She’s suing a South Carolina school district. And also running to join its school board
A candidate hoping to join a Midlands school board has an active lawsuit against that same board for allegedly violating her free speech rights.
Dana Homesley filed the lawsuit in federal court earlier this year against Lexington 1 and its board chair Anne Marie Green, after she was prevented from speaking at a 2021 board meeting.
Homesley is one of nine candidates running Tuesday for four seats on the board, which oversees 31 schools and 27,000 students in the central part of Lexington County. Green is stepping down from the board after this year’s election.
The dispute dates back to a disagreement on the Lexington 1 school board three years ago, when then-board member Jada Garris wrote a critical email to the district’s joint chief operating and finance officer criticizing the oversight of several construction projects.
Garris attempted to add the email to the board’s meeting minutes, but was prevented from doing so. At the board’s November 2021, Homesley tried to read from the email, which she received in response to a freedom of information request, but was stopped when Green told her “one of the rules for citizens participation is we don’t talk about staff or students.”
School board policy prohibits criticism of specific school district employees and personnel during its public comment period.
“We have chosen to prevent what you are trying to do right now, which is enter information about a staff member into the record,” Green told Homesley before cutting short her speaking time, according to the lawsuit.
Homesley maintains the email and its contents “objectively criticized the performance and decision making of Lexington School District 1 and Defendant School Board,” and were not a personal attack.
She argues in a legal filing from attorney Tyler Rody that the board’s actions violated her First Amendment rights to speak and amount to viewpoint discrimination. She notes that other speakers that offered more positive comments about individual district employees were allowed to speak during the same meeting.
Homesley asks that the court declare the district’s policy unconstitutional, and award her compensatory and punitive damages.
In a legal reply to Homesley’s suit filed by Richardson Plowden and Robinson, Green says she was merely enforcing the board’s stated policy on public participation in its meetings. They also argue the suit is barred by the statute of limitations so long after the incident occurred.
Homesley did not immediately reply to The State when asked to comment on the lawsuit Friday, and whether she would continue with it if she wins election to the school board on Tuesday.
