REDLANDS, Calif. – California’s Redlands Unified School District will pay a former student $6 million to settle a lawsuit over sexual abuse by a teacher, who ultimately became pregnant with the student’s child.

Attorney Vince Finaldi, who represented the student against the district, told the Redlands Daily Facts the case ended with the biggest child abuse settlement ever against any public entity, and for good reason.

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“That number didn’t get there by accident,” he said. “The evidence we were able to deduce against the district of its knowledge (that) this was going on and its complicity was so voluminous, they had no choice but to settle the case. It was that bad.”

The lawsuit centers on former Citrus Valley High School teacher Laura Whitehurst, who gave birth to her 17-year-old student’s child in June 2013 – the same month the boy’s mother uncovered the year-long relationship and contacted the school district. Redlands Unified officials contacted police July 1, which prompted Whitehurst’s resignation, according to the news site.

Two months earlier, on May 17, 2013, school officials interviewed Whitehurst, 29, and her student and both gave officials “what appeared to be reasonable explanations for any allegedly suspicious conduct,” District Attorney spokesman Chris Lee said.

The Redlands Daily Facts reports:

According to the victim’s complaint, Whitehurst demanded the teen keep their relationship secret, demanded he not associate with other women or girls and manipulated him in a religious manner by saying the baby was “God’s plan” and a “miracle baby.” Whitehurst also allegedly required the victim to attend doctor appointments with her, and even called the principal to excuse the victim’s absences while he attended appointments.

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After Whitehurst’s arrest in July 2013, two other students came forward with allegations their teacher molested them, as well.

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Whitehurst was ultimately charged with 41 felonies of unlawful sex acts with minors, and later pleaded guilty to six felonies – two counts of oral copulation with a person under 18 and four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse – for sex abuse against students she taught at Citrus Valley and Redlands high schools.

According to the Los Angeles Times, “As part of a plea bargain, she was sentenced to a year in jail and released after six months. She remains on probation and is required to register as a sex offender. She shares custody of the child with the former student, who is now 21, according to his attorneys.”

John Manly, another attorney for the victim, told the Times several district employees were aware of the relationship between Whitehurst and the teen but did not report the abuse as required by law.

“There was a picture of her in the birthing suite circulated to people at the school with the boy,” Manly said. “The principal wrote in an email about the photo.”

Regardless, district officials said this week that they did nothing wrong in the case, and contend the massive settlement was to avoid further embarrassment to the school district.

“We felt there could be serious damage to the reputation of a very fine school district if the plaintiff’s lawyers were allowed to drag the district and its employees through the mud all over again,” Redlands Unified spokesman Tom DeLapp told the Times. “In the long run, $6 million is high, but it could have been much higher if this had been left to an empathetic jury in another city looking past the facts to find a financial scapegoat for the unprofessional, criminal actions of one individual.”

DeLapp told the Daily Facts district officials believe the settlement “exonerates the school district in the eyes of the public” and was adamant officials “did nothing wrong in the way we handled our side of dealing with the Laura Whitehurst case.”

DeLapp also said jury awards that are “escalating out of control” also factored into the decision to settle.

Finaldi, of course, disagrees with DeLapp’s assessment.

“There’s a lot of problems in that district,” he said. “The settlement doesn’t make it go away. It will put the plaintiff in the position where he can move on with his life and can address some of these important issues such as dealing with his child, but I think we still have a lot more work to do with this district.”

Finaldi said most Redlands Unified school employees he spoke with have no clue about their responsibilities to report suspected child abuse, a sign the district should retrain employees on the issue.

“I have deposed dozens of (Redlands Unified employees) and maybe only 5 percent get it right on who to report to, when to report and how to report,” he said.