NORTHEAST OHIO Lawsuit leads to apology for principal fired in '95

The educator said he was defamed and won his case.
EAST CANTON, Ohio (AP) -- A former high school principal who filed a defamation lawsuit has gotten an apology from the superintendent and school board members who fired him in 1995.
John McIntosh, 61, received an apology from former Osnaburg Local Schools Superintendent George McGuire and former school board members, said his lawyer, Brian Zimmerman, who announced the settlement of the lawsuit Thursday. The lawsuit also involved an undisclosed monetary award.
"I wanted my name cleared," said McIntosh, of Washington Township near Alliance.
Damning letter
Zimmerman said the lawsuit stemmed partly from a letter in which the district said McIntosh was fired after five years as East Canton High School principal for "immorality," "child endangerment" and "causing a student walkout." The lawsuit said those accusations and the grounds cited by the school board for McIntosh's termination defamed him.
Part of the case eventually went up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the apology letter, dated April 21, the former officials said they never intended to call McIntosh immoral, that there was no evidence he had any involvement in a student walkout and that the term "child endangerment" should not have been made.
A second defamation lawsuit is pending against a lawyer who represented the Ohio Education Association, Zimmerman said. That case concerns a 1995 letter that recommended McIntosh be fired when the union had intended to stay neutral, Zimmerman said Friday.
Retired in 2001
McIntosh retired from education in 2001, two years after a court ruling allowed him to take a teaching job with the Osnaburg district. In May 1999, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that McIntosh could collect about $130,000 in lost wages and benefits as a result of being fired as principal and not given a teaching position as a tenured instructor.
Osnaburg Local Superintendent Tom Davis said the settlement was handled by the district's former insurance company and "didn't cost us anything." He said Friday that he could not comment on the settlement since he was not involved in the situation in 1995.