After a decade of lawsuits, Unit Five has settled the final case involving a victim of convicted child molester Jon Andrew White. White was a Unit Five teacher, who later got a job in Urbana schools and continued molesting students. At the time, the Urbana district accused Unit Five of giving insufficient warning of White's potential misconduct by writing a favorable employment recommendation. This was even though White was allowed to resign from Unit Five after porn was found on his work computer.
Unit Five Superintendent Mark Daniel says even though the incidents happened years ago, Unit Five remains very cautious about recommendations.
"It is something that goes through our legal to ensure that we are staying within the guidelines of we are accurate but we do not in any way say something that we cannot support," said Daniel.
Daniel says training regarding the safety of children and the lessons learned from the case remain a live part of the Unit Five culture.
"It is still part of what Unit Five does. We believe we will continue to do those things to do a better job screening our employees as we receive applications," said Daniel.
White is serving a 60 year prison sentence.
The final settlement involving an eleventh victim of White brings the settlement costs to more than 200,000 dollars, and much more in legal fees.
