West Virginia school district settles lawsuits for over $11 million in teacher abuse case

A school district in West Virginia has reached settlements totaling over $11 million in lawsuits involving a teacher who abused special education students in her classroom, according to a media report.

Seven lawsuits against Nancy Boggs and the Kanawha County Board of Education were settled for a combined $11.75 million, WCHS-TV reported Monday, citing state insurance documents it obtained via a records request. The report did not indicate when the settlement was reached, and the school district did not comment to the television station.

Boggs was caught on surveillance camera abusing several students at Holz Elementary School in Charleston in September 2021. She admitted to hitting one student with a cabinet door, pulling her hair and pulling a chair out from under her. Boggs also admitted to slamming another child’s head into a desk and slapping a third child.

Boggs was sentenced to 10 years in prison in August 2022. County Judge Maryclaire Akers said in court that Boggs turned her "classroom into a place of what can only be described as torture."

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A West Virginia school district has settled lawsuits for over $11 million in a teacher abuse case. 

The identities of the plaintiffs and individual settlement amounts remain sealed.

"This is a significant settlement because it was a horrific case of abuse, probably one of the worst abuses we’ve seen in West Virginia," attorney Ben Salango, who represented plaintiffs in three of the seven cases, told WCHS.

He said he believes it's the largest settlement against a school board in West Virginia history.

The Boggs case helped lead to the strengthening last year of a state law that requires cameras in classrooms — video footage must now be kept on hand for a full year instead of three months and must be regularly viewed by administrators.