A former high school student from California who fathered a child with his teacher will receive a $6 million settlement from his school district in what is one of the largest settlements made for sexual abuse in the United States.
The victim, who is now 21 years old, had been sexually abused by teacher Laura Whitehurst for a year when the victim was just 16 years old.
Whitehurst, 29, was arrested in 2013 on charges of unlawful sex acts, after she gave birth to the victim’s child, which would have put her behind bars for 29 years, the Los Angeles Times reported.
She took a plea deal where she only served six months behind bars and is now out on probation.
Whitehurst and the boy began a relationship back in 2012, where she would initially drive him to school and spend hours with him. She would shower the boy with many gifts, ranging from alcohol to a Bible.
They shared a kiss at Disneyland, and eventually started having sexual intercourse at her apartment, according to the former student.
“Physically, I feel sick to my stomach thinking about the manipulation I was subjected to,” the former student said to a judge back in 2013.
In 2014, the victim’s family sued Redlands Unified School District for allowing the sexual abuse to continue for an entire year without taking action.
The district, even after settling out of court, maintained that they had done nothing wrong and that Whitehurst was solely to blame for the incident.
“Ms. Whitehurst made a conscious effort to deceive and circumvent the standards and policies she was trained to uphold,” District spokesman Tom DeLapp said to the Times.
Whitehurst and the victim are no longer together, but they still share custody of the child, according to the Times report.