What happened to you at OCSA was not okay.

The Orange County School of the Arts is the charter on Main Street in Santa Ana that half the county's theater kids dreamed about, and Ralph Opacic built it and ran it for thirty-five years. Then he retired, and a few months afterward a former student took him, the school and Santa Ana Unified to court. His account: 2003, his senior year, an assault in the founder's office and an instruction to keep it to himself, at a school where, he says, the rumors had been going around for years. Two more former students stood up at a public meeting the following January and told their own versions. If you were an OCSA student, this is about you.

WatchingOne lawsuit, filed in 2022, unresolved. Two more accounts on the public record but not in court. The school says it is investigating. We are collecting names now so that when it moves, nobody scrambles.

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6 questions. Your answers are private and go to one person.

This applies to you no matter what

It was him. You are not the only one, and you know it, because the rumors were the school's open secret for years and the complaint says so.
It was somebody else on staff. A school that treats rumors about its founder as normal is a school with a supervision problem, and that is the case against the school rather than one man.
It was 2003, and you are pushing forty. California's deadline runs to age 40, or five years from the day you understood what it did to you. The man who sued was born in 1987 and filed at 35.
You're a man and you figure a page like this isn't for you. The man who sued would tell you otherwise.
You're a parent, a castmate, a friend, asking on behalf of someone who can't bring themselves to. Reach out anyway; we can start with you.

The OCSA record: the lawsuit, the public accounts, the investigation, and when

We didn't write what's below. The plaintiff's lawyers, CBS Los Angeles, KFI and Voice of OC did, and we link to every one. We don't add to it. Nobody has admitted anything, and nothing here decides it.

Spring 2022

Ralph Opacic retired after founding the school in 1987 and running it since. CBS Los Angeles.

September 22, 2022

A former student sued Santa Ana Unified, OCSA and Opacic in Orange County Superior Court for negligence, negligent supervision and retention, sexual battery and harassment, over an assault he says happened in Opacic's office in the 2003–04 school year, when he was seventeen. KFI.

January 2023

At a county Board of Education meeting, residents demanded an investigation and OCSA's chief executive said one was already under way. Two more former students spoke about the early 2000s. Voice of OC.

We checked this on September 11, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from January 2023. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in an Orange County School of the Arts lawsuit

The school, and the district that stood behind it. OCSA is a public charter run by its own nonprofit; Santa Ana Unified chartered it until 2020, the county board of education since. A founder who abuses a student answers for himself. A school whose staff heard the rumors, and whose office told a student to stop calling the police, answers for all of it. Public bodies, which a lawyer will explain: no punitive damages, but no cap on what a jury can award.

The one case on file has been sitting since 2022. Cases like that move when there are more names in them.

Your deadline: the California statute of limitations for sexual abuse at a charter school

Until you turn 40, or five years from the day you understood what it did to you, whichever is later. That is Code of Civil Procedure 340.1, and it is why we ask your birth year. Born in 1987 or later and the door is open on age alone. Born earlier, it turns on discovery, which is a conversation, not a date, and anything after the start of 2024 has no deadline at all.

One wrinkle: the school is a public body, so abuse from before 2009 raises a claims-presentation question a lawyer has to look at. The man who sued was in exactly that position. He filed.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never told a soul. It was OCSA and he was OCSA.
You went on to a career in the arts because of that school, and you don't want to be the one who tears it down. You aren't. He is.
You liked him. He was the one who saw something in you. That is in the complaint, too.
You aren't sure what happened to you counts next to what's in the lawsuit.
You live somewhere else now. Most of the class of whatever-year does.

Programs covered

The Orange County School of the Arts, 1010 North Main Street, Santa Ana: every conservatory, production and summer program, in any year. A different Orange County arts program? The questions still work. Answer them and say where.

Questions people are asking

Can I sue OCSA?

One former student already has, and the case is pending. Whether you can depends mostly on when you were born and when it happened, which is what the questions above sort out.

What kind of lawyer do I need?

A civil lawyer who sues schools and districts for institutional sexual abuse, not only the individual. That is the only kind we work with, and the firm we work with takes California cases wherever you live now.

Why does this page say Watching instead of Active?

Because there is one lawsuit, four years old and undecided, and two accounts that never became cases. We put a name here when the record is real, and a filed complaint is. Watching means we collect names while it moves rather than after.

Nobody has admitted anything. Doesn't that end it?

No defendant admits anything. What decides a civil case is evidence, and the most important evidence in a case like this is other people.

How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?

Here, nothing. Every case is on contingency. The lawyer is paid only out of what is recovered, and if nothing is recovered you owe nothing. Not for the call, not for the review, not for the case.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

You answer 6 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed California attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.