Irvine schools will pay parents alleging graft

Settling a complaint by parents who said they were forced to lavish $100,000 worth of gifts on school personnel to ensure that their severely autistic son received proper care, the Irvine Unified school board voted unanimously Tuesday to spend an unspecified amount of money on the child’s educational needs.

The Board of Trustees also voted to consider creating a policy restricting gifts to teachers and other employees.

“It’s important that we address this and determine what’s a realistic type of policy, evaluate what else is out there and determine an effective way to communicate it with the city,” said board President Michael Parham.

The moves were sparked by a Nov. 2 claim filed against the district by Thomas and Liya Lin, who said they were forced to shower employees at Canyon View Elementary School with diamonds, Coach bags, Chanel perfume and other extravagant gifts to make sure their son Jonathan, now 7, received proper schooling. The couple eventually pulled the boy, who could not speak and was not toilet-trained, out of Canyon View in June to educate him at home.

The Irvine couple, who initially alleged that they spent $100,000 on the presents, dropped the gifts claim when a proposed settlement with the district was announced in December.

Under the settlement approved Tuesday, the district will spend an unspecified amount reimbursing the parents for their child’s educational care and attorney fees. The settlement was included in two agenda items covering several special-education students that totaled more than $293,000, but district officials refused to reveal how much of that was for the Lins.

“What we’re talking about are educational services for this child, and both sides agreed that should be confidential,” district spokesman Ian Hanigan said.

The board voted to form a committee representing teachers, parents and others to consider setting a gifts policy.

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seema.mehta@latimes.com