School Sexual Harassment Suit Settled for $150,000

A high school psychologist’s sexual harassment lawsuit against the Simi Valley Unified School District and her principal has been settled out of court for $150,000, parties involved in the case confirmed Thursday.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, accused Apollo High School Principal Brad Greene of making advances until the woman was forced to accept a demotion and a transfer to escape him.

Plaintiff Sara Kopman-Davis said Thursday that despite the settlement, she is still angry about the district’s treatment of her complaints involving Greene and about its failure to take any action against him.

“It’s a travesty that they allow it to go on, because I know it will continue,” Kopman-Davis said. She added that attorney fees will consume about one-third of the settlement award, although the district covered Greene’s legal costs.

Associate Supt. Allan Jacobs said that to his knowledge, Kopman-Davis’ suit was the first sex-harassment case filed against the district.

Greene’s attorney, J. Jane Fox of Ventura, said only that the settlement involved no admission of guilt.

The case was settled Wednesday afternoon, almost a month after the parties negotiated a tentative agreement.

Final settlement was delayed by a disagreement over which details should be publicly disclosed. According to sources on both sides of the case, the school district originally planned to keep private all terms of the settlement--which it was agreed would be sealed by the court--including the monetary award. However, the district decided to disclose the amount after local newspapers mistakenly reported that the case was settled for $1 million--the amount Kopman-Davis originally sought, the sources said.

In her lawsuit, Kopman-Davis accused Greene of making sexually explicit remarks and fondling her in an effort to seduce her, despite her repeated rejections. She accused him of giving her a poor evaluation in the spring of 1987 after she rebuffed his advances at a professional conference.

Kopman-Davis said she sued after three district officials failed to act on her complaints. The officials--Supt. John Duncan, Jacobs, and former Assistant Supt. Robert Marcus, who has since retired--were dropped as defendants as part of the settlement.

The district claimed that the officials were unable to respond to Kopman-Davis’s complaints because she offered no corroborating evidence and they were faced with either believing her or Greene, both respected employees.

Greene, 48, has been employed by the district since 1967. As principal of Apollo High School, the city’s alternative high school, he supervises the instruction of 300 problem students.

Kopman-Davis, 32, joined the district in 1981. In the fall of 1987 she accepted a transfer from Apollo to Royal High School and a demotion from school psychologist to guidance counselor, which included a $4,000 cut in salary.