A San Jose school district will pay $5.75 million to settle a lawsuit over the district's handling of allegations that a teacher impregnated a student decades ago, forced her to have an abortion, and continued to abuse her, her attorneys announced.

The lawsuit was filed in April 2024 against the Campbell Union High School District and Shawn Thomas, a former teacher at Leigh High School and a football and track coach at Los Gatos High School. Thomas was arrested in March 2024 after a woman alleged he sexually abused her between 2002 and 2003 when she was a 15-year-old student at Leigh. His arrest came after the survivor's sister urged her to come forward and report the abuse more than two decades later.

Attorneys for the survivor announced the settlement on Tuesday, saying "Leigh High School had every opportunity to prevent the abuse."  

"There were red flags everywhere that Shawn Thomas was a sexual predator," said attorney Lauren Cerri in a prepared statement. "Even worse, a direct report was made by my client and completely ignored." 

The survivor's name was withheld to protect her identity.  

According to the woman's lawsuit, Thomas allegedly groomed her for his sexual advances and then engaged in sexual intercourse with her in his portable classroom and in a storage room within the boys' locker room. She later disclosed to Sarah Thomas, the school's dean and Thomas's wife, that her husband had been having sexual intercourse with her, and Sarah Thomas responded by blaming the student, asking her how she could do this after all she had done for her, according to the complaint.

"This settlement is one more step toward my sister reclaiming her life after the immense harm she endured," the woman's sister said in a prepared statement. "While nothing can undo what happened, we are grateful that the district is finally being held accountable for its failures. Our hope is that this moment not only helps my sister move forward, but also ensures that no other student is ever ignored or unprotected in the way she was."

"It has impacted every facet of her life," Cerri told CBS News Bay Area at the time the lawsuit was filed. "It has changed the trajectory of her life."

The lawsuit accused the CUHSD of failing to respond to complaints of Thomas's alleged misconduct and grooming behaviors with students, such as isolating them, giving them rides in his personal vehicle to and from campus during school hours, and making inappropriate comments to them. The lawsuit says the district also failed to properly investigate allegations that Thomas had sexual intercourse with a student, failed to report the suspicion of child abuse to law enforcement, and failed to educate staffers on identifying inappropriate grooming behavior with students.

CBS News Bay Area reached out to the Campbell Union High School District on Tuesday for a statement or response to the lawsuit settlement. Last year, the district noted that while its current leadership team was not at the district in 2003, it took the allegations seriously and was cooperating with law enforcement throughout their investigation.

Thomas's criminal trial is scheduled for February.