Bay Shore district to pay $20 million over sexual abuse allegations made by five former students

The Bay Shore school district will pay $20.25 million to five former students who accused school administrators of not doing enough to prevent a third grade teacher from allegedly sexually abusing them decades ago, documents show.

Bay Shore’s board of education will meet Tuesday to approve a bond to cover the payouts, Superintendent Steven Maloney said in a letter to the community last week, without disclosing the settlement figures.

Bay Shore sent Maloney’s letter on Thursday, an hour after the district provided Newsday copies of the five settlements in response to a Freedom of Information Law request that had been submitted in August.

Bay Shore has agreed to pay $4.5 million to one former student and $3.9 million to each of the other four men in settlements approved by the school board in August, records show.  

Each former student alleged a teacher, Thomas Bernagozzi, who retired in 2000 after a 30-year career, sexually abused them. The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office charged Bernagozzi, 75, with sodomy, sexual conduct against a child and possession of child sexual abuse material. The charges stem from allegations made in the litigation.

Bernagozzi has pleaded not guilty and awaits a criminal trial.

Bay Shore faced 45 Child Victims Act lawsuits citing Bernagozzi, the most of any Long Island district. As the cases advance through the legal system, the settlements could set the stage for future lawsuit resolutions. The district, with about 5,500 students on the South Shore of Western Suffolk County, has an annual budget of $197 million.

The five individual settlement amounts rank among the largest payments by a Long Island district in a Child Victims Act lawsuit settlement, according to Newsday’s database of cases.

The Child Victims Act is a state law that opened a temporary window for alleged victims of child sex abuse to file claims seeking damages. The window to file lawsuits ended in 2021. Before the law, victims of childhood sexual abuse could not file claims once they turned 23 years old.

"The Board of Education is committed to fulfilling the District’s legal obligations in a manner that preserves our students’ academic and extracurricular opportunities, while minimizing the financial burden on our residents," Maloney wrote in his letter.

Maloney did not respond to questions for this article. Board president Louis Bettinelli, who signed the settlement agreements on behalf of the district, declined to comment.

The district previously told residents in March it has insurance coverage for six of the 45 cases and is in dispute with insurance companies for 11 other cases involving the extent of that coverage. Two of the cases covered by insurance have been settled, records show. The financial payouts have not been made public.

Bay Shore also has paid $1.4 million to three law firms for work related to the lawsuits, through June, according to records Newsday obtained. 

Tonya Wyss, a parent who has been outspoken at board meetings about the district's response to the lawsuits, said administrators and board members need to be more transparent about their plans to fund the settlements.

"We are completely in the dark," she said.

The 45 former students who filed lawsuits against Bay Shore all said Bernagozzi abused them. The allegations in those lawsuits occurred in nearly every year he taught at Bay Shore’s Gardiner Manor and Mary G. Clarkson elementary schools.

Suffolk police arrested Bernagozzi at his Babylon home in December 2023, about a month after a Newsday investigation revealed his place in the lawsuits in an article about the potential financial impact of the Child Victims Act lawsuits on Long Island districts.

Suffolk prosecutors have referred to Bernagozzi as "a serial child abuser" accused of sexually abusing scores of male students between the ages of 4 and 12. Many of the claims fell outside of the window for criminal prosecution, prosecutors said.

Bernagozzi has denied the former students' allegations in court papers. He is due back in court Thursday. He faces the possibility of being sentenced to as much as 70 years in prison if convicted of all charges, according to Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Dana Castaldo.

Attorney Andrew Silvershein, who represents most of the 45 former students suing the district, said the settlements represent another step toward closure for the men. Four of the former students said in court papers that Bernagozzi abused them in the 1980s and the other said the teacher abused him in the early 1990s.

"I am glad that these five brave survivors are finally able to close this chapter and continue their healing journey," said Silvershein, an attorney with Herman Law, based in Manhattan. "Unfortunately, there is no amount of money that can take away what happened to them, but the hope is that this compensation is representative of a measure of justice."

A Newsday investigation published in March found Bay Shore kept Bernagozzi employed despite sexual abuse allegations that were raised throughout his career. The settlement agreements also noted the district "has denied all allegations," "continues to deny any and all liability" and the settlement payout is "not to be considered as an admission of any liability or responsibility whatsoever."

Long Island districts have now paid $111.2 million to settle 89 Child Victims Act lawsuits, according to Newsday's analysis of the settlements. Nearly 100 lawsuits still remain active, including 38 against Bay Shore.

To date, the Herricks district has paid the most. Records show Herricks paid $48.3 million to 27 former students. The individual settlements ranged from $50,000 to $5 million and averaged $1.8 million. In another case, a jury determined the school district wasn't negligent and Herricks didn't pay any money. That remains the only case against a school district that completed a trial.

Jury selection is set to begin in the next civil trial involving Bay Shore later this month — barring a settlement.

By Jim Baumbach

jim.baumbach@newsday.com

Jim Baumbach is an award-winning investigative reporter at Newsday, where he has worked since 1998. He spent two decades in the sports department, where he covered every professional team and league, including events such as the Super Bowl and World Series.