Former assistant principal files suit against Lenape Valley
BY NATHAN MAYBERG
STANHOPE — A former assistant principal at Lenape Valley Regional High School who was fired from the district, claims that the district superintendent propositioned him for sex as part of a pattern of "outrageous conduct."
Dr. Keith Lockwood filed a lawsuit against the Lenape Valley Regional High School District and Superintendent Paul DiRupo in Sussex County Superior Court detailing the allegations. DiRupo was the head principal and superintendent at the high school at the time the alleged incidents took place, and continues to be.
On Friday, Jim McCreedy of the law firm Wiley, Malehorn, Sirota & Raynes in Morristown, said his clients deny all of the allegations. McCreedy is representing DiRupo, the school district and Business Administrator Robert Klinck,
"They are simply not true," McCreedy said about Lockwood's allegations.
Among the other charges are that DiRupo and Klinck worked to curtail special education services to a student who was receiving higher than average grades and was set to become the school's valedictorian. Lockwood claims they wanted to prevent the student from being valedictorian and asked him to testify about the student at an administrative tribunal hearing regarding a lawsuit brought by the parent of the student against the district.
Lockwood states in his lawsuit that he refused to lie about the matter as they requested him to do.
Lockwood accuses both DiRupo and Klinck of calling the student "a retard."
After he refused to lie about the student and her parent at the tribunal, the two confronted him at a hostile meeting in which DiRupo allegedly said "one of us is going to lose his job over this," implying that it would be Lockwood's job.
McCreedy said his clients "don't know what special needs student" is being referred to in the suit.
"They are not sure what's he's talking about there," McCreedy said.
Both DiRupo and Klinck deny that anybody was told to lie at such a hearing, McCreedy said.
Following that meeting, Lockwood alleges a hostile work environment was created so he would resign.
Among those actions was an attempt to get Lockwood to perform oral sex on DiRupo, Lockwood alleges.
When DiRupo expelled a black student for fighting with a white student, Lockwood said he objected.
Lockwood alleges he told DiRupo that the expulsion was unfair and excessive compared to punishment given to white students who fought in the past.
Lockwood claims that DiRupo used the n-word when saying the student didn't belong at "Harvard on the Hill," DiRupo's term for Lenape Valley Regional High School.
McCreedy denied that his clients used any racist language.
McCreedy said they "firmly denied" anybody was mistreated because of their race.
The suit, filed by Lockwood's attorney Nina Ameri, alleges that Lockwood was discriminated against due to an undisclosed disability. Lockwood's attorney, Nina Ameri, has filed a claim with the state Attorney General's Office and filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Opportunity Commission.
Michael Bender, a member of the Lenape Valley Regional High School District Board of Education, said he could not comment on the litigation or the characters of the parties involved.
"They have a date in court and they are going to see it," Bender said,
Lockwood, who was hired by the school district in 2013, claims the emotional torment increased after his contract was renewed by the board of education the next year.
He alleges that despite positive performance reviews, DiRupo asked him for his resignation in June, 2014.
Following that episode, Lockwood alleges he was given extra work meant for other administrators. His support staff was reassigned elsewhere, he alleges.
Lockwood claimed to have become suicidal as a result of retaliatory actions by DiRupo. Physicians hospitalized him at the Ramapo Ridge Psychiatric Hospital for unspecified disabilities and for post-traumatic stress relating to his experience at the school.
After notifying DiRupo that he was being admitted to the hospital, Lockwood alleges he was fired.
Lockwood says the hearing was scheduled despite DiRupo knowing he couldn't attend due to his hospitalization.
After being terminated by the board of education. they allegedly interfered with his attempts to collect unemployment insurance by reporting to state agencies that he had been fired with cause as a result of unspecified misconduct.
Lockwood claims he was fired without cause.
Reporter Nathan Mayberg can be reached at 845-469-9000 ext. 359 or by emailing comm.reporter@strausnews.com