Teacher Modifies Suit Against Pupils

A Ventura High School English teacher who filed a lawsuit in December against two of her students has dropped one of the students from the case and has withdrawn efforts to seek punitive damages against the other one.

Sue McEwen sued juniors Matthew Lee and Cliff Hawthorne, whom she accused of duplicating a rubber stamp she uses to validate homework assignments.

At the time, McEwen said she was seeking $750 in damages in a case involving forgery, fraud and invasion of privacy. But court documents revealed she was seeking punitive damages of $1 million in addition to general damages. She is now seeking to drop Hawthorne and her punitive damage claim from the suit.

“Apparently the teacher is getting more realistic about the value of the case,” said Donald Everhart, a Camarillo attorney representing Lee. “When she reduces the value to zero, she’ll be right on. This case has no business in the courts, and it certainly has no business in Superior Court.”

On Wednesday, McEwen referred questions to her attorney, who could not be reached for comment.

In October, Lee allegedly made an impression of McEwen’s rubber stamp and had a duplicate stamp made. The lawsuit initially accused Hawthorne of acting in concert with Lee. The students were caught before they were able to use the stamp. They were expelled from McEwen’s class and given a failing grade for the semester, which would show up on their permanent records.

But Lee’s parents argued that the punishment was too severe and hired an attorney to take the matter up with the Ventura Unified School District. The district eventually agreed that the initial punishment was unlawful, and the students were given a failing grade on their quarterly report cards. Quarterly “F” grades do not show up on a student’s permanent record.

McEwen said the parents’ actions pushed her to sue.

The school district hired a mediator to resolve the dispute, but a tentative settlement reached in February fell apart after McEwen publicly said she had been vindicated.