Port Jefferson schools will pay $16.5 million to settle sexual abuse cases

The Port Jefferson School District has voted to pay $16.5 million to settle lawsuits from seven people alleging sexual abuse decades ago.

The settlement, which is confidential and approved Friday evening by the Board of Education, ends litigation against the district brought under the Child Victims Act of 2019, which temporarily lifted the statute of limitations to allow lawsuits over long-standing allegations.

In a statement Friday announcing the news, the district called the settlement “the best outcome for the district and avoids possible larger impacts to our students and taxpayers.”

“It is important to note that these claims related to incidents that occurred forty-five or more years ago,” the district said in a statement.

Long Island counties have paid more than $111 million to settle sexual abuse allegations and hundreds of lawsuits have been filed.

In the Port Jefferson cases, the district was unable to get the insurer to pay, so the settlement will be funded through a combination of reserves and bonds issued to raise the money, the statement said.

The district’s outside spokesman, Ron Edelson, said a public meeting on Nov. 12 will show how the settlement will affect taxpayers. His colleague Grace Kwon says the district denies the allegations.

One of the accusers, Michael Selter, told Newsday that he would be afraid to go to school because he never knew when the high school’s then-principal would expel him from classes and sexually harass him in dark places like the auditorium, the boiler room or his office.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Anna Kull, declined to comment.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, writes about New York.