County to Pay $25,000 to Family of Youth Who Said Principal Choked Him

The Orange County Department of Education has agreed to pay $25,000 to the family of a teen-ager who claimed that his high school principal hit and choked him, the family’s lawyer said Thursday.

Jerome Barnes of Santa Ana charged in a lawsuit that Yale Community High School Principal Martin R. Young, 52, “began to strike, grab and choke” him after “falsely” accusing the then-15-year-old of placing a thumbtack on an instructor’s chair in December, 1991. Yale Community High is a school for students with disciplinary problems.

Young denied the accusation when the suit was filed and admits no guilt in the settlement, which is scheduled to be approved by a county Superior Court judge on May 4, according to Barnes’ attorney, Bryant K. Calloway.

Several months after the incident, Young left his job at Yale for an administrative position with a high school in Needles. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.

A spokesman for the Orange County Department of Education referred questions to the county’s outside attorney, who also was not available for comment.

Calloway said the Barnes family is extremely happy with the settlement. Jerome Barnes has “gotten over the incident and is doing well in his studies,” he said.