Lewis County jury awards $3.5 million in Harrisville school abuse lawsuit

A Lewis County jury has awarded $3.5 million to a former Harrisville student who said he was sexually abused by his third-grade teacher in the 1980s, finding the Harrisville Central School District and Harrisville Elementary School negligent.

The lawsuit said the student was 9 years old when the abuse began and that his parents reported it to school officials after he told them. The district failed to investigate the report or act on it, the lawsuit alleged. It also said the student was later held back and remained in the same teacher's classroom, where the alleged abuse continued.

The teacher named in the lawsuit, Bette Shampine, was a former nun who worked in the district for 31 years. She died in a house fire in 2018.

The case was tried in state Supreme Court in Lewis County under New York's Child Victims Act, which temporarily lifted time limits on civil claims by survivors of childhood sexual abuse that would otherwise have been barred by the statute of limitations. The former student was represented by Herman Law, with Craig Bernhardt serving as a lead trial attorney.