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Claims Against Teacher Cost $200,000 CV School District Settles With Families For Gym Injuries

By Marny Lombard marnyl@spokesman.com(509) 927-2166

Central Valley School District has paid out nearly $200,000 to settle two claims against a gym teacher.

The most recent payment came earlier this month, when the school district paid a Spokane Valley family $100,000 over a 1992 neck injury suffered by their daughter, then a 14-year-old student at Greenacres Junior High, in a weightlifting accident.

The teacher, Tony Benson, who taught physical education at Greenacres, was fired by the school district in 1994. He is under investigation by the state regarding a separate complaint involving sexual harassment, for which he could lose his teaching certificate. Benson no longer lives in Spokane.

Central Valley earlier paid $62,500 in damages and $30,000 in medical costs to another student’s family, according to Spokane attorney Michael Kinkley. That settlement was over a knee injury suffered by Jodi Evers, another Greenacres student.

Evers’ claim stated that in February 1989 Benson pushed on her knee as she was stretching. The teenager needed four surgeries, said Kinkley, who represented both Evers and Sarah Martin, the student who injured her neck.

“She has neck and back pain,” said Gwen Monson, Martin’s mother. “It’s just something she’s always going to have.”

In Benson’s class, Martin lifted 90 pounds over her head, the claim stated. Martin was 115 pounds, 5-foot-1, and had neither the experience nor training for that kind of lifting.

Both payments were covered by the school district’s insurance firm.

A third suit, still pending against Central Valley and Benson, involves a separate claim of sexual harassment. A student complained that during a gym class Benson pulled her head toward his groin and made a sexual comment. It was that incident that led the school board to fire Benson.

Central Valley Superintendent Wally Stanley declined to comment on the settlements, deferring to the district’s attorney. Attempts to reach the attorney, Michael Nelson, were unsuccessful.

, DataTimes