Horry County Schools has paid over $1 million in alleged abuse of students
Allegations of abuse, bullying and sexual assault by special education employees have led the Horry County Schools District to pay out more than $1 million in settlements in the past 15 years.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been awarded to families of special education students in the district for lawsuits claiming abuse by instructors, according to the Insurance Reserve Fund and past reporting by The Sun News.
The district is the third-largest in South Carolina, serving more than 45,000 students. While it is unclear how many of those students receive special education services, the National Center for Education Statistics found in a 2024 study that special education students make up about 15% of students in Horry County.
The Sun News contacted Horry County Schools, requesting information about the prevalence of special education-related lawsuits and incidents within the district. District spokesperson Lisa Bourcier said that the district cannot provide comment on past, present or pending litigation.
“Generally speaking, school districts across the country encounter possible claims for a variety of reasons,” Bourcier wrote in an email.
The school district declined to answer questions about whether measures are being taken to mitigate the potential for abuse in special education classrooms. It also declined to answer questions about whether the school system views the number of special education abuse cases in the district as high, or whether the amount of training given to special education professionals could play a role in possible student mistreatment.
Bourcier went on to state that the settlements “are not deemed admissions of guilt, liability or any wrongdoing. In essence, settlements are resolutions to cases.”
Settlements through the years
In total, the Horry County Schools district has paid about $1.03 million in special education settlements in the past 15 years.
Bourcier explained that the settlement amounts do not come out of district funding, but instead come from the insurance carrier, the Insurance Reserve Fund.
More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed against the district since 2018, a previous review by The Sun News revealed. Cases have involved former special education staffers handling students roughly, screaming at them, hitting them and pinning them down.
Payout amounts could not be verified for all of the cases, and the school district declined to verify total payout amounts for any case when asked by The Sun News.
One of the largest settlement offers in the district was announced earlier this summer. In July, five families were offered more than $100,000 for alleged physical abuse by a special education teacher at Ocean Bay Elementary. Two families were offered $150,000 each, and three families were offered $125,000 each, totaling $675,000 in offered settlement money.
In 2022, Ocean Bay Elementary Principal Rebecca Schroyer was placed on administrative leave for failing to report the abuse. Her charges were dismissed in 2023, and she was given a public reprimand. It was determined earlier this year that she could keep her educator certificate.
In 2023, $125,000 was paid out in a settlement regarding the sexual abuse of a special education student by a teacher, according to the Insurance Reserve Fund.
Four plaintiffs were offered a combined $96,215 in 2022 when five suits were brought against the district alleging the bullying of an Aynor special education student who ultimately committed suicide. These amounts were pending at the time of The Sun News’ last reporting, and the district declined to verify the final amounts.
Another case alleging the abuse of a special needs child at Forestbrook Elementary yielded a payout of $137,500, according to the Insurance Reserve Fund.
Other cases remain pending, according to online court records, such as the case of a special education teacher at St. James Intermediate school who allegedly pinned down a special needs student and sat on the student’s legs, leading to the teacher’s 2023 arrest.
Additionally, in April, a Daisy Elementary School paraprofessional allegedly grabbed, squeezed and shook a special needs student before putting his face close to the student’s and screaming at them, The Sun News previously reported. The complaint filed for this case states that an employee reported the abuse, but the child was left in the care of the abusive employee. No settlement has yet been announced for this case.
