$200,000 for Teacher in Harassment Suit

An Oceanside junior high school teacher will receive a $200,000 cash settlement of a sexual-harassment lawsuit against the Oceanside Unified School District and a former school principal.

The settlement, approved by the school board in a special session Wednesday night, averted what was likely to have been a lengthy and painful trial, said Eileen McGeever, the teacher’s attorney.

In the suit filed in June, 1989, Karyl Ketchum, who had been the chairwoman of Jefferson Junior High’s science department and coach of the boys’ basketball team, accused Michael Walker, then principal of the school, of “unconsented to, improper and offensive touching and sexual overtures that had been rebuffed.”

Ketchum accused Walker of grabbing her buttocks during a June, 1988, intramu ral student-faculty basketball game in which Ketchum was the referee and Walker was a player.

“This was not a case such as Prof. (Anita) Hill’s where it was her word against (Judge Clarence Thomas’ word). We had a series of incidences and a series of witnesses,” said McGeever.

After Ketchum complained to Walker about his conduct, Walker told her that she would not be coaching any Jefferson sports the next year, the suit contended.

“The removal of her coaching job duties was intolerable to her, and she is a strong person, although I think she would tell you that this ordeal of two years of litigation has taken a lot out of her,” McGeever said.

The suit, which does not include an admission of guilt, accused the school district of investigating in bad faith the basketball game incident and Ketchum’s removal as coach.

“I am pleased that we were able to resolve this case without having to undergo what we estimated to be a three-week trial,” McGeever said.

Most sexual harassment cases do not go to trial, and “many (victims of sexual harassment) think it’s not worth the pain or the ordeal,” McGeever said. “They try to diffuse the situation, look the other way or find other employment. . . . Basically, they do anything to avoid lengthy litigation.”.

Since the incident, Ketchum, who began working in the district in 1985, has taken on duties as a physical education teacher at three of the district’s elementary schools, and Walker resigned from the district a year ago to pursue private business interests, said Dan Armstrong, spokesman for the school district.

Armstrong said the district may pay out as little as $25,000 in the settlement, and insurance companies cover the rest.

No revisions in the district’s sexual-harassment policy are being considered, Armstrong said.

Ketchum and attorneys for the school district could not be reached for comment.