$610,000 is nothing really. they must have been poor people. They could have had an extra 0 onto that.
Can see how someone might not be interested in bankrupting a public school. Shouldn't have been about money at all, except maybe covering legal fees, but rather privacy laws. 400 images is two weeks; someone was perving on that kid pretty hard. Didn't see where anyone even lost their job, much less received any jail time.
If someone lost their job over it, it probably would have been handled quietly, like a teacher being strongly encouraged to take an early retirement, because there are teacher's unions who will back their teachers no matter what.
When I had the job as a bus assistant, I was strongly encouraged to join a union for bus drivers and assistants. I was told that if I joined and then was ever sued for
any reason having to do with my job, the union would hire a lawyer for me. The school district would give me legal representation to the extent I acted as their agent, so if I was acting within my job description, I would be covered by the school district, so I didn't join the union.
When the special education teacher physically abused my daughter by putting soap in her mouth and then choking her, she was not acting within the scope of her employment and therefore could have been sued personally, but we didn't sue because what we wanted was to get our daughter the hell away from this special education teacher and the school, which had become associated with some horrible memories for her.