Principal

Solomon Karen, a retired Baltimore elementary school principal who also headed the secular program in the lower school at the Talmudical Academy of Baltimore, died Saturday of leukemia at Johns Hopkins Hospital.Mr. Karen, who was 59 and lived on Amy Lane, retired in 1988 as principal at the Farring Elementary School and then headed the program at the Talmudical Academy for a year.Principal of the Garrett Heights Elementary School for 11 years before his final two-year assignment at Farring, he had also been an assistant principal after starting his teaching career in 1956.

In response to your article regarding the removal of principal Barbara San Gabino ("Parents petition for removal of Odenton principal," July 28, 1991), I would like to share my experience of a principal's failure to respond and discipline.Twice I notified my son's schoolof a need for more supervision while students were in the library and at lockers, as the boys were becoming aggressive. I felt the schoolresponded to my concerns.Several weeks later, my son came home from school and told me he was beaten by five students.

If he had seen the signs his opponents carried last night, NortheastHigh Principal Joseph Carducci Jr. might have joined the teachers and students who don't want to return to school this fall."

Services for Hermione Elaine Wharton, a lifelong resident of Baltimore who served as principal at four city public schools, will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Katherine's Episcopal Church, Presstman and Division streets.Miss Wharton, who was 91, died in her sleep Friday at Keswick.Miss Wharton taught English and other subjects in Baltimore's schools for more than 25 years before becoming an administrator.At her retirement in 1963, she said that her "happiest days were in the classroom with the children.

ALYSSA SEMONES, 8, of Mechanicsville Elementary School spent her school day Friday in an unusual way. She assumed the role of principal after winning the honor at the school Mardi Gras celebration last month. Principal Anna Varakin explained that the school on Sykesville Road has a Mardi Gras celebration every March. Games, prizes, and raffles are part of the fun. Each teacher provides a prize that could include free riding lessons, videos or stuffed animals. Then there's the coveted "Principal for a Day" certificate.

The former principal of Baltimore's Maritime Industries Academy has filed a lawsuit against the city, several school system administrators, and the mother of one of his former students. The lawsuit, filed by Marco T. Clark, contains accusations of civil conspiracy, defamation and violation of constitutional rights. It seeks $2.8 million in damages. Faced with an allegation that he allowed a student to teach a class without a teacher, Clark was suspended and resigned from his job at the West Baltimore high school in December.

People say Old Court Middle School's new principal Cheryl Pasteur is pretty tough, but they don't know the half of it."I was an FBI agent," said Ms. Pasteur, who specialized in developing sources and investigating terrorist activities with the bureau from 1984 to 1988. "It taught me to listen, I mean really listen, beyond what the words say."A petite powerhouse with the disciplinary standards of a drill sergeant and a love of students born of years as an educator, Ms. Pasteur is set to guide Old Court through the first year of an innovative program designed to raise students self-esteem and productivity while helping teachers do a better job. She has worked in the education system on and off since 1971.

A Harford County teacher who was fired in June has filed a $2 million lawsuit against the principal of C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air alleging negligence, interference with contract, emotional distress and defamation related to his dismissal. John Anker, 37, who joined the school faculty in November 2006, is suing Principal Marlene Molter because, he says, he was not given tenure after three years of probation during which he received many positive evaluations, several from her. The school system and its superintendent are not named in the lawsuit.

A Queen Anne's County private school principal was arrested Monday and charged with three counts of sexual conduct involving a 14-year-old girl, state police said. Lowell S. Litton Jr., 39, of Sudlersville was charged with a third-degree sex offense, a fourth-degree sex offense and sex abuse of a minor, police said. If convicted, he faces up to 36 years of imprisonment. Police said the investigation began Sunday when officers at Centreville took a complaint of possible inappropriate sexual relations involving a juvenile.

The principal of Crofton Middle School has filed an $800,000 lawsuit against a former teacher who filed an assault charge against him last year that prosecutors later dropped. The lawsuit filed by Richard Berzinski in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court accuses special-education teacher Rose Marie Brohawn of malicious prosecution and defamation. The principal alleges that Brohawn made accusations against him in October to "deflect attention" away from herself, said his attorney, Harold B. Murnane III. Berzinski had been investigating the teacher's involvement in an incident in which one of her students was trapped inside a locker, Murnane said.