State Settles With Families Of Children Assaulted At Colorado School For The Deaf And Blind
By Rick Sallinger and Robert Bosciewicz
DENVER (CBS4) - The State of Colorado has agreed to pay $1.4 million compensation for two students who reported they were sexually assaulted by another student at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind.
State officials decided to pay the compensation soon after a judge stated that school authorities took little action for two years after becoming aware that a student was sexually abusing other vulnerable students.
"For approximately two years … the only actions defendants took in an attempt to remedy (the perpetrator's) sexually abusive behavior involved merely documenting the incidents and moving (the Pueblo County victim) to a different room," U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore wrote in a 37-page decision.
"The court finds (that) a reasonable jury could return a verdict (in favor of the two students whose families sued school authorities)" regarding whether responses of school staff "were deliberately indifferent," he wrote.
The judge reached that conclusion in his Sept.16 decision, not previously reported, in which he ordered school officials to stand trial to defend themselves against the lawsuits.
State officials then agreed to pay the $1.4 million to the families of the two students rather than have the school and several former or current staff members stand trial.
CBS4 obtained copies Friday of legal documents specifying the terms for settling lawsuits against the school. A student there confessed in 2011 to sexually assaulting five students, including the two who sued. The assaults occurred during the previous two years.
A student victim from rural Pueblo County, now 21, is to receive $205,000 over a period of years, his guardian is to receive $170,000 for a "special needs trust" for the victim, and attorneys for the family are to receive $225,000, for a total of $600,000.
The settlement agreement on behalf of the other student, whose family lives in El Paso County, provides $800,000 as compensation, including $300,000 for the family's attorneys.
The school, in Colorado Springs, is operated by the Colorado Department of Education. Both victims who sued no longer are at the school.
The families who sued claimed that the school and some employees were liable because they failed to act adequately after they became aware of previous instances of sexual abuse by the perpetrator.
The judge said employees on some occasions during a two-year period did not, contrary to school policy, report the abuse to child protection authorities. Eventually, child protection authorities in Pueblo and El Paso counties investigated the incidents of abuse.
Moore stated in his decision that the Pueblo County victim has learning and developmental disabilities. Both he and the El Paso County victim are visually impaired, which made them even more vulnerable to the sexual abuse.
The settlement agreements between the state and the victims contain terminology typical in state government settlements of lawsuits: The agreements state that payment "is based solely on the economic consideration of conservation of public money, and is not to be construed as an admission of liability (which) is expressly denied."
Attorney Daniel Bristol, representing the families, said attorneys of the Colorado Attorney General's Office, representing the school, "fought very hard" for several years against the lawsuits, filed in 2012, and the monetary demands of the families.
Bristol, of Denver, said a major turning point was when the judge ordered the defendants to stand trial against major parts of the lawsuits.
"It's very important to me and my clients that this type of tragedy doesn't happen again," Bristol said Friday. "I suspect that the school and the state are unhappy to pay that sum and I believe my clients wanted to have their day in court and they felt like that could do some good."
He said he hopes this will lead to change at the school.
CBS4 obtained the settlement agreements through a request under the Colorado Open Records Act to the attorney general's office.
The Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind issued a statement saying, "We're satisfied a settlement has been achieved. We look forward to continuing to serve the needs of children across the state of Colorado. Their well-being and education remain our first priority."
CBS4's Rick Sallinger is a Peabody award winning reporter who has been with the station more than two decades doing hard news and investigative reporting. Follow him on Twitter @ricksallinger.
