LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Unified School District will spend $88 million to settle sexual abuse cases involving teachers at two elementary schools, the latest in a number of multi-million dollar abuse payouts in recent years.

Attorneys for 30 victims of sexual abuse at Telfair Avenue Elementary School and George De La Torre Jr. Elementary school announced today that they reached the financial settlement with LAUSD in cases involving two teachers – one at each school – who sexually abused students.

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“These historic settlements occurred because of overwhelming evidence that the District ignored warnings, employee reports and parent complaints that both of these horrible men were molesting dozens of children in the classroom,” attorney John C. Manley said in a statement cited by City News Service.

“These reports made their way to the highest levels of district leadership where they were either ignored entirely or actively suppressed and the predators walled to remain in the classroom. The question that the district needs to answer is how this could have happened?” Manley wrote. “The LAUSD Board has not held a single public hearing on this issue nor does it plan to.

“The public deserves answers.”

The settlement covers 18 children at De La Torre who were molested by teacher Robert Pimental, who pleaded no contest to charges of lewd acts on four girls, including a relative, and is now serving 12 years in prison. Pimmental’s case, which also involved separate lawsuits from 19 parents, are expected to result in a roughly $3 million payout for each victim’s family, the Los Angeles Times reports.

School officials were first notified of Pimmental’s inappropriate antics with students – which involved slapping girls’ buttocks, touching their calves, and other misdeeds – in 2002.

Teacher Paul Chapel III landed a job at Telfair Elementary despite losing his previous job at a private school after a trial on allegations he abused a boy, though he was not convicted in that case. Chapel was also the subject of complaints by teachers at other LAUSD schools before coming to Telfair, including colleagues at Andasol Elementary who were concerned about him regularly placing children on his lap, attempting to take them on “field trips,” and closing his class door with students during lunch and recess, the Times reports.

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Despite his history of questionable behavior, it took district officials six weeks to remove Chapel from his classroom after Telfair parents complained in March 2011 that he kissed boy and girl students on the lips in class, and students confirmed the allegations.

Chapel was also eventually convicted of abusing students and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

“We’re glad that we’re able to resolve both of these cases so we can avoid painful litigation and put these cases behind us,” LAUSD attorney Greg McNair said. “We’re turning a corner here because we’ve resolved the last two very large cases that were involving the district.”

The City News Service points out that the $88 million settlement follows a $175 million LAUSD payout to victims of Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Burndt, who is serving 25 years in prison for lewd acts with dozens of students.

Burndt’s 2012 case was one of the first widely reported incidents of teachers sexually assaulting students in the district, that helped to expose the bigger system-wide issue of administrators ignoring or attempting to hide abuse.