2 Bedford County School Board members say board wasn’t aware of lawsuit against parent

Three of seven Bedford County School Board members have spoken up in a Facebook group about a lawsuit filed last month against a parent, with two saying the school board didn’t sign off on the suit bearing its name as plaintiff.

The suit seeks $600,000 in damages from Moneta resident David Rife, alleging he used crude language and threatened police and legal action during repeated calls to the school district about his son.

Rife’s son, who attends Staunton River High School, is on an individualized education program for a learning disability, but Rife has claimed repeatedly that his son wasn’t receiving the services outlined in his plan. Rife submitted a complaint to the Virginia Department of Education, which investigated and found that the school was not complying with several aspects of Rife’s son’s IEP.

The lawsuit was filed shortly before the VDOE investigator submitted a report.

Board member Matthew Holbrook was the first to write about the suit in a private Facebook group called Central Virginia Freedom Fighters. The post said, in part: “The suit was filed by an administrator without first consulting the board. The board was notified of the lawsuit along with the complaint made to VDOE from an outside source, not the administrator. The superintendent was unaware of the suit as well.”

Holbrook went on to explain that “It’s a fine line to walk” between protecting staff members and supporting parental rights, and asked for other community members to contact the board if their children’s special needs hadn’t been met by the school division.

Holbrook noted that he did not speak for the school board as a whole.

The conservative parental rights Facebook group lists more than 2,000 members, including school board members Johnathan Knight, Dora Purvis, Dwayne Nelms and board chair Marcus Hill.

Board members Kurt Hubach and Christopher Daniels do not appear to be members, based on a review of participants.

Reached by phone on Friday, Holbrook confirmed that he wrote the Facebook post, but said he couldn’t comment further on the case.

He said the school board is addressing the fact that it wasn’t aware that the lawsuit had been filed, and said it would likely be discussed in closed session at an already scheduled board meeting on May 2. He said that meeting originally had been scheduled to discuss hiring a replacement for Superintendent Marc Bergin, whose contract ends this summer.

On April 25, Purvis posted in the Facebook group, saying, “I’ve been working diligently to try to resolve what an administrator did without the knowledge or consent of the Bedford County School Board.”

Purvis also said that her post did not speak for the entire school board. She wrote: “Please know that I am FOR the rights of students, parents, and teachers and am working to protect all of you. I am seeking legal council [sic] about what my next step will be. As your elected official, I am fighting for you and praying for godly discernment and strategies.”

Meanwhile, Knight commented on an April 23 post that discussed how to proceed if individualized education programs aren’t being followed.

“Mr. Holbrook spoke the truth, and at this point we are working through a very difficult situation as quickly as possible,” Knight said, though he didn’t mention whether he knew that the suit was being filed. He also noted that he doesn’t speak for the whole board.

Dwayne Nelms also contributed to the comment thread but did not write specifically about the court case.

Phone messages left for Purvis and Knight were not returned Friday. A phone message for Matthew Green, legal counsel listed on the Bedford County suit, was not returned Friday, nor was a phone message left at Bedford County Public Schools.

Reached by phone Friday, Rife’s attorney, David Whitehurst, said cases like this one appear to be rare, and he was unable to find case law where a school board had sued a parent.

Whitehurst said that although several school board members have claimed to not know about the suit, “if they didn’t know about it, they do now.”

The school board held special called meetings on April 17 and April 22, during which it discussed legal matters in sessions that were closed to the public, according to agendas posted online. Neither meeting was livestreamed on the school division’s YouTube channel.

A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday in Bedford County Circuit Court to review the school board’s request for an emergency injunction to curb communication from Rife.

“His conduct has caused the Virginia Department of Education to place him on its own communication plan and the Roanoke City Public Schools to permanently bar him from their premises,”  the emergency motion by the county states in support of its request to limit Rife’s communication with the school division.

In his response, Whitehurst rebuts the two claims made about Rife. “The defendant has written confirmation from the VDOE that Mr. Rife was never placed on any communication plan by them. It took the Defendant less than five minutes to verify this,” the filing states.

In response to the statement that he was barred from Roanoke schools, Whitehurst wrote: “Once again, this never happened, either division wide or at any individual school in Roanoke City, or at any school ever. The Defendant has written verification of this from Roanoke City Public Schools, again after very little effort on his part.”

Whitehurst has also filed a counterclaim against the school board’s suit, asking the court to order Bedford County Public Schools to deliver special education services as outlined in Rife’s son’s IEP.

Whitehurst said Friday that the division has not yet adjusted services for the student’s learning disability despite being instructed to do so by the state education department’s investigation report.

The post 2 Bedford County School Board members say board wasn’t aware of lawsuit against parent appeared first on Cardinal News .