St. Tammany Schools ordered to pay $460,000 to rape victim

A Northshore judge has ordered St. Tammany Parish Public Schools to pay $460,000 in damages to a Slidell man who was raped as an elementary school student by a janitor.

The New Orleans Advocate reports the judge also awarded the victim's parents $25,000 each.

A jury convicted Dino Schwertz in 2007 of raping the then-11-year-old victim in a school bathroom at Abney Elementary School.

The victim sued the school system, arguing it failed to exercise reasonable care when it hired Schwertz, who said on his job application that he had no priors when in fact he had been convicted of violating protective orders and of bank fraud.

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