The San Luis Coastal Unified School District (SLCUSD) voted on Tuesday in favor of the permanent suspension without pay of San Luis Obispo High School history teacher and boys basketball coach Jeffrey Brandow.
In a statement to KSBY, SLCUSD Superintendent Eric Prater confirmed, “The Board voted unanimously to terminate the employment of Mr. Brandow last evening. He will receive no settlement or additional pay from the district moving forward.”
Brandow was previously put on paid administrative leave after the administration learned of allegations of misconduct involving a student.
At the Tuesday meeting, Prater added, “Our district has strong policies and practices in place to respond quickly and efficiently to allegations of an employee engaging in inappropriate conduct. Tonight’s action is a significant step towards accountability.”
Accusations against Brandow include misconduct with a 17-year-old female student.
Both the mother and the sister of the student, who KSBY is not naming so as not to identify the student, were in attendance at Tuesday's meeting and offered their own testimony.
“My 17-year-old girl, who was excited for her senior year, was alone after October. She walked among whispers and gossip. She didn’t join clubs, she didn’t try out for track, she became physically ill, she totaled her car, she had nightmares, she didn’t sleep, she routinely got ‘No ID’ calls all through the night that said ‘you’re so fine we’re gonna tap that like Brandow did,'” the mother of the student said, addressing the board. “Please tell me how Jeff Brandow’s life changed.”
“You continue to send the message ‘see something, say something.’ Someone saw something, several people said something, yet the district did nothing for five months,” she added.
The sister of the student, who also attended San Luis Obispo High School, said the student “was ridiculed by her friends and had a hard time coming to campus most days.”
She continued, “This is all caused by a lack of action by her administrators. Nine months later, her life is still being affected by this, and with the story becoming more and more public, she will further be held victim by Jeffrey Brandow and the actions of her school district.”
Another attendee said Brandow had verbally abused her son, who was a member of the boys' basketball team.
“This school district does not keep its students safe,” she said.
In 2018, a former KSBY employee accused Brandow of sexual assault and filed a restraining order against him. The KSBY employee said Brandow had harassed her, calling her work phone 50-100 times a day, sent 100 pages of letters to her home, car and work, and that Brandow had admitted to waiting at her home for hours.
Brandow also offered the former KSBY employee a bribe in the form of a check in one of the letters with $1,000 to talk, $10,000 to go on dates and $20,000 if they were 'all in,'” according to the check reviewed by KSBY.
Brandow has worked for San Luis Obispo High School since 2012.
He has 30 days to appeal the board’s decision and if he does, the case would go to a law judge for review and could result in a hearing.
KSBY News left a message for Brandow seeking comment, but he has not yet returned that call.
