Auditor concerned about clarity in abuse case

Duquesne schools to pay $300,000 in suit

State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale this week called it “outrageous” that the Duquesne School City District could reach a $300,000 agreement last year to settle claims of negligence in a sexual abuse case without publicly acknowledging it.

He stopped short of directly calling for changes because he did not know all the specifics of the settlement process, but said he would be open to working with state lawmakers or the state Department of Education on reforms to ensure the public record reflects this type of case.

“It doesn’t make the behavior any worse because the damage to the human being was done, but it is pretty astounding that this happened without being in the public light,” he said.

The Post-Gazette reported this week that the financially troubled district reached the confidential agreement in February 2017 to settle a lawsuit that claimed administrators failed to do enough to prevent a teacher’s aide from sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl.

Notice of the settlement does not appear in the Duquesne City School receiver business meeting minutes. The district is under state receivership and the school board did not have to authorize the payment. The PostGazette obtained the settlement through a Right-To-Know request.

Mr. DePasquale’s office recently completed an audit of the district and did not come across the 2013 lawsuit by the victim’s family, which resulted in the settlement last year, he said. That report spanned 2012 to 2016, and the settlement was reached in 2017.

State Sen. Jim Brewster, DMcKeesport, whose district includes Duquesne, would likely support changes to ensure information about court settlements is readily available in the public record in Duquesne and other school districts that are in receivership, said Tim Joyce, his chief of staff.

“He believes that the more transparent, the better,” Mr. Joyce said of Mr. Brewster, who was unavailable for an

interview Friday. “That settlement caught most people off guard.”

Duquesne City School Board President DeWayne Tucker said the board was told “very little” about the settlement and the developments leading up to it. As a retired police officer, he said this case was particularly troubling because it involved harm to a student.

“It’s tough when you know things that are happening and there’s very little that you can do,” he said. “It bothers me from my police background. It bothers me that really we just get to hear what they choose to tell us in a lot of ways.”

In the federal lawsuit, the victim and her family claimed that officials failed to act on numerous reports that a teacher’s aide, Thomas DiDomenico, was behaving inappropriately with the student during the 20102011 school year.

DiDomenico pleaded guilty to indecent assault, corruption of minors, indecent exposure and other charges and was placed on probation and ordered to register as a sex offender. He no longer has to register because his crimes predated December 2012, when a stricter reporting law went into place.

District solicitor William Andrews said a resolution does not appear in the minutes because the district’s insurer paid its share of the settlement, not the district itself. The board is generally kept up to date on pending litigation, even if it does not have the power to act on it, he said.

Receiver Paul Rach did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.