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SALT LAKE CITY — The Canyons School District has settled a lawsuit with the father of a 5-year-old special needs girl who was sexually abused by her bus driver.
The Utah Division of Risk Management will pay $175,000 to the father, Thomas Brown, Canyons District spokesman Jeff Haney confirmed Tuesday. The agreement is the result of extended negotiations between the school district and the family, he said.
In the lawsuit filed first in 3rd District Court and then transferred to U.S. District Court, Brown claimed Canyons School District did not protect his then 5-year-old daughter and another girl who was abused on the bus, and that the driver, John Martin Carrell, violated the young girl's civil rights.
Carrell drove a bus for special-needs children to Altara Elementary School, 800 E. 11000 South, Sandy.
A jury last July convicted Carrell, 63, of 19 of the 33 counts he faced of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony. During the trial, jurors were shown hours of security video showing Carrell lingering over the girl as he unbuckled the girls' harness-like seat belts, then bringing them up to the front of the bus to stand close to him or sit on his lap.
The lawsuit alleged the school district failed to regularly review security footage on the bus that had been recording the abuse between March 12 and April 3, 2014.
Brown's daughter testified at trial that the bus driver would touch her inappropriately "every day" as he unbuckled her seat belt and as they waited for a teacher to come get her off the bus.
Carrell testified during the trial that he was as affectionate with the students as he would be with his own grandchildren, but he insisted he never touched the children inappropriately. He is appealing the 19 concurrent sentences of 15 years to life he was ordered to serve in the Utah State Prison.
The settlement is a financial agreement only and does not prescribe any policy changes for the school district, Haney said. He emphasized that the district acted quickly to assess any risk and make changes after the abuse was reported.
The school district now has parents and guardians work with bus drivers and aides as students come on and off the busses, Haney said, and surveillance footage is periodically reviewed.
