Girls Name Ex-Teacher, District in Sexual Harassment Suit

Four teen-age girls and their parents filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a former teacher who was sentenced in February after admitting to fondling and making suggestive remarks to female students at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton.

The lawsuit also names the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, the district administrator, the acting assistant superintendent and the principal and vice principal of the high school, saying they did not properly handle the complaints against George Melvin Fairchild, 53.

According to the lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court, Fairchild exposed himself to one girl, repeatedly fondled the girls’ breasts, humiliated them in front of classmates and called one of them at home asking her for sex.

Two of the girls said the harassment took place while they were asked to assist Fairchild as his instructional aides, according to the lawsuit.

Fairchild--who taught science and math and worked as an athletic coach at the high school for 28 years--was sentenced to three years’ probation and lost his teaching credentials in February after pleading guilty to fondling three teen-age girls and making suggestive comments to two girls.

According to the suit, the school administrators failed to file a report with Child Protective Services about the allegations against Fairchild; the suit says they also failed to do so when a similar complaint was made about the teacher in 1988.

In addition to Fairchild, the suit names several school district officials. By allowing Fairchild to continue working, the administrators led parents to believe that he was fit as a teacher, the suit says. It also states that the administrators should have warned parents of earlier complaints against Fairchild.