A southern California school board will pay US$2.25 million to a student who was sexually abused by his teacher, who became pregnant by him.
Laura Whitehurst also gave birth to the child in 2014, when the victim was 16 years old. That year, Laura Whitehurst was placed on the sex offenders register. She spent six months behind bars.
The most recent lawsuit was filed in 2021 by a former student at the Redlands school who claimed the teacher preyed on him in 2007 and 2008, when he was just 14 years old, according to the plaintiff’s lawyer.
Laura Whitehurst admitted to having sex with him about 15 times in her San Bernardino classroom and in his apartment. Unwittingly, the teenager became the father of his teacher’s child.
The teenager claimed that school staff had been informed of the teacher’s actions, without however notifying his parents and the authorities.
The school board will have paid Laura Whitehurst’s victims a total of $8.25 million since her arrest in 2013. The English teacher admitted to having had sexual relations with three students.