Avorh v. San Diego Community College Dist. CA4/1

Filed 7/24/25 Avorh v. San Diego Community College Dist. CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

JOHN AVORH, D083486

Plaintiff and Appellant,

v. (Super. Ct. No. 37-2020- 00031025-CU-OE-CTL) SAN DIEGO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT,

Defendant and Respondent.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Timothy B. Taylor and Marcella O. McLaughlin, Judges. Affirmed. San Diego Employment Attorneys Group and Dennis N. Brady for Plaintiff and Appellant. Artiano Shinoff, Paul V. Carelli, IV, Gil Abed, and Lauren Cambronero for Defendant and Respondent. John Avorh, a former tenured professor with the San Diego Community College District, appeals the summary adjudication on his harassment and failure to prevent harassment claims against the District. His claims relate to reviews students posted on a third-party website. But the only review posted within the statute of limitations is dated after Avorh resigned, and he

testified he did not look up the reviews after resigning, so it cannot be the basis for an actionable harassment claim. The claims being time-barred, we perceive no triable issue of material fact precluding summary adjudication. Thus, resolving this matter by memorandum opinion (see generally People v. Garcia (2002) 97 Cal.App.4th 847), we affirm. I. Avorh identifies as a Black man who was born in Ghana and speaks with an accent. He was employed by the District for over 24 years until he resigned his “tenured full professor” position in January 2020. Some of Avorh’s students posted reviews about his classes on a third-party website. The record contains 201 reviews over an 18-year period, from 2002 to 2020. No reviews were posted in 2019, and the lone review posted in 2020 is dated May 27. In February 2022, Avorh filed an administrative complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, in which he claimed, as relevant here, harassment based on the online student reviews. He claimed “many” of the reviews were “critical” of him and “motivated by racism and [his] national origin.” In the operative complaint, Avorh asserted claims under the Fair Employment and Housing Act for retaliation; harassment based on race, national origin, ancestry, and color; and failure to prevent harassment based on the same characteristics. The District moved for summary adjudication of the harassment claims, arguing (1) the claims were time-barred for failure to exhaust administrative remedies and (2) there was no actionable harassment or failure to prevent harassment.