BOONEVILLE : Suspended principal sues district officials
Posted on Thursday, August 14, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/234211/
BOONEVILLE — The suspended principal of Booneville High School has sued the district’s superintendent and a School Board member, accusing them of defamation and trying to get him fired.
Steve Halter said in a lawsuit filed Friday in Logan County Circuit Court that Superintendent John Parrish and School Board member Pat Pace took steps to have him suspended from his job with the recommendation he be fired, and that they committed slander and libel by spreading false information and rumors about him that damaged his reputation.
He is asking a judge to award him compensatory and punitive damages.
The lawsuit states that Halter, who has been the principal at the high school since 2006, was suspended by Parrish on July 25 on the charge of making fraudulent misrepresentations to the Arkansas Department of Education.
Halter’s attorney, Thomas Thrash of Little Rock, said Wednesday he requested a hearing with the School Board on Halter’s suspension.
Halter claimed in the lawsuit that before Parrish was hired as superintendent on July 1, Parrish agreed to a request by Pace to fire Halter and then-Athletic Director Kenneth Rippy once he became superintendent.
Parrish said Wednesday that Rippy retired after Halter was suspended. He declined comment on the lawsuit.
Pace also declined comment.
Halter said in the lawsuit that Pace was a teacher at the high school while he was principal and disagreed with many of the policies he enacted. The suit said Pace began spreading rumors that Halter was involved in illegal activities, rumors for which Pace later apologized.
Pace retired from teaching in 2006 and was elected to the School Board. During her campaign, Halter’s suit said, Pace circulated a letter that “promoted Pace and two others [by ] promising the first order of business will be to eliminate Steve Halter and Kenneth Rippy.”
After Pace was elected, Halter claims, her attacks increased. She began interfering with classroom activities at the school and made disparaging remarks about Halter to then-Superintendent Bobby Ashley and others.
The fraudulent representation charge stemmed from the license of a Spanish teacher, Carlos Rivera, the lawsuit said. Halter believed the license was valid through 2008 but, unknown to Halter or Rivera, it had been revoked in February because Rivera had failed to meet a requirement.
Parrish accused Halter of sending a letter to the state Education Department that included fraudulent information about the license. Halter said he sent the letter on Ashley’s instructions. Parrish used the letter as grounds for suspension but conducted no investigation before suspending Halter, according to the lawsuit.
Parrish also suspended the school’s curriculum coordinator Amy Richardson and recommended she be fired.
Richardson’s attorney, Ray Hodnett of Van Buren, said he mailed a request Wednesday to School Board President Glynda McConnell asking for a hearing on the suspension.
Hodnett said the grounds for Richardson’s suspension was an affair she had with Ashley before the board fired him in May.
Hodnett said Richardson denies the allegation, which grew out of text messages supposedly sent from her cell phone. He said someone stole Richardson’s cell phone, and that whoever stole it sent the messages.
He also said she was suspended for taking a drug but said that it was prescribed medication.
With school starting Monday in Booneville, Parrish said junior high school Principal Scotty Pierce was named interim high school principal and assistant junior high principal Mark Clemmons was made interim junior high school principal.
Michael Johnson of Ozark was hired as athletic director, replacing Rippy, Parrish said. Halter said in his lawsuit that Johnson is Pace’s nephew and that the job opening was not advertised.
Parrish said the position was advertised locally and that there were three applicants for the job.