Families of students who were victims of elementary school sexual abuse by a teacher in Los Angeles received $140 million for the violence, Reuters reported on Friday.
The teacher infamously took photos of some of the students in bondage, with cockroaches crawling on them in some and eating semen-laced cookies in others. Dozens of similar lawsuits led to the district paying out $30 million to other families.
"Throughout this case, we have shared in the pain felt by these children, their families and the community," Superintendent Ramon Cortines said in a statement.
Mark Berndt, 63, pleaded no contest last year and was sentenced to 25 years in prison on 23 counts of lewd acts upon a child between 2005 and 2010, NBC Los Angeles reported.
His arrest in January 2012 set off protests by horrified parents in the working-class area of Los Angeles. Berndt's crimes were discovered when a photo technician at a drug store was processing the man's film and notified police when he saw pictures of blindfolded children.
But attorneys state that school administrators got word of the teacher's abuse years before he was placed under arrest.
The teacher's actions involved a total of 150 of his students from 2005 onward, according to a spokesman for the district. Friday's settlement lets the children avoid further emotional upset from going through trials that could have stretched on for years and embarrassed the district.
The most recent settlement of $140 million is said to have involved 80 children, and the district is deciding how to break up the money between families. It will be based on how badly they were emotionally scarred and what kind of therapy they'll need going forward, according to attorneys.
