we feel so good together." Yet another says, "You told me you were going to wait to have sex until you were married. I don't want to push you ... but we need to be able to talk about what you are comfortable doing and when."

Lamson resigned from the district on Aug. 19.

District administrators did not report the incident that occurred six years ago to police because no evidence of a sexual relationship was found, Hamilton said.

"Another employee came to [Principal David Payne] and said that Jeff Lamson was riding around in his own car with a female student," Hamilton said. "When you have a young, brand-new teacher, that's enough to raise a red flag for a principal."

During separate interviews that Payne conducted with Lamson, the student and a third party, no indication of a romantic relationship was discovered, said Hamilton, who joined the district in 1992.

"We don't encourage it, but teachers do sometimes give rides to students," Hamilton said. "It's not enough information to assume that anything wrong is going on, it is just enough to trigger questions."

In the police report, the victim said that a close friendship between Payne and Lamson could have kept the matter from being reported to authorities. Hamilton has stood behind Payne, saying the principal acted properly.

"Hindsight is 20-20. Obviously, he wishes that he would have gotten any indication that something was going on," Hamilton said.

The now 23-year-old victim in the 1991 case came forward with allegations about Lamson's behavior to her therapist earlier this spring. The therapist contacted police, as required by law.

According to the police report, the girl and Lamson had sex two or three times a week for about two months, and a student saw Lamson kiss the girl in front of the school gym.

Her parents also questioned why the teacher often called their daughter at home, according to the report. He allegedly sent her notes in class and sent flowers to her home.

One day in class, while pondering her relationship with Lamson, the girl became physically ill, the report states. The former student said she "felt like a toy."

After she broke off the relationship with him, Lamson allegedly tormented her new boyfriend in front of his peers.

It is unclear whether the school district should have contacted authorities based on what they knew, said Victoria Brown, a deputy district attorney who heads the sexual assault unit.

"Nothing was ever confirmed," she said.

It appears from the reports that the sexual contact between the 16-year-old girl and Lamson six years ago was consensual, said Chuck Smith, Lamson's attorney.

"He's a good man and has done a lot of good in the community. Obviously, he is sad, and this is hard on his family," Smith said.

During the 1990-91 school year, court records state that Lamson hosted a sleepover for girl students at his home, where he inappropriately touched a 17-year-old.

He "tried to get on her, he kissed her and felt her body through her clothes," the report states.

The victim said she stopped him at that time and felt uncomfortable around him from that point on.

Another former Homestead student who reported being at a sleepover reported having sex with Lamson during her second year in college.

Lamson's family is well known in the community. His mother, Patricia Lamson, recently retired as superintendent of the Cupertino Union School District. His father, Bill Lamson, is the events coordinator for the Central Coast Section, the governing body for high school sports from South San Francisco to King City. Lamson's wife teaches at Cupertino Junior High School.

Smith criticized the Sheriff's Department and the district attorney's office for releasing information to the press.

"They've sandbagged us before we've had a chance to hear or see all the information," he said. "This makes it hard for Jeff to admit or deny anything. We're talking about things that happened six years ago."

In a private meeting with the football team Monday, Hamilton fielded questions from players who were concerned about their coach. Students asked a range of questions, including whether Lamson would be attending any of the games this season.

"This is a group of young people who have an extreme amount of loyalty to their coach," Hamilton said. "That's how football teams work."

He stressed that students should not speculate about who the 14-year-old victim is or make contact with her.

"She's already been a victim, and it's important that she not become a victim a second time," he said. "They took that very well."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, August 27, 1997.
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