Today it was announced that the Los Angeles public school system is going to pay $30 million dollars to settle some of the 191 claims of sexual lewd acts by a former elementary school teacher. The article claims that about 58 of the students' lawsuits will be settled by the price of $400,000 to $500,000 dollars. The alleged offender's victims were students ranging from 7-10 years. Besides the students who are settling their claims, their are also 23 others who have filed criminal cases for which the former teacher is still being held for.
All of the settlements will be paid by tax dollars and the elementary school's insurance fund. David Holmquist, general counsel for the Los Angeles Unified School District, claims, "we are not admitting liability" but, "we thought we would put this behind us by resolving it through remediation and early dispute resolution." Although Holmquist is not "admitting" anything, by definition "remediation" means the correction of something bad and it sounds as if the settlements are an attempt at an apology to the affected families. Why would the school system going so far to "put this behind us" if they weren't guilty?
Where I find the issue here is the "money makes everything better" attitude. With these many children claiming sexual lewd acts it seems very likely the teacher is guilty and in that case I think these children need more than money to help them. Not only could they suffer physical damage from their offender but also at such a young age they are vulnerable and could end up with serious mental/emotional issues. This teacher should be brought to justice for all the crimes he committed and not have some of his wrongs made right by the victims getting paid of with their own tax dollars!
Do you think that money can settle these wrongs? Why do you think the school system is trying to settle all these claims with money rather than in court?
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