Seneca Valley School District's insurers will pay $100,000 to two graduates who said a former Junior ROTC leader molested them while they were students, according to court settlements released this week.
District officials admit no wrongdoing or negligence in the case, in which the former students say Sgt. Maj. Kevin Johnson, 51, of Portersville abused them at the district's intermediate high school in 2006 and 2007. The district's insurer is giving $50,000 to each of the accusers and their lawyers, according to the agreements, which school officials initially refused to release.
The agreements settle the district's part of a federal lawsuit the accusers filed. Johnson remains a defendant in the civil case and is awaiting a criminal trial. His attorney, James E. DePasquale, said Johnson maintains his innocence.
The district's spokeswoman did not return a call for comment. Sam Cordes, a Downtown civil rights attorney representing both former students, declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement in the case.
The accusers would have had a difficult case to prove against the district under federal laws, said Michael Streib, a law professor at Duquesne University. They would need to show district officials were aware of abuse and endorsed it, he said.
"It's not nominal, but it's certainly nowhere near what it could have been," said Streib, who lives in the district and has two children in Seneca Valley schools.
"You're paying something because if the bell gets rung, it's going to get rung for a really big number," he said. "And people who are subject to suits often settle for a much smaller number, even if they're think they're right, because what they get is peace of mind."
District officials initially rejected an open-records request from the Tribune-Review. Part of the agreements mandate the district deny any requests for documents by citing a protective court order. However, that order covers the boys' names and medical conditions, which should just be redacted, Tribune-Review attorney Ronald Barber said.
"It means lawyers who represent government agencies are hoping the public is not fully informed about their rights and that the public will back down when they're initially shown a stop sign," Barber said. "It means stories like this ... are important not just because now we know what happened in Seneca Valley, but it's important because now people are reminded these rights are theirs and they should not simply accept no for an answer."
