The Mathews County School Board and other defendants in a civil suit filed in September in U.S. District Court have submitted answers to the suit.

The original complaint accuses the Mathews County School Board, several school employees, and a member of the Mathews County Sheriff’s Office of abuse of authority in allegedly misusing the state’s threat assessment process in 2019 to unfairly target a student and remove him from school.

The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, along with an injunction enjoining the threat assessment process, reinstatement of the student, expungement of his school records, and an apology.

Three filings have been made in response to the suit, one by the Mathews County School Board and three specifically named employees—Superintendent Nancy Welch and Thomas Hunter Middle School Principal Laurel Byrd and Guidance Counselor Denise McCuiston, one by Mathews County Sheriff’s Office Investigator April Edwards, and one by the parent of a child (th...