QVSD Pays $765,834.77 to Close the Larson Case

The Quillayute Valley School District has paid $765,834.77 to former assistant cross-country coach Kari Larson, formally closing the books on the federal lawsuit that exposed years of institutional failure inside the Forks school system.

A Satisfaction of Judgment filed July 2 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma confirms that the district has paid the April 10 judgment and the June 2 supplemental judgment in full, including interest, court costs, and attorneys' fees. 

The filing, signed by Larson's attorney Daniel C. Gallagher of Bainbridge Island, acknowledges receipt of full payment and states that QVSD "has Satisfied the Judgment" in the case.

The payment is the final chapter of Larson v. Quillayute Valley School District No. 402, the lawsuit that culminated in an eight-person jury finding the district liable in April for subjecting Larson to a hostile work environment under the Washington Law Against Discrimination. 

The jury awarded Larson $250,000 in damages. Once the court added her attorneys' fees, litigation costs, and interest in the supplemental judgment, the district's total obligation more than tripled, to $765,834.77.

Larson, a 2015 Forks High School graduate, sued the district and cross-country coach Brian Weekes in August 2024, and added Title IX Coordinator Kyle Weakley as a defendant in an amended complaint in February 2025. 

She alleged that Weekes subjected her to persistent unwanted physical contact, offensive messages, and sexually suggestive comments after she was hired in 2017 as his assistant coach. Weekes denied the allegations. 

At trial, Larson testified that Weekes used post-workout "stretching" routines as cover for inappropriate physical contact. 

Her amended complaint further alleged that the district had prior knowledge of other reports of inappropriate conduct involving Weekes and failed to follow its own policies in addressing them.

Readers of the Herald will recognize the pattern. Our investigation into more than two decades of internal district records, published in April, documented an administration that repeatedly prioritized quiet resignations and liability management over safety and transparency. 

The Larson trial put that playbook in front of a federal jury for the first time, and the jury did not buy it.

Now the community is paying for it, literally. Public school districts do not have private fortunes. Whether the money comes from the district's risk pool, its insurance, or its operating reserves, the cost of QVSD's failures is ultimately borne by the public that funds it. 

What the payment does not buy is accountability. At the April 14 school board meeting, Larson's father, Rod Larson, told the board his daughter had been unable to return to work since the trial and noted that no board member attended the court proceedings. “She should be happy and relieved, but that is not the case,” he said. 

The satisfaction of judgment resolves the district’s legal debt to Kari Larson. It does not answer the questions parents have been asking since the verdict: what has changed, who has been held responsible, and why did it take a federal jury to force the issue.