Hilton school insurers to pay out millions because of predatory principal
By Gary Craig, Newspaper Guild of Rochester
Kirk Ashton
Insurers for the Hilton Central School District will be paying out millions of dollars to settle lawsuits stemming from the abuse of students by a predatory elementary school principal.
The sexual abuse of students by former Northwood Elementary School Principal Kirk Ashton triggered a bevy of federal and state lawsuits, totaling well over two dozen. Some of those who sued were not among the victims in the criminal case against Ashton.
A review of hundreds of pages of court records shows that multiple lawsuits have settled and others are nearing settlement. Still, new lawsuits have been filed in recent months.
Typically settlements of this sort are sealed as they are paid out by an insurer and involve a youth who, as with these lawsuits, is not named in the legal filings. But it is clear that some of the settlements are reaching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, based on the severity of the abuse.
Ashton is now serving a sentence that, while set at 63 years, is actually capped at 20. The disparity is not the cause of sentencing statutes but instead corrections department regulations that limit how long a sentence can be with lower-level felonies like those of Ashton.
Ashton’s most serious conviction charges were sexual abuse in the first-degree, a D felony in which a child under 11 is the victim of sexual contact.
At a 2022 trial a jury convicted Ashton of multiple counts of sexual abuse and other criminal charges after painful testimony from his victims and their families. Some spoke of suicidal thoughts as they grew older, while questions were largely left unanswered as to how the school staff remained so ignorant of Ashton’s predatory ways.
Ashton would often invite young students into his office, under claims that this was a reward for their behaviors, then fondle them as they sat on his lap.
Court records show that annuities are typically being established with the settlements for those victims who have yet to reach adult ages. Some attorneys informed clients that settlements, versus trials, could be a better route as a resolution because a jury verdict could require Ashton, who is now imprisoned and divorced, to shoulder a portion of the award as well as the school district.
As well, parents feared retraumatizing their children with further testimony at a civil trial.
Ashton was the principal at Northwood Elementary School between 2004 and April 2021 and was suspended after he was accused of sexually abusing students at the school, dating back to 2014. He was accused of the abuse of boys between 8 and 12 years old.