School district in L.A. County agrees to pay victims of sex abuse by janitor $1.75 million

The Bassett Unified School District in La Puente, Los Angeles County, has agreed to pay seven victims of sexual abuse by a former school janitor $1.75 million to settle a lawsuit, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported Thursday.

The Torch Middle School students were between 10 and 12 years old when the abuses occurred between 2014 and 2017, the newspaper reported. The former janitor, Michael Anthony Barry, lured the students, all girls, to the janitorial office at the school by offering them candy and chips. The students sued the district in 2018.

“It’s been a long, long road for them,” said attorney Michael Carrillo, who represented the students and their families. He said he hopes the settlement will bring this terrible chapter in the girls’ lives to a close.

The district settled the suit Tuesday. It did not admit fault in the settlement, according to the Tribune.

Barry pleaded no contest on Nov. 8, 2018, to five felony counts of lewd act upon a child, five misdemeanor counts of child molesting and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the Tribune reported. He is eligible for parole in August 2026, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He will have to register as a sex offender if he is paroled.