After 12 years, third-graders molested by teacher get $3.6 million settlement

The Palm Beach School Board agreed Wednesday to pay nearly $3.6 million to settle a more than decade-old case involving four girls molested by their teacher when they were in third grade.

The decision came after each board member denounced the school district’s lawyers for a defense that blamed the elementary school girls.

“I was just dismayed and sad to know that was even a part of the discussion,” board member Marcia Andrews said during the board meeting. “This negligence defense is really, really a bad thing because it really does blame the victim.”

In 2005, four third-graders at Coral Sunset Elementary filed complaints against their then-teacher Blake Sinrod. In 2006, Sinrod pleaded guilty to molesting two of the four girls. All four families filed a joint civil suit.

Marc A. Wites, the attorney who represented the girls, who are now all adults, said the settlement “brings an end to lengthy litigation.”

“The victims of sexual assault have to live with the memory of what happened to them the rest of their life,” he said in an interview Wednesday night. “Words and money don’t erase it. Having the case pending for so long has been a weight on their shoulders and they are relieved it’s coming to an end.’’

Last week, the Sun Sentinel reported about the district’s defense, citing court papers that showed attorneys had written that the girls “conducted themselves in a careless and negligent manner.” The girls were 9 years old, the Sentinel reported.

On Wednesday, Dale Friedman, an attorney with Conroy Simberg, the Florida law firm hired to represent the district, held back tears as she explained the defense.

“I am very emotional on this issue,” she said.

Friedman said the “focus has been on one sentence” in the district’s defense.

“We absolutely understand the concern and the perception that came from the use and language of this defense called comparative negligence,” she said. “I want to make something very, very clear. Never was the defense used to blame these girls for the actions of their teacher Blake Sinrod. Never.”

Friedman said the language was taken out of context, but promised the law firm would reconsider using the defense in future cases.

“This was a very complicated case and my job is to defend the school board, which includes my obligation to raise certain legal defenses,” she said. “However, my job is also to move forward and I am here to promise you, moving forward, we are going to work harder to make sure that our legal strategies in these cases more closely align with the school board and this community. I say it and I mean it.’’

This story was originally published October 18, 2017 at 11:44 PM with the headline "After 12 years, third-graders molested by teacher get $3.6 million settlement."