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The Associated Press
St. Paul, Minn.

Judge approves landslide victims' settlement

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Mohamed Fofana
Mohamed Fofana, 10, was killed in a landslide at Lilydale Regional Park in St. Paul, Minn. in May 2013.
Courtesy of Fofana family

A judge has approved the St. Louis Park school district's agreement to pay $200,000 to the families of the victims of a deadly landslide at a St. Paul park.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports the Hennepin County district judge approved the agreements Monday. The district will pay $80,000 each to the families of 9-year-old Haysem Sani and 10-year-old Mohamed Fofana, who died during a school field trip last May.

The family of Devin Meldahl, now 11, who was seriously injured, will receive $40,000.

MPR News first reported the settlement two weeks ago, 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.

Neither the school district nor the city admitted liability.

Haysem family attorney Paul Godlewski says the Haysems plan to use the settlement to establish an orphanage in their native Ethiopia.