The Cherry Creek School District will pay $11.5 million to five teenage girls who were sexually assaulted by a middle school teacher, making it one of the largest settlements in Colorado history involving a school’s failure to respond to reports of sex assault.

The school district sent a letter to parents Monday afternoon announcing the settlement, which stems from a child sexual abuse case involving former Prairie Middle School teacher Brian Vasquez.

“We acknowledge that no amount of money can right the wrongs committed against these students by Mr. Vasquez,” the letter, signed by Superintendent Scott A. Siegfried, said. “No student should ever suffer the injury and loss of innocence that these young women suffered as a result of the reprehensible actions of Mr. Vasquez. The district is committed to doing right by these young women and their families and hopes this settlement brings some degree of closure so that they can move on with their lives and continue the healing process.”

Siegfried has met with each of the victims to apologize for what happened, said Abbe Smith, a spokeswoman for the school district.

However, the district did not admit liability in the settlement, which means it did not acknowledge any mistakes in how complaints against Vasquez were handled, including in 2013 when the first female middle school student reported a sexual relationship but allegedly was coerced into recanting — and then was suspended.

The school district has an insurance policy that will cover $2 million of the settlement, but the remaining $9.5 million will be paid out of the district’s budget reserves, Smith said.

Vasquez pleaded guilty in July to three counts of sex assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, one count of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of internet exploitation of a child and one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a child.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in Arapahoe County District Court.

School officials also facing charges

Two Prairie Middle School administrators also have been charged in the case for failing to report the sexual abuse. They are on paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of their court cases.

Prairie Middle School principal David Gonzales and assistant principal Adrienne “A.J.” Macintosh are accused of pressuring a teen victim in 2013 to recant her claim of sexual abuse. During meetings with the student and her parents, the administrators warned the girl that Vasquez’s career and family would be ruined by the allegations, according to the grand jury indictment.

They also questioned her in Vasquez’s presence. Once the teen rescinded her accusations, she was suspended for making false allegations, according to the indictment.

In testimony before the grand jury, the student said she “was made to apologize to Vasquez and hug him at the end of the meeting,” the indictment said.

The administrators did not report the allegations to police or the Colorado Department of Human Services, which is required by state law.

Arrested on campus

Vasquez had been a teacher at Prairie Middle for seven years when he was arrested in August 2017 while on campus.

On Aug. 20, 2017, a victim had walked into Aurora Police Department headquarters to report that she was being forced to send sexual pictures to Vasquez, her former teacher. He had threatened to harm one of her friends if she refused, according to an Aurora police arrest affidavit.

Police immediately went to the school to confront Vasquez, who agreed to a videotaped interview and confessed to having relationships with five students, including having sex with at least two of the girls. One of the girls he admitted to abusing was the student who had been suspended after reporting her assault in 2013.

After the Vasquez case became public, it was discovered that a second Cherry Creek School District employee had been charged in a child sex assault case in May, but the district had never informed parents of the situation.

Broderick Lundie, a security guard at Grandview High School and the son of Overland High School principal Leon Lundie, had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student. Investigators found 16,000 deleted messages on the victim’s phone, including nude photos of her and Lundie.

Lundie was sentenced in March to a year in jail after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation of a child and sex assault, 10-year age difference.

Mandatory reporting

In the wake of the Vasquez and Lundie cases, the school district changed its policy on mandatory reporting of sexual abuse of students. The district also has trained its 9,000 employees in how to identify abuse and what the state’s mandatory reporting laws require, Siegfried’s letter said.

The new protocols were drafted with the assistance of the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office and the Colorado Department of Human Services. Training also has been developed to help parents and students know what to do when they hear about abuse.

The students and their families were represented by the Rathod Mohamedbhai Law Firm in Denver, which issued a statement saying, “We are in awe of the strength and resilience of our five clients. They are all survivors of unimaginable horrors, which occurred during their very young and formative years. Our clients appreciated the substantial policy changes and focused determination by Cherry Creek School District to ensure that their lifelong trauma will hopefully never be experienced by another student in Colorado.”

Earlier this year, a Denver Post investigation found that school districts across the state are paying millions to settle lawsuits because administrators and teachers are failing to follow the state’s mandatory reporting laws.

For example, the Douglas County School District paid $2.2 million in 2016 to a 14-year-old Rocky Heights Middle School student after students and parents warned school administrators that former teacher Richard “Rick” Johnson was cultivating an inappropriate relationship with the girl. Instead of reporting the allegations, administrators sat on the information.

State Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, who has sponsored legislation that would increase the statute of limitations on failure to report child abuse or neglect, on Monday praised the Cherry Creek School District for confronting the issue and making changes so mistakes are not repeated.

“Sexual assault allegations must be taken seriously,” Fields said in a news release. “We entrust the safety of our children in the hands of educators, and parents need to know that any allegation of sexual assault will be reported to the appropriate authority, thoroughly investigated and handled with care.”

State law requires people who work in about 40 professional fields, including teachers, coaches, the clergy and medical professionals, to report suspicions of abuse, and they are protected from retaliation for reporting, said Stephanie Villafuerte, the state’s child protection ombudsman.

Once the call is made, authorities such as police and human services workers will investigate it.

“If you’re on the list, you make the call,” Villafuerte said. “You have to make it. You can’t just pass off the duty to your principal or your boss to handle it.”

To report abuse or neglect, call the Colorado Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Hotline at 844-264-5437.

Updated 12:30 p.m. Jan. 16, 2019: This story has been updated to correct the name of Prairie Middle School