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	Private School Settles with Families That Claimed Abuse By Jeremy Roebuck The Monitor June 10, 2009 http://www.themonitor.com/articles/school-27484-abuse-settles.html EDINBURG — A McAllen private school has settled a lawsuit brought by the parents of five former students who claimed campus administrators covered up reports of sexual abuse. St. Paul Lutheran School agreed to make an undisclosed cash payout to each family but did not admit any fault or wrongdoing as part of an agreement finalized last week, representatives from both sides said Wednesday. "I believe that the willingness of these families to settle out of court, before a verdict was rendered, reveals their hidden motivations for filing charges against a Christian school that has earned an excellent reputation in the McAllen community," the Rev. Christopher Otten, senior pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church and School, said in a statement. The settlement comes after one week of testimony in which the parents told jurors that school employees failed to inform them of reports that a 5-year-old student at the school had molested their children. They claimed that St. Paul's administrators knew about at least eight instances of purported abuse in 2007 and in one case even ordered a teacher to lie about the severity of the accusations. Many of the parents only found out about the alleged incidents through talking with their children and other parents, according to court documents. But St. Paul's Principal Kathryn Lang testified during the trial that she fully investigated the abuse allegations and found no evidence that any of them had ever occurred. She decided not to notify the parents so as not to incite a needless panic, she said. St. Paul Lutheran School is a private academy that teaches students from preschool through fifth grade and is affiliated with the same-named church located near the intersection of Col. Rowe and Pecan boulevards in McAllen. "I placed my son in St. Paul's school last August because it is an outstanding school," Otten said. "I wouldn't entrust my child to the school except that it is a loving and safe place."
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