Lowndes County School District has asked a judge to dismiss lawsuits brought against it by former New Hope High School principal Lynn Wright and longtime baseball coach Stacy Hester.
Representatives for the school district are scheduled to discuss the cases via teleconference with a judge on Feb. 1 at 10 a.m. (Wright) and 10:30 a.m. (Hester). Federal Judge Jerry Davis will determine how the cases should progress from there.
Hester and Wright filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, in early October, alleging they were fired as the climax to personality conflicts.
In his suit, Wright claims his support of Hester as baseball coach caused his termination though the district cited an illegal purchase for the firing. The suits claim Lowndes County Superintendent of Education Mike Halford, former LCSD Board President Dr. Robert Buckley and their spouses held a grudge against Hester and “became obsessed with terminating Hester as baseball coach.”
After 18 years as head baseball coach, Hester was fired as coach in 2009 but continued to work for New Hope schools as an elementary school physical education teacher and bus driver to fulfill his retirement qualification, until his termination.
Wright and Hester were released by the district in May for the improper purchase of a $15,000 lawnmower in 2007 to cut the grass at New Hope athletic facilities. When he was fired, Hester took the lawnmower with him.
Both men are represented by Tupelo attorney Jim Waide. Lowndes County School District is represented by Robert Richardson and J. Tucker Mitchell of Copeland, Cook, Taylor and Bush law firm in Ridgeland and Board Attorney Jeff Smith.
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