As principal of Baldwin Middle School on Long Island, James Brown was accused of sexual harassment, racist remarks and bullying behavior — and he cost the school district $1.6 million to settle a suit against him.
But the New York City Department of Education hired him anyway — as the new principal of Flushing HS in Queens.
Officials’ excuse?
“When DOE officials contacted the Baldwin school district for a recommendation, they did not disclose this information,” a spokeswoman said.
While at Baldwin, Brown was accused of remarking on the tightness of a female student’s pants, said a federal lawsuit against him.
Cheryl Farb, a former dean of students at Baldwin Middle School, won a $5 million jury verdict against Brown and the Baldwin school district in 2009 for Brown’s “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and for the district’s firing her in retaliation for her complaints against him. A judge reduced the award to $1 million, and the case was settled for $1.6 million in late 2010.
Farb’s suit said Brown once engaged in a 30-minute conversation about “how prolific he was as a young man in snapping a girl’s rear bra strap and opening it up with one quick hand motion.”
Brown told Farb to make a school report “tight as a virgin’s, well, you know what is tight on a virgin,” she reported.
Brown, who is black, allegedly told Farb, “There are no more white administrators and no one left like you to talk to.” He allegedly said he had to hire Farb, who is white, and others based on race.
Brown also made derogatory comments about a student’s mom, the suit said, calling her “so disgusting. How could her husband ever go to bed and sleep with that woman? She’s just a clam digger.”
Farb said Brown intimidated her by going into her office and proceeding to “violently slam the door and pound his fists on her desk” and yell at her.
When Brown, 48, showed up days before the school year started as the new principal at Flushing HS, teachers — who had learned about his past through a Google search — were stunned.
The DOE refused to say whether it ran a background check. Brown’s salary is $132,633.
Brown refused to comment to The Post.
Farb declined to comment on Brown’s new job, but her husband, Harold Newman, who joined her in the suit, was shocked.
“Part of the reason we sued Brown was to get him out of education, because we didn’t think he deserved to be around children,” he said. “If I had children, I wouldn’t be sending them to that school.”
Brown used to work in city schools, starting in 1988 as a substitute teacher. He served as a middle-school math teacher, assistant principal and principal in Brooklyn before resigning in 2001 to join Baldwin. After the 2009 verdict, Baldwin “reassigned” Brown to the district office. He “voluntarily left” in June 2012, a spokeswoman said.
Flushing HS is one of 24 struggling schools Mayor Bloomberg tried last year to shut and reopen with up to half the staff replaced, but the plan was blocked by court order in a suit by the teachers and principals unions.
“Bloomberg is determined to close the place down, and he’s been putting us through hell,” a staffer said.