A now 23-year-old sues over sexual abuse by Gilbert Olivares, a former counselor at Salinas High.

Gilbert Olivares was a popular counselor at Salinas High School, dispatched by the agency Sunrise House to provide a ready ear and guidance for students who needed help with addiction issues, mental health issues and other life problems. His office, tucked in a private area near the school’s iconic bell tower, became a popular hangout spot at Salinas High, where students who needed a break could go in, close the door and decompress.

In 2014, Olivares pleaded no contest to 56 charges involving sex crimes against students and was sentenced to 16 years in prison; police, acting on a tip from the sister of one boy, found Olivares had hidden a video camera in his office and recorded sexual encounters between students. In all, when Salinas Police searched his iPhone, they found 13 videos of 11 students engaging in sexual activity.

Six years later, one of those students is suing. In his Monterey County Superior Court case, filed Nov. 19, the now 23-year-old man says that starting when he was 14, Olivares would regularly pull him out of classes, confine him to his office, touch him in a sexual manner, ask for photographs of his genitals and ask him questions about sexual relations with underage girls.

Also named in the suit is the Salinas Union High School District. District spokesperson Marcos Cabrera declined to comment on pending litigation. Olivares could not be located for comment; he was released from prison this year, required to register as a sex offender and is listed as a transient on the Megan’s Law website.

Sunrise House operated under a joint powers agreement between SUHSD, the Hartnell Community College District, Santa Rita Union School District and the city of Salinas. Sunrise House dissolved in 2018 due to financial insolvency related to previous lawsuits from other Olivares victims; because the organization no longer exists, the parties involved in the JPA would be responsible for any financial judgment that might be ordered in this latest suit.