NICOLE TRACY
Reporter
A 313 page amended civil rights lawsuit brought by the Mineral Springs School District against the Arkansas State Board of Education has named Hempstead County as an additional party to the suit, as well as incorrectly naming the Nashville School District and Superintendent Doug Graham as additional parties in the legal matter.
Nashville Superintendent Graham and Mineral Springs Superintendent Curtis Turner, Jr., both unequivocally state that the Nashville School District and Graham are not parties to the lawsuit.
Superintendent Turner stated that he is friends with Doug Graham, and the Mineral Springs School Board agreed not to include Nashville as a defendant in the matter. Turner went on to state that he had directed attorney John W. Walker not to include the Nashville School District in the suit.
Superintendent Graham stated that “There is absolutely no truth in the fact that the Nashville School District was named in the Mineral Springs School Board lawsuit.”
Hempstead County received notice of the lawsuit on April 11. Hempstead County Judge Haskell Morse said that he has contacted the county’s lawyers in Little Rock and Hot Springs to handle the matter.
The lawsuit, filed by Attorney John Walker on behalf of Mineral Springs School District Superintendent Curtis Turner, Jr. and the Board of Education alleges revenue was diverted from the SWEPCO Turk Power Plant.
The lawsuit contains several allegations, including that state officials encouraged white students and black athletes to transfer from Mineral Springs to the Nashville School District.
The amended complaint was filed in the United States District Court – Eastern District of Arkansas on April 6, and as of April 20, was readily available on the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) website, https://www.pacer.gov, which is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information online from federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts.
The Nashville News obtained a copy of the amended complaint through this service.
Attorney John W. Walker was contacted about the matter by the Nashville News, and as of press time, there had been no reply.
(Editor Note: Jonathan Canaday, News Director for Southwest Arkansas Radio contributed to this report.)
