A Chancery Court ruling has finally been handed down in the case involving a 2018 pronouncement by the Sunflower County Consolidated School District to change the name of Ruleville Central High School to Thomas E. Edwards Sr. High School.
After citing several relatable cases, statutes and opinions, Chancery Judge Debra Giles issued a denial of the injunctive relief and temporary restraining order filed by Thomas Foster on behalf of the Ruleville Central High alumni.
The SCCSD voted last year at the request of former superintendent Thomas Edwards’ son, Darron Edwards, to rename the school in Edwards’ honor and subsequently set the wheels in motion to make the change.
The official decision was made after the board of trustees voted to revise its facility naming policy, which previously required only posthumous consideration of proposed honorees and a majority vote.
During that September 2018 meeting, upon the advice of Attorney Carlos Palmer, the trustees originally held off on renaming the school pending review of the policy. The final decision was made after more discussion at a subsequent meeting.
Protests and contentions arose from some former students and alumni, including Foster and Thomas Allen, who after several unsuccessful attempts to sway the board of trustees’ decision filed the injunctive relief and a temporary restraining order in a civil lawsuit with the Sunflower County Chancery Court.
The judgment from Giles, dated September 27 of this year, states that an injunction was filed on July 11 and was brought about because Foster and other alumni believe the district violated existing policies and provisions by voting to change the name of the school.
It further states that the group feels the SCCSD board’s determination will or may cause detrimental and irreparable harm to the programs at the school.
However, 11 days after that July filing, the school board filed a memorandum to strike the restraining order and dismiss the claim citing the group’s injunction was not filed in time and that it was filed in the wrong court.
Subsequently, a hearing was held in August wherein statements were heard from Superintendent Miskia Davis as well as Foster and Allen.
Giles’ ruling reflected that although Foster said he was aware of the school board’s decision and was opposed to their choice, he did not attend either of the school board’s meetings in October, November, or December.
Also of note is that the minutes from the associated board meetings were not submitted as part of the record for the court.
Following Giles’ decision, at its October 2019 regular session, the trustees voted to go back and revise the minutes from the September 13, 2018 meeting where the vote was made to modify the district’s naming policy. It is now to reflect that all of the members voted yes.
According to Davis and the account of that 2018 session, member Melanie Townsend-Blackmon had said no, member Debra Johnson had abstained and member Torrey Bell was absent and only President Edward Thomas and member Emma Golden voted yes. Davis said the minutes reflected that the measure failed, which was incorrect.
She then offered Townsend-Blackmon and Johnson the opportunity to change their votes to yes and they did. Davis added, “It passed either way, but if you want the board to reflect, Mrs. Johnson, that you said yay. Mrs. Townsend, if you want it to reflect… we can do that,” said Davis. Neither Thomas nor Bell were at the October session.
