I have been mulling over this distressing post for a month after reading the piece "Bay Area schools face historic wave of sexual abuse suits — with millions in potential costs" in the September 11 SF Chronicle. The essence of this most disturbing situation is
In an unprecedented wave of lawsuits, scores of people who attended Bay Area schools in the past half century are taking advantage of a landmark California law to confront educators they say raped or sexually abused them and the administrators who they say didn’t take basic steps to protect them.
For schools, the accusations are a reckoning, and one that could carry a heavy price. The suits could trigger hundreds of millions of dollars in payouts by districts in settlements and judgments, experts say. Insurance costs for schools have already increased as a result.
The Chronicle found 51 cases in the Bay Area with one in SMUSHD at Capuchino. There are a few more where the school/district is unnamed. One early award of damages topped $100 million for two students.
School districts’ liability insurance costs for all types of claims has gone up 300%-600% in the past five years, said Dave George, CEO of the School Excess Liability Fund, which provides excess liability insurance for about half of California school districts.
Meanwhile, California lawmakers are debating whether to further expand the ability of adults to sue over assault they experienced as children. Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and Assembly Member Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, introduced a bill that would end the statute of limitations for such claims, though it was amended to apply only to future cases amid concerns more lawsuits would cut into funding for current students. Even with the amendment, groups representing school administrators and risk pools, including the School Excess Liability Fund, oppose the bill.
“The current situation is becoming dire,” Craig Schweikhard, executive director of the San Mateo County Schools Insurance Group, told lawmakers earlier this year. “We are currently paying hundreds of millions of dollars into lawsuits.”
I never gave much thought to the school systems' insurance policy–never had to, but when we are talking about this much money it should draw more attention than it has. Per the SMUSHD web site budget page, the total 2023-2024 budget looks to be right about $220 million. You don't have to be an accountant to see that something isn't going to work over the long-term–or perhaps even in the short-term. I'm not sure if Mr. Schweikhard was talking about the San Mateo County system or California systems in general, but either way this is troubling on all fronts.
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