Sexual harassment settlement for Brockton boy costs city $180K
BROCKTON — It began with a 6-year-old city boy touching a girl in his class, and it ended up costing the city $50,000 in legal fees – plus thousands more in city insurance payouts totaling nearly a quarter-million dollars. The elementary school student, accused of sexually harassing a classmate as a first-grader in 2006, will receive a total of about $160,000 in a legal settlement reached with the city. His parents received $20,000. The boy, then 6, was suspended from the Downey Elementary School for three days after school officials accused him of sexually harassing a classmate. The principal said he had violated sexual harassment policy by touching a female classmate inside her clothing waistband during a class. The case garnered international media attention, becoming the subject of talk shows and Internet discussion forums across the country. Settlement documents and legal records obtained recently by The Enterprise show that the city spent $50,000 on legal defense fees