Harassment Suits Settled In Snohomish District -- $300,000 To Go To Former Assistant Principal, 2 Counselors

The Snohomish School District has paid $300,000 to settle lawsuits brought against the district by three former high-school staffers who claimed they'd been sexually harassed for years by an assistant principal, who has since been dismissed.

Theresa Cole and Margaret Kinney, counselors who worked at Snohomish High School, and Patty Siegwarth, who was an assistant principal at the high school, settled with the district last month.

The lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court against the district and former Assistant Principal Greg Cox.

Cole, who began working for the district in 1992, received $127,500. Included in that amount was $37,700 for counseling expenses and $12,700 for safety and security expenses. She also had reinstated 22 days of sick leave, which she said she used because of the harassment. And the district also paid her legal fees of $42,500.

Siegwarth, who began working for the district in 1993, was awarded $60,000. The district paid $20,000 more for her attorneys' fees.

Kinney, who began working at the district in 1995, received $37,500 plus attorneys' fees of $12,500.

The amount each received varied because the settlements were negotiated separately, said Michele Sales, the women's attorney, in accordance with the strength of the case and expectations and needs of each client.

The three women made a formal complaint against Cox in September 1996, saying he'd been harassing them for years through improper touching, suggestive phone messages and graphic tales of his sex life. They said he was hostile and that they were afraid of him.

The district in October 1996 fired Cox after an investigation found probable cause.

Cox denied the accusations.

District officials said they'd had no previous knowledge of problems with him, but Sales said she believed that was untrue, and it was key to her clients' cases.

"Our position is the district should have been aware - and we believe the evidence shows the district was aware of problems with Mr. Cox - and didn't take the appropriate steps," she said.

All three women left the district and are employed elsewhere. Siegwarth is an assistant principal in the Bellevue School District; Kinney and Cole are counselors in other school districts, Sales said.

Neither district officials nor the district's lawyer returned phone calls for comment.

Cox could not be reached for comment.

But the district included the following statement in the settlement agreement:

"The district acknowledges the professionalism of Siegwarth, Cole and Kinney in addressing this difficult situation. Each was a valued member of the high-school staff, and the district regrets that each felt she could not continue her career in Snohomish."

Nancy Montgomery's phone message number is 425-745-7803. Her e-mail address is: nmon-new@seatimes.com