South Carolina district has been the target of at least 40 lawsuits since 2000
Since 2000, Richland 1 School District in South Carolina has been the target of at least 40 lawsuits, with 10 pending. The parent of an elementary school student is currently suing the school district for negligence for failing to allow her daughter to use the restroom during a standardized test. She is asking for $300,000 in damages. Richland 1 is also facing a breach of contract suit brought by a construction company that alleges it has not received the final payment for work it did at two schools. In July 2005, an elementary school principal was awarded $130,000 in a defamation suit. The principal, who is white, alleged that a former area superintendent, who is African-American, accused the principal of ignoring African-American students and failing to raise their standardized test scores. The principal was also paid $37,000 to drop his federal discrimination suit. Although school board officials have declined to discuss the principal's suit, they noted that they are looking for ways to reduce the number of lawsuits. Richland 1's Superintendent Allen Coles says he is conducting an audit of current and past suits to identify trends. School board chairman Jasper Salmond insists that the superintendent and the board would like to focus the school district's time and money on academic performance rather than lawsuits. "I've been on the board now for 15 years, going on 16 years, and it has been a concern since I've been on the board," Mr. Salmond says. "It's no new phenomenon. We're just a litigious society." Scott Price, general counsel for the South Carolina School Boards Association, agrees that lawsuits are a persistent problem for local school districts. "If you just look at public education as an institution, it's one of the most heavily regulated institutions out there ... that, in a way, lends itself to a lot of litigation," says Mr. Price.
State.comBy Lisa Michals
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