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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Flint schools settle teacher's sexual harassment lawsuit for $600,000
By Gary Ridley | gridley@mlive.com
on February 21, 2013 at 3:30 PM, updated February 21, 2013 at 4:31 PM
FLINT, MI -- Flint schools have agreed to a $600,000 settlement in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought against a former district principal by a teacher, according to the attorney that filed the case.
Attorney Glen Lenhoff, who represented teacher Kelly Caudell in the case, said former Northwestern High principal Fred White began harassing the then-probationary teacher after she ended a sexual relationship with him.
"Both parties in this case agreed to settle this matter for an amount determined through a court process called case evaluation," Flint school spokesperson Robert Campbell said in a statement emailed to The Flint Journal. "Flint Community Schools is pleased that this matter could be resolved without going to trial."
White, who is no longer employed by the district, declined to comment on the case.
Campbell said White retired in June 2011.
Lenhoff said White began pulling Caudell out of her classroom during the school day, come to her home, follow her and ask other teachers about her personal life.
White allegedly threatened to fire Caudell if she did not go along with his romantic advances, Lenhoff said.
Lenhoff added that it was an "outrage" that Caudell was subjected to harassment from a school principal.
She is currently on sick leave due to a failed November 2011 suicide attempt, said Lenhoff.
Flint School Board member David Davenport said he didn’t think the district should have settled the lawsuit.
“I disagreed with the settlement,” Davenport said. “I think we as a district should have fought it.”
Davenport said the evidence in the case would have exonerated the district of any wrongdoing if it would have went to trial.
The district’s insurance policy will cover most of the cost of the settlement but the district will still be required to pay $25,000, Davenport said.
The district in 2012 learned the district has a multi-million deficit for the second year in a row.
In October 2010, White was placed on administrative leave with the district pending an investigation into a complaint made by another staff member.
The district declined to provide further information on the nature of the complaint at the time.
White was suspended once before in October 2009 after a student made accusations that the principal choked him at school, but he returned to work after the district cleared him of wrongdoing. No criminal charges were filed in that case after prosecutors reviewed video surveillance footage. |
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Thu Feb 21, 2013 6:41 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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jtbagel2
Unfortunately if you have a superior position in the "consensual" relationship the courts do not look at a relationship as equal. In addition, if you throw in a suicide attempt, you are looking at a huge settlement if you go to trial. $600,000 is a bargain compared to what Glenn Lenhoff would have gotten if they went to court. Local juries are quite liberal in their settlement amounts if they think the boss was in the wrong. Any time a Principal has a relationship with a subordinate such as a teacher and it goes sour, the onus is on the School Leadership and the Board and not the employee to prove it was not harassment. |
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Thu Feb 21, 2013 6:44 pm |
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