CENTINELA SCHOOLS : District Settles Job Bias Lawsuit for $425,000

Former Hawthorne High School Principal Kenneth Crowe, who two years ago charged the Centinela Valley Union High School District with racial discrimination, has reached a $425,000 settlement with the district.

Two years ago this week, Crowe’s charges of racism at Hawthorne High School sparked two days of student walk-outs and fights. Crowe and another employee, Jerome Brown, brought federal suit against the district in Los Angeles in 1991, and at least 12 other African American employees filed racial discrimination complaints against the district in the months afterward.

In a separate settlement, Brown agreed to $75,000 last week.

The spate of discrimination suits led to investigations by state and federal civil rights and employment agencies, which concluded that the Centinela Valley district had maintained a “racially hostile environment” for its students, teachers and administrators.

Centinela Valley School officials referred questions about the settlement to their attorney, Michael Declues, who could not be reached for comment.

William G. Shaeffer, attorney for Crowe and Brown, said his clients were “thoroughly satisfied” and felt vindicated by the settlements. “Everyone who’s looked at these cases has found race discrimination and race harassment.”

The adverse findings by state and federal investigators swung the odds heavily in his clients’ favor, Shaeffer said, and the district was eager to avoid going to court.

“Dr. Crowe had a trial scheduled to commence April 26 and they had pretrial motions that needed to be filed by April 5th--that’s what really caused the resolution of this,” he said.

Crowe, who resigned in 1990, is principal at Inglewood High School.

Brown left the district in 1991 and is working in Las Vegas, Shaeffer said.