Education

HS Student Gets $6 Million To Make Up For A Whole Year Of Sex With Teacher

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A former high school student in California has received a $6 million settlement from his school district as compensation for a year of sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a teacher.

Laura Whitehurst was arrested back in 2013, after she gave birth to a daughter and it was discovered the daughter was the product of a year-long sexual affair with a 17-year-old student. Eventually, Whitehurst pleaded guilty to sleeping with the boy as well as two other students, and spent six months behind bars.

In 2014, the father of her daughter sued Redlands Unified School District, claiming multiple people with the district were aware of the close relationship between the two but had done nothing to investigate or stop it, allowing the abuse to continue for an entire year.

Now, more than two years later, the boy, now 21 years old, has finally received some small compensation for the year of torment he endured. On Friday, the school district agreed to a $6 million settlement. Despite the settlement, the district maintains it did nothing wrong and that Whitehurst alone is to blame for the boy’s suffering.

“In the long run, $6 million is high, but it could have been much higher if this had been left to an empathetic jury in another city looking past the facts to find a financial scapegoat for the unprofessional, criminal actions of one individual,” district spokesman Tom DeLapp said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.

Whitehurst allegedly manipulated the boy in a variety of ways over the course of their yearlong relationship. She would ply him with alcohol, but also used religion to influence him as well. She gave him a Bible for his 17th birthday, took him to church, and even described their daughter as a “miracle baby” who was part of “God’s plan” for the two. She also gave him excused absences so he could attend doctor’s appointments during her pregnancy, and he was in attendance at the birth itself.

Today, though, the two are not a couple (in contrast to some other student/teacher pairs) and the two have split custody of their daughter.

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