Bay Area Special Needs Student Abuse Case Settled for $8 Million

Teacher accused of physical, emotional and verbally mistreating them

San Francisco -- A Bay Area school district will pay $8 million to the families of eight kindergartners with special needs whom a teacher allegedly physically, verbally and mentally abused.

Antioch Unified School District announced the settlement on Wednesday. It resolves a federal complaint that parents filed earlier this year against the district and its employees.

The families claimed that kindergarten teacher Theresa Allen-Caulboy held a 5-year-old boy to the ground with her knee and "gouged his face," and pinched another student's nipples and called him a "retard."