As Ex-Con Teacher Faces Rape Charges, Employer Faces Lawsuit
by Jim Brown
July 11, 2005
(AgapePress) - A six-million-dollar lawsuit has been filed against a Maryland private school, its principal, and one of its former teachers, who is currently awaiting trial on charges of rape and sexual abuse of three teenage girls.The lawsuits, filed on behalf of a 13-year-old victim and her mother, alleges that Principal Christina Holtsclaw showed deliberate indifference or reckless disregard for the safety of the student body of Community Initiatives Academy in Baltimore. Holtsclaw hired convicted murderer Charles Carroll to teach at the Academy in 2002, without notifying parents about his violent criminal history.
Carroll was found guilty of second-degree murder stemming from a fight in 1995. He got out of prison in 2001 and was hired at the school about a year later under the supervision of parole and probation officers. He is now being held without bail for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl in a school classroom, and also stands accused of having sexually abused two other girls, a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old.
The allegations have upset parents, some of whom expressed anger after learning that Holtsclaw knew Carroll had served time for murder. The young rape victim's attorney, John Amato IV, says Holtsclaw is still defending her decision to hire the convicted killer. "She was quoted on May 7 as saying that, although she was aware of the second-degree murder conviction, it wasn't a crime that involved children, so she hired him," Amato says. However, he insists, "It doesn't matter to me in the slightest that the prior victim was not a child. You're still dealing with a convicted felon. The parents and students have a right to know."
The plaintiff's attorney has filed a claim for one million dollars in compensatory damages and five million dollars in punitive damages. He says he filed the suit because the principal continues, outrageously, to justify her decision to hire Carroll, claiming the murder he committed was in self defense and that she felt he deserved a second chance.
But Amato feels these arguments do not hold up. "Obviously," he points out, "a court or a jury rejected any idea of self-defense at the time, or he wouldn't have been convicted of second-degree murder. So the outrageous part of this thing is the fact that [Holtsclaw] appointed herself the decision-maker."
The principal of Community Initiatives Academy did this, Amato contends, in two ways. One, he says, was by deciding, since Carroll's murder victim was not a child, that his felony record "wasn't something that she needed to share." And secondly, the lawyer notes, Principal Holtsclaw "made her own assessment as to whether or not there was a self-defense claim involved as a part of that prior crime."
Carroll is scheduled to stand trial next month on multiple rape and sexual abuse charges. Meanwhile, WBAL News (Baltimore) reports that Maryland School Superintendent Nancy Grasmick wants her state board to address private schools and discuss options to improve their safety within the coming weeks.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
