Ex-principal's lawsuit ends with settlement

Former Countryside High principal Sharon Lambeth and the Pinellas County School Board reached a settlement Monday in the sexual discrimination lawsuit she filed last year.

No money changed hands in the deal, which ends her lawsuit.

Lambeth was transferred to a position as supervisor of Title I schools, where she still works, for allowing a star football player to retake two exams after graduation in 1997. Lambeth said she was trying to help him earn an athletic scholarship to Bethune-Cookman College. She sued the School Board, saying it was more lenient with male principals in similar situations.

The parties settled with no admission of liability on the part of the school system. Both parties will be responsible for their own court costs.

"We are extremely satisfied with the outcome," said Jackie Spoto Bircher, the school board's attorney. "Our position has always been that there was no gender discrimination, which was the allegation in the law suit."

On Monday, Lambeth said she didn't feel comfortable commenting on the case because she believed that it was sealed.

After Lambeth was removed as Countryside High principal, she asked for an administrative hearing to decide if the district's punishment was too harsh. In 1999, an administrative law judge sided with Superintendent Howard Hinesley and recommended the school board uphold Hinesley's decision to transfer Lambeth to the supervisory position.

In July 2001, she filed the sexual discrimination lawsuit against the school board in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, claiming she was unfairly punished because she's a woman.

Lambeth's suit said that nine male principals and assistant principals received different treatment than she did. U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara ruled Friday that the only true comparison would be with John Nicely, former principal of Tarpon Springs High School.

The school district decided to transfer Nicely to a district job in March because of a grade discrepancy issue. But after parents and students rallied in support of Nicely, Hinesley reversed his initial decision and allowed the principal to return to Tarpon Springs High for the remainder of the school year.

Nicely's circumstance involved a policy at Tarpon Springs High School that is tougher than the school district's. Students who missed more than 10 days or more in a nine-week period automatically failed. Six seniors appealed their failing grades to Nicely and he worked out a deal that allowed them to keep the grade they would otherwise earn in their classes, as long as they had no more unexcused absences for the remainder of the school year.

One student asked Nicely to send her passing grades to a college so she could qualify for a scholarship. He agreed but told her he would alert the college if she ended up with a failing grade. The district said he made a mistake because he kept the Fs on her high school transcript.

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