History of probe into alleged parties Sacramento football coach threw for students

St. Hope schools have been well-acquainted with controversy since the charter organization re-opened the doors of Sacramento High School two decades ago.

Established in 1856, the school is the second-oldest public high school in California. In June 2003, Sacramento City Unified School District contentiously decommissioned the high school due to poor academic performance. Now called Sacramento Charter High, the school serves a majority Black and socioeconomically disadvantaged population.

The school reopened September 2003 as a charter school under the leadership of Kevin Johnson — known for his success as a professional basketball player, serving as Sacramento’s first Black mayor.

Johnson founded the nonprofit St. Hope Public Schools, which continues to operate Sac High and Public School 7.

St. Hope’s operational issues bubbled over in the past couple years, prompting its charter authorizer in May 2024 to conduct a third-party audit of the charter school’s finances, governance and operations after the district received complaints from current and former St. Hope teachers and parents.

Among the complaints that triggered the audit were allegations by St. Hope teachers that an investigation into the alleged misconduct by head football coach Kimbbie Drayton and other staff members was mishandled and led to retaliation against one of the teachers who reported it.

The Sacramento Bee dug deeper by filing a California Public Records Act request for documents related to the alleged misconduct, which led to monthslong arguments over the public’s right to review the information. A source close to the investigation also provided The Bee with two additional email records.

In the records that were eventually disclosed, The Bee found that St. Hope withheld some documents related to the investigation from the district.

Here is a timeline of relevant events.

Timeline

Sept. 7, 2023

A teacher emailed Sac High Principal Christina Williams-James about a troubling conversation she had with a student about a young athletic coach the previous day. His name was redacted in the records provided to The Bee. He was not the main subject of the formal investigation that would take place in the following months.

Despite the fact that this email did not concern Drayton, it was considered in attorney Kevin Hiestand’s investigation.

The teacher wrote in the email that she started to eavesdrop on a conversation during an advisory period between a few students as soon as a student said, “he is a pedophile,” referring to a young male coach. On Sep. 14, St. Hope Public Schools Superintendent Lisa Ruda interviewed the student and sent a summary of it to two other administrators.

The student said she didn’t recall anyone else from Sac High at the party but that a young coach was there drinking and hitting on her underage friend. When the girls told him that she was a minor, he said “something to the effect of ‘that doesn’t matter’ or ‘we don’t have to tell anyone.’” Ruda wrote that the student made it clear that the coach and minor did not “hook up.”

“I do believe it’s appropriate for one (or both of us) to talk with (redacted) about how important it is for our younger adults on our coaching staff to remain professional with our students (both on and off campus),” Ruda wrote. Athletic Director John O’Con reported to Ruda and Williams-James that he had a conversation with the coach the following week.

“I informed (redacted) that as a young coach, he has to hold himself to a high standard when it comes to maturity both on and off the field and that I don’t want our players or students to see him as an equal but as an authority figure so how he presents himself is very important to his image,” O’Con wrote.

St. Hope Director of Operations Elisha Ferguson Parsons confirmed in a March 31 interview that this coach is no longer employed at the school.

Just a few weeks after overhearing the conversation about the younger coach, the same teacher reported a conversation she had with students regarding Drayton. In a Sept. 22 email to Williams-James, the teacher said several students told them that Drayton had thrown parties for the students, and that they “implied” that he supplies them with alcohol.

O’Con interviewed Drayton, who denied the accusations that he threw parties for students with alcohol present. Drayton was open, both with administrators and with The Bee, about hosting a football team birthday party for two players in August 2023, with parents in attendance. He denied serving alcohol.

“I have grown kids who I don’t even drink with,” Drayton said in an interview with O’Con. “I just started to get comfortable drinking around my grown kids. Why would I drink or give drinks to a high schooler like a weirdo? Whenever I have players around my house I always wait until they leave before I think about having a drink.”

Sept. 27, 2023

Williams-James received another notice about Drayton — this time from a different teacher.

The teacher described hearing conversations surrounding a recent party during which students claim another student was severely inebriated and being attacked by other partygoers.

She overheard multiple students say that Drayton and another dean were at this party. The teacher relayed a part of the conversation in which the kids describe a girl disappearing into a room with several Sac High football players.

Sept. 28, 2023

The teacher who sent the first couple reports sent another email to the principal the following day. In this message, the teacher describes conversations she had with students regarding the presence of staff members at parties.

The teacher asked questions about how the investigation was going and expressed concern that the staff members accused were still allowed on campus at the time.

“As a female staff member hearing these allegations of a man on campus and then seeing him on campus currently still interacting with the students is concerning,” she wrote.

Ruda told the teacher that she was investigating the allegations and asked her to provide as much information as possible so administrators could investigate further.

California Teachers Association member Brittoni Ward reached out to Ruda to check in on the investigation. Ruda responded that St. Hope was actively investigating the allegations.

Oct. 25, 2023

Hiestand was consulted in early October to assist with the investigation, according to his January 2024 report. Hiestand has long been associated with St. Hope schools and also serves on the board of the St. Hope Endowment, a related nonprofit.

The teacher who made the bulk of the reports was interviewed by Hiestand and Human Resources Manager Sabrina Jaquez on Oct. 20.

On Oct. 25, that teacher wrote their final report to Williams-James.

“(Redacted) and I overheard students talking about a party at (redacted) house this past weekend. We don’t remember who said it, but they also said there is another one this weekend,” the message reads.

Oct. 26, 2023

Oct. 26, 2023: Amanda Goldman, who is tasked with overseeing charter schools for Sacramento City Unified School District, reached out to Ruda for a status update on the investigation after being prompted by the teachers’ union.

