LAWSUIT
April 7, 2008 - Seattle Public Schools agreed to pay $3.05 million to victims of an elementary-school teacher who molested students over his 30 years teaching for the district.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of two victims accused the district and a former principal of ignoring complaints about Laurence E. "Shayne" Hill for years. According to charging papers, at least three school administrators or principals had previously talked to Hill about inappropriately touching students.
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (April 7):
Seattle Times (April 8) - Three principals and even the superintendent ignored 30 reports from at least 15 other teachers about Hill, according to the lawsuit. The settlement is paid out of a risk-management pool that operates like an insurance policy for the district.School district spokeswoman Patty Spencer says the district accepts responsibility for the actions of its former employee. She adds that the district revised its training in 2006 for working with students, including guidelines for reporting misconduct to outside authorities.
According to court documents, Hill's misconduct spanned nearly 20 years, with least 15 teachers and staff reporting inappropriate behavior to successive school administrators.
Post-Intelligencer (April 8) - Two of the school administrators accused of failing to act on warnings about Hill are still employed by the school district. District spokeswoman Patti Spencer would not comment on whether any administrators had been disciplined in relation to the case.
Terri Skjei, a former assistant principal and principal at Broadview-Thomson who was named a defendant in the lawsuit, is now principal at Viewridge Elementary. Jeanne Smart became principal at Broadview-Thomson about a year before Hill was caught and remains at the school.
KOMOTv: Seattle Public Schools to pay $3M in sex abuse case
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TT entry for Hill
RANT OF THE DAY
TT - School districts and their insurance carriers don't settle lawsuits because they are generous and good-hearted. They settle because of wrongdoing that is covered up by non-disclosure agreements in lawsuits that prevent public disclosure. The result is that those responsible are never brought to public view and their actions are never publicly admitted. The result is that no laws are ever passed that guarantee it won't happen again.
Hill sexually exploited children for thirty years and three school administrators or principals talked to him but chose to leave him in the classroom to molest other children.
The question is why. The answer is simple: because they could and because they, like many educators, think that they, personally, are above the law and in schools, they are the law. No law written by your elected representative to protect you and your child should be willfully ignored by educrats. No decency should be ignored. No school administrator or principal should be shielded from personal lawsuits that strip them of their life savings, their homes, their retirements and their role in a community when they choose convenience or personal power over responsibility and decency.
