ALLEGAN, MI -- An Allegan County supervisory school district should have done more to prevent the sexual harassment of two teachers by a school principal, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department.

The lawsuit against the Allegan Area Educational Service Agency was filed Wednesday, Aug. 15 and involves complaints filed against former Hillside Learning and Behavior Center Principal Jonathan Garcia.

Garcia, 37, was convicted in 2016 of assault with intent to commit sexual penetration and was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. His earliest release date is February 2019.

In the lawsuit, Justice Department lawyers say they want the school district to compensate two harassed teachers and create policies to prevent sex discrimination and harassment in the future.

The teachers were a paraeducator hired in October 2014 to work with elementary age autistic students and a lead teacher, hired in 2015, who also worked with autistic students in the same age group.

The teachers both claimed that Garcia made inappropriate comments but also became physical.

"He touched their breasts frequently, exposed his (genitals) to them several times, and used physical force to make them touch his genitals. He also put his hands down their pants," the attorneys wrote.

One of the teachers said Garcia forced her to perform oral sex on two separate occasions.

In the lawsuit, Justice Department lawyers said Garcia threatened the teachers with job loss, bad performance reviews, poor reference letters to prospective employers and other measures as a means to keep them quiet.

Lawyers claim district administrators knew since 2014, based on complaints from two teachers, that Garcia made comments about female workers' clothing, gave them sexually explicit nicknames and made sexually explicit remarks.

But nothing was done until early 2016, the attorneys said.

District administrators say they acted to suspend Garcia as soon as they learned of his alleged criminal misconduct.

"We are committed to a workplace culture that values all people. We continually train our staff on how to report and respond if they experience or observe harassment or abuse of any type," AAESA Superintendent William Brown said.

Attorneys for the district said they want to work with the Justice Department to resolve the lawsuit.

"AAESA abhors unlawful and criminal acts of sexual harassment in the workplace. We are, have been, and will continue to be, proactive in training all employees with regards to sexual harassment, discrimination, and bullying," Brown said.

"In addition, we will continue to take corrective action when informed of such violations," he said.