Teen Sues Ex-Coach, School in Sex Case

A Glendale teenager who had sex with her basketball coach has sued him, her former private high school and its owner.

The girl and her parents filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It accuses Paul Calvin Clark III--convicted in June on four counts of sex with a minor--of manipulating the girl into an illegal sexual relationship, which she says began last year in his office at Ribet Academy, a private school in the Glassell Park area of Los Angeles.

Clark is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 10.

The girl is now 16. (The Times does not identify victims of sex crimes, or their families.) Clark is 35 and no longer works at Ribet.

The school and its owner, Ron Sires, ignored reports that Clark and the student were sexually involved, the teen and her parents contend in their lawsuit.

And in hiring Clark, Ribet failed to check his background, which contained reports of similarly inappropriate activity with underage students at other schools, the suit says.

The family is seeking a refund of the tuition paid to Ribet and unspecified monetary damages.

“The victim has been harmed and will definitely suffer further harm as an adult based upon what happened as a teenager,” the plaintiffs’ attorney, David Ring, said.

Sires denied Thursday that he or any school administrator was negligent in hiring Clark, and said Ribet officials received no reports of sexual misconduct. “This is a lawsuit without facts supporting it,” Sires said, adding he and fellow administrators are “outraged” by the suit and plan to countersue the plaintiffs and their attorney for defamation and other causes.

Clark’s attorney, Robert M. Bernstein, said, “We believe that this demonstrates exactly what we said [during the criminal trial], that [the girl’s family is] seeking financial gain out of this and that was the reason they pursued criminal prosecution.”