Lilydale landslide: District to pay victims' families $200K

Court documents reveal St. Louis Park Public Schools will pay $200,000 to the families of students killed and injured by a landslide during a school field trip last year.

Fourth-graders Haysem Sani and Mohamed Fofana died when part of a Mississippi River bluff collapsed on them in St. Paul's Lilydale Regional Park. Each of their families will get $80,000 in a legal settlement from the school district.

Another student, Devin Meldahl, suffered skull, rib and leg fractures in the incident. He'll get $40,000 dollars from the district.

MPR News first reported the settlement had been reached last week, but the district refused to release details, citing student privacy laws. Legal settlements involving minors need court approval, though, and those documents are public.

The district's $200,000 settlement is far smaller than the one the families reached with the city of St. Paul, which runs the park. It totaled $1 million.