SAN DIEGO -- A former school teacher who was alleged to have inappropriately touched a 9-year-old girl in his class is running for a seat on the Mountain Empire Unified School District board.

According to court records, the school district last month agreed to a $30,000 settlement with the girl's family, who said Fred Kamper, her teacher at Clover Flat Elementary School in Boulevard, engaged in "grossly inappropriate and sexual behavior," The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Kamper, who took out papers for a seat on the board Aug. 16, resigned in June after more than 25 years with the district, the newspaper reported.

Kamper's opponent for the seat, gaming inspector Ralph Davis, said he is concerned that Kamper may want a seat on the board to get back at school officials, the newspaper reported.

According to the lawsuit, Kamper once served as principal of Mountain Empire Junior/Senior High School. He was demoted in 1987 after he made suggestive comments to a female student about her perfume and licked her arm, the Union-Tribune reported.

The lawsuit alleges he was a teacher at Clover Flat Elementary School when the incidents with the 9-year-old girl occurred between August 2003 and Oct. 4, 2004, according to the newspaper.

The girl said she felt uncomfortable because Kamper made her sit on his lap, touched and stroked her thighs, hugged her and rubbed her hand. According to the lawsuit, he engaged in the same behavior with at least four other female students, the Union-Tribune reported.

Sheriff Department Sgt. Jim Walker said detectives submitted a charge of misdemeanor child molestation against Kamper to the district attorney's office, but prosecutors declined to pursue the case, the newspaper reported.