LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles school district has settled a civil lawsuit with dozens of victims of infamous child-molesting teacher Mark Berndt for $139 million.

Attorneys representing 150 clients with sexual abuse claims against the Los Angeles Unified School District announced Friday they reached a settlement with the district for $139 million, avoiding a jury trial that would have required the victims to testify, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The settlement covers claims by parents and students impacted by the heinous sexual deeds of former Miramonte Elementary Teacher Mark Berndt, who was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for decades of student sex abuse. The case is the second involving Berndt’s victims, as dozens of claims were settled last year for $30 million, according to the news site.

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Attorneys Brian Claypool and John Manly announced the most recent settlement Friday in front of the Los Angeles County Courthouse, where they urged district officials to change the way they handle student sex abuse cases.

“Nor more rhetoric,” Claypool said. “Today is not the end of the Miramonte child abuse scandal, it’s the beginning of change.”

He also spoke of how the abuse has impacted his clients, citing a young student who told her counselor she wanted to die, the Times reports.

“She envisioned herself walking to the edge of the pier and jumping off into the ocean,” Claypool said. “That’s an example of the depth of grief that these families have suffered and we wanted the LAUSD to acknowledge that and take responsibility for that and compensate these families.”

Manly said the district settle the case because of “a volcano of evidence” that amounted to “a legal gun pointed at their head.”

He also chastised the district for holding a secret meeting about the abuse allegations, instead of opening up to the public about what happened.

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“If I was a board member of this district, I would hang my head in shame,” he said.

The settlement covers 81 families impacted by Berndt’s heinous acts, which included decades of inappropriate sexual acts with his students.

A drugstore photo technician set off the investigation in 2010 when he discovered a photo of a child blindfolded and gaged with clear tape. Other pictures showed spoonfuls of semen in or near the children’s mouths. Investigators later found the spoon in Berndt’s classroom trash can.

They also uncovered prior complaints against the Berndt dating back to 1983, when he dropped his pants during a school field trip. In 1994 he was investigated for reaching toward a student’s genitals during a test, and former students came forward to allege he often masturbated at his desk.

Berndt’s superiors didn’t take any of the allegations against him very seriously until he was arrested in 2010.

The case prompted the district to revamp it’s efforts to rid schools of bad teachers, and investigations into similar allegations skyrocketed in the following years. Union officials have criticized the district for holding questionable teachers in “teacher jails” until their case can be sorted out, and for allegedly unjustly firing some.

The district replace the entire staff at Miramonte and required employees to take a course on reporting abuse, the Times reports.

District officials also hired a team of experienced law enforcement investigators to pick up the pace in investigating allegations of abuse by school employees.

The case also spawned legislation aimed at speeding the process to dismiss teachers for gross misconduct, which was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this year, according to the news site.

L.A. Unified attorney Dave Holmquist said school officials hope the settlement “will help the community heal and move forward,” the Times reports.