Lamplighter Board Releases Statement on Lawsuit
For those of you who haven’t heard about the lawsuit filed by headmaster Arnold Cohen against Lamplighter and two members of its board of trustees, read the suit and D editor Tim Rogers’ take here. I’m hard at work cranking out a story for Friday’s paper (which we send to the printer this afternoon), but here’s a quick update from trustee Alex Sharma, on behalf of the board of trustees, received through Lamplighter spokeswoman Melissa Dorrill:
“In late May, Dr. Arnold Cohen asked to be bought out of the last two years of his Lamplighter contract. Despite believing that Dr. Cohen had materially breached his contract, over the course of the next two weeks, Lamplighter in good faith negotiated a buyout with Dr. Cohen and his lawyer. As of June 15, we believed an agreement was at hand. With advance notice to his lawyer, we then released the retirement statement that Dr. Cohen himself had drafted, and which he now claims defamed him. Later that day, we received new settlement demands from Dr. Cohen’s counsel. When we refused to agree to the new demands, Dr. Cohen chose to file his lawsuit, which is based upon false and distorted factual allegations. In addition, for reasons only he can explain, Dr. Cohen has maliciously attacked two of his most ardent supporters on the Board of Trustees, even going so far as to violate the privacy of the Pollock family by breaching the fundamental duty of a school to maintain the confidentiality of student academic records. In the coming days, we will be responding in full in court to the allegations in the case. We ask that everyone withhold judgment until such time.”
