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Shohola Elementary School (Photo by Don Quick)
By Susan Koomar
MILFORD – Court documents show that, in addition to the settlement awarded to former Shohola Elementary School Student Samantha Freeman, the Delaware Valley School District settled a second civil case related to former teacher Tom Matthews sexually molesting students.
Freeman’s case has been widely publicized since an $815,859 settlement was announced January 11. Documents obtained by the Pike County Press show a settlement was reached in August 2009 in the case of “Melanie Doe” versus DVSD (to view the Doe complaint, click here). The civil complaint states Matthews molested Doe between September 1997 and June 1999 while she was a student in his third-grade class at Shohola Elementary School.
Superintendent Candis Finan declined to release the amount of the Doe case settlement, but she said it was less than 25 percent of the Freeman settlement. The Doe case was settled at no cost to district taxpayers, said Finan. The district’s insurance carrier paid the settlement, as well as court costs and attorney’s fees for both settlements.
The two settlements have not affected the district’s insurance premium or ability to get liability insurance, Finan said. DVSD has changed insurance carriers since the time of Matthews’s employment more than 10 years ago.
Finan said there are no additional civil suits regarding Matthews facing the district. Matthews is in state prison following a 2006 conviction in Pike County court.
