$6M settlement for survivors of sex assaults by former Parkland High coach

Attorneys for three survivors of sexual abuse from a former teacher and coach at Parkland High School in the Lehigh Valley, announced that they have secured a $6 million settlement in the case.

On Wednesday, attorneys with Laffey Bucci D’Andrea Reich and Ryan shared a statement on the settlement, noting that it comes after the filing of a lawsuit from student who were sexually abused by former teacher and coach Christian Willman at Parkland High School in Lehigh County.

The attorney’s office noted, in a statement, that Willman went on to abuse at least two more students at Palisades High School in Bucks County.

In the lawsuit, attorneys involved noted concerned “years of grooming, manipulation and abuse, as well as significant institutional failures by both school districts to protect students or intervene despite repeated warning signs.”

Also, the law firm has a second lawsuit pending in Bucks County based on Willman’s abuse of students at Palisades High School.

“This settlement represents accountability that was long overdue,” said Stewart Ryan, Partner at Laffey Bucci D’Andrea Reich and Ryan, in a statemement. “Our clients showed tremendous courage in speaking out about what they endured. Parkland had countless, clear opportunities to protect these students and failed in their most basic duty. No student should ever be left vulnerable to a predator within their own school, much less at the hands of a person that was so open and brazen with their abuse.”

According to the law firm, their clients argued that Parkland High School officials “failed to act on multiple reports and obvious red flags regarding Willman’s behavior, allowing him continued access to students.”

In 2020, Willman, 40, of Coopersburg, was sentenced to serve between six to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to several charges, including sexual assault and criminal solicitation by a sports official.

Willman was convicted of sexually assaulting four students at Parkland High School, where he worked from 2001 to 2011, and victimizing two more at Palisades High School, where he taught from 2011 to 2018.

Willman would groom his targets, wait until they turned 16 to begin assaulting them, and then end contact once they graduated, according to court documents.

The allegations spanned from 2006 to 2018.