Virginia School Board Files $600K Lawsuit Against Father of Special Needs Student

The Bedford County School Board filed a lawsuit seeking $600,000 in damages from the father of a special needs student, claiming the man’s abrasive communications with school staff about his son’s treatment over the last three years amounts to illegal intimidation and harassment.

In court filings, Bedford resident David Rife insists he’s the one being intimidated, noting that the county school board sued him shortly after he filed a complaint with the Virginia Department of Education saying local school officials weren’t following the individualized education program, or IEP, designed to accommodate his son’s learning disability and improve his reading skills. When he filed the complaint, Rife told state officials he feared he would face retaliation locally, according to court documents.

The school board filed its lawsuit against Rife on March 26, roughly a month after Rife sent his complaint to state education officials.

In a March 29 letter responding to Rife’s complaint, state education officials ruled Bedford school officials were out of compliance in several policy areas and ordered the division to take corrective action in regards to Rife’s son by April 29.

In his answer to the lawsuit, Rife suggested the timeline “suggests the possibility” the suit may have been retaliation and argues it’s school officials who are in the wrong.

The court case highlights ongoing disputes over parents’ rights in K-12 schools, spotty compliance with special education rules and how public officials should handle unpleasant or hostile speech from critics.

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The case was brought on behalf of the Bedford School Board by attorneys in the Richmond office of Sands Anderson, a law firm that handles a variety of local government issues. A Sands Anderson attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment on Rife’s claims about the motivations for the suit.

Bedford School Board Chairman Marcus Hill didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday. The school board itself is the plaintiff suing Rife.

In court filings responding to the suit, Rife and his attorney contend he had good reason to be frustrated with Bedford schools over the lack of consideration for state and federal special education laws. Rife’s defense contends he only used “impolite” language while “passionately advocating” for his son, who suffers from anxiety and was reading at a fifth grade level as a sophomore in high school.

“It is highly ironic that BCPS, whose School Board members have emphasized repeatedly and strongly the importance of protecting parental rights, have now sued a parent for a total of $600,000.00 because the school personnel did not like how he has advocated for his son,” said the response filed on Rife’s behalf by Bedford attorney David Whitehurst.

The civil suit claims Rife used “obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious and/or indecent language” when interacting with school staff in person, over the phone and via email. The lawsuit lists several examples of Rife threatening to call the police, have people arrested, file lawsuits or initiate investigations over what he believed to be mistreatment of his son.

The filing recounts conversations in which Rife allegedly said the school principal should “get her head out of her ass” and said her “bullshit” was putting his son at risk. Documents filed in court also suggest Rife used the terms “asshole,” “jerk” and “jerkoff” to refer to school staff members.

Bedford school officials tried to put Rife on a communications plan in early 2023 that limited his contact with staff.

“Bedford County Public Schools expects parents to be respectful and civil when interacting with school staff members,” Deputy Superintendent Karen Woodford wrote to Rife last July in a letter filed with the lawsuit. “We will no longer tolerate your profanity to staff, threats, dishonest communication about people losing their jobs, yelling and speaking badly about staff members. If you cannot abide by this plan, I will limit your interaction with staff even more than it is at this time.”

In addition to the $600,000 the school board is seeking from Rife for “personal injury, lost profits, increased operating expenses and legal fees,” the board is asking the Bedford Circuit Court to order Rife to stop using vulgar language and follow the communications plan the school division laid out for him.

“Putting an end to the abuse of government resources is plainly in the public interest,” the school board’s lawyers wrote in a motion seeking an emergency injunction against Rife.

Rife’s attorney has argued that nothing he said rises to the level of criminal conduct under the laws the school board pointed to dealing with using a computer or phone for harassment and “abusive language to another.” The communication plan the school division is asking the court to enforce states that Rife can only use email to contact the school principal and the division’s director of special education and says they “will not communicate through phone unless there is an emergency.”

In a competing motion asking the court to order Bedford County Public Schools to comply with the IEP plan, Rife’s side argued the injunction school officials were seeking would infringe on free speech.

“It would serve as a ‘lesson’ to other parents that advocating for their children could result in being sued,” Rife’s motion says.

The communications the school divisions objected to, Rife’s attorney argued in legal filings, should be understood in the context of a parent trying to help their child but getting little assistance from school officials. Many of the interactions school officials spotlighted involved Rife complaining about bullying by other students or behavior by teachers that he felt was adding to his son’s difficulties at school, according to court records.

“One example is that Mr. Rife has been restricted from speaking directly with his son’s case manager or the reading specialist for over three years outside of IEP meetings,” Rife’s court filings say. “As would most parents in such a situation, this has caused him to become frustrated and upset, and that frustration has at times been expressed to school employees, but never with malice or threat.”

The specific language school staff found offensive would “generally be considered fairly mild in today’s culture,” Rife’s court filings argue.

State officials ruled Bedford officials were not in compliance with several sections of the student’s IEP calling for him to receive specialized instruction and assistance. For example, the plan called for the student to receive at least 45 minutes of reading services five times per week in a special education setting, but state officials determined he wasn’t always getting that level of instruction.

The state ordered Bedford school officials to reexamine the student’s IEP, discuss whether he needed extended school year services and review what “compensatory” assistance was necessary to address the impact on the student’s “access to a free appropriate public education.”

Attorneys for the school board portrayed the lawsuit as a necessary step to safeguard the school division after less formal efforts to improve relations with Rife failed.

The courts requiring Rife to communicate with school officials in a particular manner, the school board’s lawyers wrote, won’t impede his ability to have “reasonable, good faith communications with BCPS about his child’s education.”

A hearing has not yet been scheduled in the case.

by Graham Moomaw, Virginia Mercury

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