The former principal of Baltimore's Maritime Industries Academy has filed a lawsuit against the city, several school system administrators, and the mother of one of his former students.
The lawsuit, filed by Marco T. Clark, contains accusations of civil conspiracy, defamation and violation of constitutional rights. It seeks $2.8 million in damages.
Faced with an allegation that he allowed a student to teach a class without a teacher, Clark was suspended and resigned from his job at the West Baltimore high school in December. He rescinded the resignation in early January, a day before it was to be effective, but system officials would not give him his job back.
The suit names Tonja Evans, a parent who brought complaints about the school - including charges of grade fabrication - to the attention of central office administrators. After Clark's suspension, the suit says, Evans made defamatory statements about the principal to school staff members and students. Evans emphatically denied the allegations.
Clark's attorney, Alan Silverberg, said his client was not available to comment yesterday.
Silverberg said that Clark had always received satisfactory evaluations from the school system. But he acknowledged that his client was disciplined in January of last year over a record-keeping problem, when a student on long-term suspension was marked absent.
The suit says that the system denied Clark due process in December by failing to give him a statement of the charges against him and failing to allow his case to have a hearing. And it alleges that a system administrator falsely told Maritime students that Clark had misappropriated funds.
City schools spokeswoman Edie House said the system had not received a copy of the lawsuit, and it does not comment on legal or personnel matters.
Silverberg said that Clark - who has a doctorate - has interviewed for multiple jobs since leaving Maritime, but he has not been offered anything because of the publicity the case has received.
"He can't get a job," Silverberg said. "He's seeing a therapist. He's on antidepressant medication. It's a mess. We didn't want it to go this route, but what are you going to do?"
sara.neufeld@baltsun.com