McLOUD, Okla. — A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit involving the young girls victimized by a McLoud elementary teacher.
The school district has agreed to pay the 14 victims of Kimberly Crain a total of $1.4 million.
Crain was convicted in 2013 after taking sexually explicit photos of her students and sharing them with a former Oklahoma Baptist University professor.
The money will be split evenly among the girls, so each victim will receive $100,000. That amount was recently approved by the school board.
$1 million will come from the district’s insurance provider, which has a $1 million cap for lawsuits. Property taxes will pay for the other $400,000.
The allegations rattled the small town of McLoud four years ago.
Elementary teacher Kimberly Crain was arrested on dozens of charges for child porn and other sex crimes against her own students.
Crain pled guilty in 2013 to 31 total counts.
Prosecutors said she took nude and provocative pictures of students both in class and at her home.
The victims were between 7 and 9 years old.
Their families sued McLoud Public Schools.
A judge approved the settlement Monday.
“I think it was the right thing to do. I’m still very concerned about what went on at the school,” plaintiff’s attorney Brad West said.
West represented some of the families in the civil lawsuit.
He said most of the crimes happened inside Crain’s classroom, which is next door to the principal’s office.
“I think there was great lapses in supervision that allowed something like that to go on, over an extended months and months period of time, not just a single event,” West said.
Court records show Crain took pictures of the girls in sexually suggestive poses and had them talk with a man they knew as “Uncle G” through Skype in their classroom.
Crain is now serving 45 years in prison.
The man she shared the explicit photos with, Gary Doby, is serving a life sentence. He was living in Pennsylvania at the time.
Most of the girls have gone through therapy.
The oldest victims are now teenagers and hoping to put all of this behind them.
“I think that was a motivating factor for the families deciding to settle the case. It was going to bring closure, it’s going to let these kids get back to a more normal lifestyle,” West said.
The families also sued Crain and Doby, but their attorneys say it’s unlikely they’d be able to collect on the suit.
We called and went to the McLoud superintendent’s office. We are still waiting to hear from him for comment.
