The Fullerton School District has agreed to pay $4.5 million to settle lawsuits filed by the families of five boys concerning allegations of sexual molestation by an eighth-grade teacher, officials said Thursday.

The largest settlement, $3.25 million, was reached with the families of three boys, and a second settlement of $1.25 million went to the families of two other boys, said Susan Hume, the district’s assistant superintendent for business. Both settlements were made in January.

Melissa Nicole Lindgren, a former math teacher at Nicolas Junior High School, pleaded guilty in October 2015 to three felony counts of lewd acts on a child age 14 or 15 and was sentenced to more than four years in state prison.

Lindgren, 29 at the time, originally faced 10 felony counts, including distributing pornography to a minor after texting, among other things, graphic photos of her vagina and breasts.

The settlements close out a case that at one point brought out a standing-room-only crowd of 500-plus parents demanding answers at a school-organized forum.

“In this case, everything that happened with her, we responded very quickly, appropriately and with the allowable transparency we could,” Hume said.

John Manly, an attorney who represented the families of three of the students, disagreed, saying the Fullerton School District “has been about as transparent as the Catholic Church has been about priest abuse.”

“… They had all kinds of warning signs, red lights,” said Manly, whose clients include two of the children involved in the criminal case.

Bob Pletka, the district’s superintendent, said the case has spurred increased awareness, training on risky behaviors and a new assessment during hiring that “looks at and measures good judgment.”

The case also highlighted that “there’s no certain profile” for child molesters, Pletka said. “Melissa was a popular young lady … not what one would think fits a stereotype of a child molester.”

The school district will end up paying $50,000 of the settlement money, Hume said. The remainder was covered by the district’s insurance company.

Staff writer Kelly Puente contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or rkopetman@scng.com