“Plaintiff without proper standing,” says district lawyer

Oconee School District has entered the Common Pleas Court to request that a challenge to closing the Tamassee-Salem Middle/High School be dismissed and the district be awarded court costs.  In its official answer this week to a claim by Lynne Martin, an attorney for the school district, said, “The plaintiff is without proper standing as to her claim.”  In late October, Martin filed a suit alleging school leaders violated the civil rights of Tamassee-Salem residents as they went about their decision to close the school effective with the end of the academic year.  As defendants she named the district, the county trustees, and the county superintendent.  Attorney Jeffrey Kull of Columbia asserts:  (the defendants) “acted at all times in good faith, without any wrongful or malicious intent and with a reasonable belief that their conduct did not rise to any legally cognizable damages.”  Martin accuses the defendants of a “selective application” of an attendance zone policy that led to reducing Tamassee-Salem’s enrollment—the primary reason given for the school board action.  Kull further claims that what the plaintiff wants is barred by government doctrine or sovereign immunity.