California School District to Pay $8M For Teacher Attack

January 24, 2014

Eight Northern California families of special-needs students who were physically and verbally abused by a teacher during school will receive $8 million to settle a lawsuit.

The Contra Costa Times reported the trustees of the Brentwood Unified School District voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the settlement.

The district’s insurance will pay the families of eight children who were abused by Dina Holder, a teacher at Loma Vista and Krey elementary schools.

Filed in August, the lawsuit claims Holder violated the children’s Constitutional rights by using “unjustified and unreasonable force” against them.

Holder was also at the center of an earlier lawsuit that the district settled in 2012 for $950,000.

According to court records, Holder violently shook one boy, slapped another, berated those who struggled to talk and routinely used profane language to refer to her students.

Topics California Education

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