A federal judge gave final approval Monday to a $5.75 million settlement to a class-action lawsuit that claims students at the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind physically and sexually assaulted other students.
The lawsuit also alleges that staff members had sex with students and that state education officials failed to prevent the abuse and tried to cover it up.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin S.C. Chang called the settlement "fundamentally fair, adequate and reasonable."
Lawyer Michael Green, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the initial set of plaintiffs, praised the settlement process and the court-appointed special master who facilitated it. However, Green did not express optimism that the assaults will stop.
"I don’t believe for a second that this (settlement) is going to end what’s been happening at the school for decades," Green said.
Eric Seitz, the lawyer for other students and parents, said, "I don’t have a lot of confidence that the Department of Education will prevent what has already happened at the school."
Anne Lopez, spokeswoman for the state attorney general’s office, which negotiated the deal of behalf of the state, said, "We are very satisfied with the settlement."
The settlement requires the state to take certain safety measures, such as assessing whether existing security cameras on campus are in the most effective locations and whether broken ones should be repaired or replaced. It also must explore the possibility of installing cameras in school buses, provide training for bus drivers and aides, hire more personnel as needed and come up with a plan to include issues such as bullying and harassment in its curriculum.
Seitz said the plaintiffs had a much longer list and that the state agreed to only a third of the requests. He said the state was more concerned about the amount of money it had to pay rather than preventing future assaults. He also said the state threatened not to settle if it was forced to submit to court supervision under a consent decree.
The settlement calls for the state to pay $5 million on its own behalf and on behalf of former school Principal Sydney Dickerson. Former school counselor Scott O’Neal must pay $750,000.
The school is the only public school for deaf and blind students in the state. It has classes for students in kindergarten through grade 12.
Students who were sexually assaulted, had sex with a staff member or witnessed a sexual assault on the Kapahulu campus or on school buses since Aug. 10, 2001, will receive payments of $20,000, $75,000 or $200,000 based on how the experience affected them. The parties estimated that about 35 former and current students qualify for payments under the settlement.
Seitz said in court Monday that four parties opted out of the settlement because they believe they don’t qualify. He said one other party who opted out might pursue a separate lawsuit.
