The settlement ends four years of litigation in a case filed by men who testified they were sexually abused and exploited by former New Hanover County Schools teacher Michael Earl Kelly. In addition to the $5.75 million, paid exclusively by Liberty Mutual and its subsidiaries, the school has agreed to expand training on recognizing and reporting abuse and publishing a report on its efforts to improve Title IX compliance and sexual abuse prevention. The school board expressed "sorrow" over the damage done by Kelly, but its statement did not include an apology or an admission of wrongdoing.
Note: This report contains discussions of sexual abuse, self-harm, and suicide. If you or anyone you know is in crisis, call the mental health hotline at 98 .
On a Tuesday evening in February 2018, I got a phone call from a Sheriff’s Deputy. We talked briefly. They told me that a teacher named Michael Earl Kelly had been arrested, that the charges were serious, and that there was more to come. I asked how serious. The deputy said only, “it’s bad.”
Criminal investigation and civil litigation involving New Hanover County Schools district have dragged on for four years. That’s left the survivors of sexual abuse by former teacher Michael Earl Kelly in limbo, struggling "minute by minute," as one young man put it. For them, justice, healing, and closure are taking a very long time.