Another Oklahoma school district paying up over accusations of student abuse

Adults at Wewoka Middle School had seen Principal Cody Barlow acting strangely around boys before.

It became known as Barlow being Barlow.

"We were just all talking about how the horse-playing needs to stop," one former teacher recalled about a discussion in October 2022. "That, you know, it's getting ridiculous because we can't do our job as teachers and be serious when the principal is not."

The next day, a school counselor reported Barlow to the superintendent.

That led to a criminal case against Barlow and a lawsuit against him and the school district. The criminal case is still pending. The lawsuit has been settled for $1.95 million.

A federal magistrate judge in Muskogee last week approved equal tax-free payments to four boys for their personal physical injuries at the school.

"The size of this settlement represents the gravity of the damage done to four young boys," said their lead attorney, Cameron Spradling, of Oklahoma City. "And it highlights again the extreme malfeasance and neglect by school officials who turn a blind eye to criminal conduct and fail to protect our Oklahoma children."

The outcome is the third known major settlement of a civil case against an Oklahoma school district in the last six months. A federal lawsuit over hazing and bullying inside the Kingfisher High School football program was settled in November for $5 million.

Wewoka is a small city in a rural part of the state southeast of Oklahoma City. The school district has about 650 students.

More: A teacher's sexual misconduct in a small Oklahoma town results in $2.6M lawsuit settlement

The school district denied liability in the case but reached the settlement in March, court records show. The lawsuit alleged the school district "failed to provide an environment free of sexual predators."

The boy's attorneys specifically questioned whether employees were adequately trained to recognize grooming behavior. The superintendent acknowledged in a deposition in January that changes have been made.

"We have it," Superintendent Shellie Gammill testified about training on grooming.

"I know our teachers said that we didn't. And I've already spoken to our committee about the importance of us breaking that down and using that language with our teachers because we, we talk about that. We just didn't talk about it as grooming and what that is.

"We have had additional training and clarified what grooming (is) and what it looks like."

The counselor who reported Barlow testified she only did so after hearing the school resource officer from the Wewoka Police Department give a talk to all the boys in the school.

One of the boys from the lawsuit told The Oklahoman last year that school employees should have recognized the red flags.

“They should have noticed right then when he was slapping (boys) on the butt and locking the door and closing the blinds,” he said. “They should have known right then and there that it’s not right.”

Barlow, now 34, became principal at the middle school during the 2019-2020 school year. He had been a math teacher at the high school before that. He replaced a principal who, the superintendent said, was more interested in his rock band than student achievement. Barlow resigned in November 2022.

Barlow also was the youth pastor at the First Baptist Church of Wewoka.

He is accused in his criminal case of lewd acts with three boys. A jury trial is set for Sept. 23 in Seminole County District Court.

One of the boys testified at a preliminary hearing that the principal touched his private parts above his clothes three times at the school. Barlow's attorneys called the testimony unbelievable.

"He never hurt anybody," defense attorney Richard E. Butner said last year after Barlow was first charged. "He wouldn't hurt these children. He looks forward to the opportunity to vindicate himself."

The lawsuit involved the three boys from the criminal case and one other. The lawsuit alleged there were other victims.

The first $1 million of the settlement will be paid by the district "or another entity on its behalf," according to the judge's order. That language is an indication some or all of the first payment is coming from insurance.

The rest will be paid out over three years from the school district's sinking fund. That means a hike in property taxes in the school district is likely.

The former principal was not a part of the settlement. The civil claims against him were dismissed with prejudice last week so they would not interfere with the criminal case, Spradling said.

In a news release Wednesday, Wewoka Public Schools said the school board settled because of the risk of going to trial.

"An adverse outcome at trial had the potential to cause catastrophic disruption of the School District’s financial situation which would have a lasting negative impact on the quality of educational services provided to students."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Civil lawsuit against Wewoka Public Schools settled for $1.95M