North Country area school district ordered to pay hefty sum over sex abuse claims made by former student

LEWIS COUNTY- A local North Country school district will be paying a hefty sum to a former student who has come forward with sexual abuse claims.

According to the latest reporting via WWNY-TV, the Harrisville Central School District has been ordered by the state to pay $3.5 million to a plaintiff - identified in court records as “E.L.”

Bette Shampine, E.L’.s third-grade teacher, was the teacher identified for being responsible, according to court records.

The abuse reportedly began in 1981 when E.L. was only 9-years-old.

While employed at Harrisville CSD, court documents say that Shampine was “a serial sexual predator who sexually assaulted and abused plaintiff and many other students.”

According to the lawsuit filed in 2021, E.L. reported the abuse to his parents, who notified the school’s principal at the time, Edward Shafer.

According further to the lawsuit, Shafer “called E.L. into his office and threatened to hold back plaintiff for an additional year of third grade if plaintiff continued to complain about Shampine.”

E.L. alleged that school administrators took no action and made him repeat the third-grade, ultimately remaining in Shampine’s class.

Court documents claimed Shampine continued to sexually assault him in the classroom and in the boys’ restroom for the next two years.

The court said that E.L. now suffers from “severe and permanent psychological, emotional and physical injuries, shame, humiliation and the inability to lead a normal life.”

In February, 2018, Shampine died in a house fire in Carthage, NY. According to her obituary, she worked as an elementary teacher for the Harrisville Central School District for 31-years.

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