to years in prison in 2020<\/a> after pleading guilty in Bucks County Court to assaulting multiple girls at Parkland and Palisades high schools.<\/p>\nThree of the victims from Parkland filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the district and Willman, 46, in Lehigh County Court. Law firm Laffey Bucci D\u2019Andrea Reich & Ryan, which represented the victims, announced the settlement Wednesday in a news release.<\/p>\n
In a statement Wednesday evening, Parkland rejected the law firm\u2019s characterization of the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe settlement was a compromise between all parties and involves no admission or finding of wrongdoing by the District,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The district said insurance would cover the financial terms of the settlement, and that it would not impact the district\u2019s operating budget or student programs.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit alleged Willman, 46, a former teacher and coach, groomed, manipulated and abused the girls, and Parkland failed to protect the students and intervene, despite \u201crepeated warning signs.\u201d The law firm also is representing two Palisades victims in a pending lawsuit filed in Bucks County against the Upper Bucks school district.<\/p>\n
Willman taught at Parkland from 2001 until 2011, and at Palisades from 2011 until 2018. He taught industrial arts at Parkland, was a technical director for theater productions and an assistant boys soccer coach. At Palisades, he taught robotics and technology, and coached girls soccer.<\/p>\n
The suit alleged Parkland administrators and staff saw \u201cconcerning conduct\u201d from Willman over many years, including spending extended time alone with female students. Teachers saw the behavior, yet no meaningful action was taken, according to the lawsuit, which states Willman quietly left for Palisades after Parkland students reported their own concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cParkland elected to \u2018pass the trash\u2019 and\/or stick their head in the sand and as a result exposed thousands of vulnerable students to a predator, a predator that struck more times than can be counted,\u201d attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Teachers reported Willman\u2019s behavior around female students but were ignored or retaliated against, the suit alleges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case revealed years of missed warnings, ignored reports and systemic inaction that allowed this abuse to continue,\u201d victims\u2019 attorney Alexandria MacMaster said. \u201cOur clients were failed at every turn. This settlement reflects their strength and sends a message that schools must take every sign of risk seriously. Children\u2019s safety must always come first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parkland in its statement said the school district first received information about the allegations against Willman in March 2019, nearly eight years after he left the district. It immediately reported the information to the Lehigh County district attorney\u2019s office, it said, and fully cooperated with investigations in Lehigh and Bucks.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring Mr. Willman\u2019s actual tenure at Parkland, there were no reports of misconduct,\u201d the district said.<\/p>\n
It condemned \u201cWillman\u2019s reprehensible actions in the strongest possible terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur hearts and prayers go out to all victims of abuse,\u201d Superintendent Mark Madson, who begin working for the district in 2021, said in the news release. \u201cWe remain focused on our primary mission: the safety and security of every student and staff member in the Parkland community.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Willman, of Coopersburg, was sentenced in 2020 to six to 12 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to abusing six girls. He remains in state prison, according to prison records.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: This story has been updated with Parkland School District\u2019s response to the settlement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three victims of a former Parkland teacher who sexually assaulted multiple students have reached a $6 million settlement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,46,227,433,182,139,3656,9790,28,664,432,4129],"class_list":["post-112686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-courts","tag-education","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-north-whitehall-township","tag-parkland-area","tag-pennsylvania","tag-south-whitehall-township","tag-top-stories-tmc","tag-upper-macungie-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}