The mother of a 10-year-old girl sexually abused by a former teacher at a Baltimore Catholic elementary school filed a $6 million lawsuit yesterday contending that the Archdiocese of Baltimore could have prevented more incidents of abuse had it acted sooner on complaints from his pupils.

The lawsuit filed in Baltimore Circuit Court by the Suder law firm is the first to be filed on behalf of pupils at St. Thomas Aquinas School who claimed their former teacher, David A. Czajkowski, sexually abused them. It seeks $1 million in compensation for psychological trauma and $5 million in punitive damages.

The fourth-grade teacher was charged Feb. 28 with child abuse, third- and fourth-degree sex offenses and second-degree assault stemming from the abuse of a 9-year-old girl Feb. 12.

Czajkowski, 38, pleaded guilty in May to three counts of child sexual abuse for fondling fourth- and fifth-grade pupils at the Hampden school. He was sentenced to five years in prison in August.

Other defendants in the lawsuit include Czajkowski, Cardinal William H. Keeler and school officials, including the St. Thomas Aquinas principal, Sister Marie Rose Gustatus.

The mother of the 9-year-old girl, now 10, filed yesterday's lawsuit alleging that the archdiocese knew about Czajkowski's "pedophiliac predilections."

The lawsuit alleges that as early as last winter the defendants became aware of the abuse when a pupil told Gustatus that she was fondled by him. The lawsuit claims the pupil was told by Gustatus that Czajkowski had been placed on probation and that she "needn't worry further about the matter." Czajkowski was never placed on probation, according to the lawsuit.

On Feb. 12, according to the lawsuit, the 9-year-old girl told Gustatus that Czajkowski had fondled her. According to the suit, Gustatus told her that she would "take care of it" and sent her back to Czajkowski's class. The next day, the girl reported the abuse again, this time to a school counselor.

Czajkowski, a resident of the 3000 block of Bayonne Ave. in Hamilton, was suspended Feb. 19. He was accused of abusing 11 girls at the school and at his house between Sept. 4 last year and February. He worked at the school from September 2000 until his suspension. He was fired March 4.

"It's pretty egregious that the archdiocese knew about this man's propensity for pedophiliac activity in the classroom and they did nothing about it," said attorney Thomas McNicholas.

The Sun is not identifying the mother to protect the privacy of her daughter.

The archdiocese has not had an opportunity to review the lawsuit, but spokesman Stephen Kearney called Czajkowski's behavior "reprehensible," adding that his "subsequent conviction and prison sentence are the proper consequences for his actions and for anyone who harms children this way."