Clinton Giles claims in a lawsuit filed this week that the Kanawha County Board of Education and, specifically, board member Pete Thaw, made it impossible for him to return to work as Capital High School's principal after a judge dismissed a misdemeanor charging him with failing to report an alleged sexual assault at the school.
By the time the charge was dismissed, Giles' reputation had already been damaged, according to the lawsuit filed in Kanawha Circuit Court. Giles is suing both the Board of Education and Thaw, individually.
There was a rush to judgment after the charge was filed, Giles lawsuit states. He was immediately suspended without pay and disparaging comments were made about him.
Giles was "falsely and ignorantly" accused of wrongdoing, his attorney James Cagle wrote.
The Board and Thaw, "created an environment which rendered it impossible for Mr. Giles to return to work in the employment which he had held for nearly thirteen years," the complaint states.
Giles asks that he be compensated for, among other things, lost income and damage to his reputation.
According to prosecutors, a counselor at the school told Giles in January 2015 that a girl had said she was assaulted by a male student. Prosecutors said Giles took no action except to tell two Capital vice principals that they shouldn't do anything until the next morning, when they could review school surveillance footage. Police should have been notified immediately, prosecutors said.
Giles says that the actions he took were in compliance with school policy as mandated by the Board of Education.
But Giles claims it was immediately clear that he didn't have the Board's support after the charge was filed.
During a board of education meeting on Feb. 9, 2015, Giles claims, he was publicly ridiculed and singled out as the only employee who failed to make a timely report of the alleged assault. The board voted during that meeting to accept Giles' resignation.
"Defendant Pete Thaw made comments to the news media knowing that they would be publicly disseminated which had the effect to those members of the public viewing his comments that Mr. Giles was guilty of criminal conduct and further that Mr. Giles never should have been hired or retained as a Board employee," Cagle wrote.
"Not only were Mr. Thaw's remarks recklessly made, but his remarks were maliciously made," the complaint continues.
The lawsuit has been assigned to Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King.
Giles, 64, was Kanawha's highest-paid and longest-serving principal.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Carrie Webster dismissed the charge against Giles several weeks after it was filed. She said she didn't believe county prosecutors acted in bad faith but that the law doesn't support the prosecution.
Outside the courtroom, after the charge was dismissed, Giles held back tears and said that the charge had brought an abrupt and premature end to his 37 years as an educator.
Dallas King, 18, faces a sexual assault charge over the alleged incident at the school. The victim in the alleged incident filed a lawsuit against Giles and the school board in 2015.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.