LONG ISLAND, N.Y. – A simple Google search was all it took for teachers at Flushing High School on Long Island to discover their recently hired principal has a history of being accused of sexual harassment and making racist comments.

Apparently, officials with the city’s Department of Education didn’t investigate that thoroughly before they hired James Brown, who was the subject multiple accusations that ultimately cost his previous school – Baldwin Middle School in Baldwin Harbor, Long Island – $1.6 million to settle a harassment lawsuit in 2010, the Times Ledger reports.

A DOE spokeswoman told the news site that city officials were unaware of Brown’s past.

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“When DOE officials contacted the Baldwin school district for a recommendation, they did not disclose this information,” according to a DOE statement.

The spokeswoman wouldn’t say if DOE officials conducted a background check on Brown, whose salary is $132,633 at Flushing, the New York Post reports.

The lawsuit at Baldwin revolved around accusations by Cheryl Farb, the former dean of students, who sued over Brown’s “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and her termination that resulted from complaints filed against him. A jury awarded Farb $5 million, but a judge reduced the amount to $1 million, and the case was eventually settled for $1.6 million, the Post reports.

“Farb’s suit said Brown once engaged in a 30-minute conversation about ‘how prolific he was as a young man in snapping a girl’s rear bra strap and opening it up with one quick hand motion,’” the Post reports.

“Brown also told Farb to make a school report ‘tight as a virgin’s, well, you know what is tight on a virgin,’ she reported.

According to the lawsuit, Brown, who is black, allegedly told Farb he had to hire her because she was white. She also claimed he made inappropriate sexual comments about a student’s mother, would “violently slam the door and pound his fists on her desk” and yelled at her, the Post reports.

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Farb’s husband, Harold Newman, who was also a party in her lawsuit against Brown, told the Post he was shocked Brown found new employment in education.

“Part of the reason we sued Brown was to get him out of education, because we didn’t think he deserved to be around children,” Newman said. “If I had children, I wouldn’t be sending them to that school.”

Flushing High School is among two dozen New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg attempted to close and reopen with new staff last year, but that plan was scrapped when the United Federation of Teachers – the city’s teachers union – sued to stop the process.