OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Omaha Public Schools has approved another large settlement for the family of a young student who was sexually assaulted by a former elementary school teacher - this one for nearly $1 million.
The district’s school board approved a $935,000 settlement Monday night, the Omaha World-Herald reported. The money will go to the family of a girl assaulted by Gregory Sedlacek, a former teacher at Fontenelle Elementary School who is serving decades in prison for molesting six students.
The settlement is the second for three claims filed so far in the Sedlacek assaults. Last month, the board approved a $625,000 settlement with the family of another student whom Sedlacek assaulted.
Sedlacek was arrested in November 2018 after teachers saw him with his hand up the dress of a first-grade student on the playground. Police interviews led authorities to conclude he had molested at least six students, ages 6 and 7, in classrooms and on the playground at the school.
The claims filed against the district say school officials failed to properly vet Sedlacek before hiring him in 2016. Sedlacek was fired from South Dakota school district for excessively hugging and tickling students and later dismissed from a seminary.
Eric Nelson resigned as Fontenelle’s principal and this year pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of failure to report child abuse.
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