A civil lawsuit filed in federal court in 2020 against the Mathews County School Board, several school employees, and an employee of the Mathews County Sheriff’s Office was dismissed last month without prejudice.
The suit was filed on behalf of a minor child by the child’s parents and alleged the division had misused the state’s assessment process to unfairly target a student and remove him from school.
In paperwork filed in November, the plaintiffs answered a series of written interrogatories in which defendants in the case sought information about the child’s mental health and asked to have the child undergo a forensic psychiatric evaluation. The plaintiffs termed the requests for information “overly broad and unduly burdensome” and objected to the disclosure of confidential records of a minor, including academic records.
On Dec. 3, the parties had a settlement conference, after which the case was reassigned to a different judge because the initial judge oversaw the settlement confer...