Good evening from the KUOW Newsroom. This is Seattle Now. Page Browning here with your news on a nice and sunny May Day. Here are today's top stories. It's Thursday, May 9th.

Starting with Catholic sexual abuse cases, lawyers for the state of Washington are suing the Seattle Archdiocese over how it handled child sex abuse cases within the church.

Gustavo Suggero is here to tell us more.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson says this is the first of what could be three lawsuits spanning all divisions of the Catholic Church in the state.

This is all happening amid a month's long investigation.

The AG's office has been trying to figure out whether various diocese in the state covered up systemic sexual abuses and shielded priests using charitable trust funds.

The Seattle Archdiocese says it welcomes the investigation and was working

with the AG's office. But what they've given is not enough for the state investigators. In 2019,

the Vatican lifted its secrecy rules for sex abuse cases. And since then, the Seattle Archdiocese says

there have been no reports of sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adults. Gustavo Segredo,

KUOWW News.

Elementary school parents are reeling from the news about possible Seattle school closures.

After months of speculation, Seattle school officials have come out with a proposal to close 20

elementary schools by the fall of 2025, leading up to this, enrollment going down, and a budget crisis.

Sammy West has more today.

Superintendent Brent Jones says downsizing the district's footprint is key to getting out of this

structural deficit. He says spreading students more evenly across a smaller number of schools

will help the district operate more efficiently

and even better serve students. We can have all schools providing equitable and consistent

mix of services to more students. We can have consistent, stable, and comprehensive school

staffing. This week, the school board gave Jones the go-ahead to create a list of which

elementary schools to

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