Oct. 26, 2023: Ruda told Goldman that the interviews were ongoing and that the investigation had not yet concluded. She asked that the district take no action since St. Hope was investigating.

Nov. 1, 2023

A third teacher overheard students say on Oct. 28 that they had attended a party at Drayton’s home after a recent football game. According to the email, students were drinking so much that they had to get a rideshare or a ride from Drayton to get home.

“I just wanted to inform you of the inappropriate behavior I have been overhearing from multiple students, not just one or two,” they wrote in an email to Williams-James and Ruda.

Williams-James asked for names of the students involved so she could provide them to legal counsel. The teacher sent back three names, but said that two other students were also involved in the conversation.

Two weeks later, the same teacher reached out to Williams-James notifying her that they would be reporting the incident to protective services.

Williams-James replied that the previous report had been addressed, and that it is the teacher’s duty to report if they feel obligated. She told the teacher to “feel free” to send her the report once it was completed.

Nov. 2, 2023

Nov. 2, 2023: Teachers association representative Ward sought a status report, asking if St. Hope reported the situation to CPS. She also wrote that the teacher was filing a claim with HR that she was being harassed by other staff members in retaliation for reporting the conversations about partying to administrators.

Jan. 8, 2024

Hiestand issued a summary report based on his investigation into the allegations that coaches and other staff members were partying with students and claims of harassment between two parties: the coaches and deans accused of partying with students and a teacher who reported them.

Students interviewed by Hiestand and Jaquez said they knew of parties where coaches may have or did attend but that they did not personally witness wrongdoing, according to the final report.

Hiestand said that because the allegations made against deans and coaches could not be corroborated, he could not recommend any discipline or administrative action based on the allegations. He did make five recommendations that have been redacted from the original report.

March 25, 2024

The teacher who made the first report and was most heavily involved in the investigation was notified of the immediate termination of her employment contract at Sac High. Seven performance issues were listed as justification for her release.

The first cause was the teacher’s alleged failure to immediately report incidents of known or reasonably suspected child abuse to Child Protective Services. A few items down, she is cited for “making and sharing false assertions or reports against colleagues or students” that she knew “or should have known were untrue.”

May 2, 2024

A group of St. Hope parents and a group of then-St. Hope educators each sent complaints addressed to Goldman.

Among the many grievances in the educators’ letter were concerns about the investigation into the staff members accused of partying with students.

“Yet there has been no evidence of any such investigation, and at least one teacher that reported these and other issues to the administration was left to endure months of retaliatory harassment by Deans,” the teachers wrote. “Other educators have reported similar retaliation from Deans about various issues. This only adds to an already toxic work environment that has led teachers to isolate themselves in their rooms, have stress related illnesses, and has even resulted in the resignations of courageous educators.”

The group of parents admonished St. Hope for what they said was a failure to provide quality instruction and a safe environment for their children.

May 10, 2024

The complaints sent earlier in the month were in part what led the district to conduct an audit investigation into the school. Ruda and then-St. Hope Public Schools Board President Cassandra Jennings received notice May 10, 2024 from SCUSD Superintendent Lisa Allen notifying them of the pending investigation with a list of concerns. They formally requested documents later in the month related to the investigation into allegations that coaches were drinking with students.

June 28, 2024

St. Hope Public Schools submitted a petition to renew the Public School 7 and Sacramento High charters for another five-year term.

July 26, 2024

The district’s resulting report alleges a range of major violations plaguing St. Hope Public Schools — including conflicts of interests among its top officers, improper use of public funding, deficient accounting processes and the employment of a largely unqualified teaching staff.

Allen sent a letter detailing the violations to St. Hope administrators July 26, giving them 30 days to respond with a plan to remedy the violations.

Hiestand and his investigation into claims that staff members were partying with students were identified in the letter, with auditors saying that his investigation summary suggested a reasonably thorough investigation but that his working relationship as both legal counsel to the school and a board member of the St. Hope Endowment is an example of inappropriate interrelatedness between all the St. Hope entities.

Aug. 8, 2024

Members of the St. Hope community — including staff, parents and hundreds of students — packed the Serna Center to advocate for Sac High and PS7’s charter renewals.

Shortly after, The Bee obtained a message that showed student athletes were told that they were required to attend the meeting.

Aug. 15, 2024

The Bee made a Public Records Act request to St. Hope seeking all written reports to administrators about student and/or staff involvement in parties where there may have been drugs or alcohol present, communication among staff regarding these reports and investigation reports resulting from these complaints.

Aug. 26, 2024

St. Hope Public Schools agreed to personnel changes and new accountability measures in response to concerns levied against them in the audit.

The school also defended Hiestand’s dual roles as legal counsel with the school and board member of the St. Hope Endowment.

Sept. 19, 2024

The SCUSD board voted 6-0 to allow both St. Hope schools to renew their charters under the condition that they enter a memorandum of understanding to be completed next year.

Sept. 20, 2024

Sept. 20, 2024: St. Hope issued a blanket denial to The Bee’s Aug, 15, 2024 Public Records Act request, returning zero records related to the investigation into the coach.

Dec. 20, 2024

Lawyer Karl Olson, representing The Bee, sent a pushback letter demanding St. Hope turn over records in response to the newspaper’s request.

January-April 2025

After several more pushback letters and rounds of back-and-forth, St. Hope released dozens of pages of records related to the proceedings of the investigation, revealing that more teachers made reports of similar conversations among students.

June 30, 2025

St. Hope and the district are scheduled to finalize the terms of the charter school’s renewal, which will allow its schools to continue operating through 2030.

This story was originally published May 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM.

Jennah Pendleton

The Sacramento Bee

916-321-1068

Jennah Pendleton is an education reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously covered schools and culture in the San Francisco Bay Area. She grew up in Orange County and is a graduate of the University of Oregon.