The settlement was announced in documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
The agreement does not involve the payment of money, according to the documents. "Defendants have not compensated the plaintiffs in conjunction with this dismissal, but rather have permitted the plaintiffs to dismiss this matter with prejudice to its refiling."
Ms. Fox's resignation was announced in April with nearly two months left on her contract and the board agreeing to pay her for the time, according to the Joplin Globe:
Superintendent Steve Wilmoth said the Board of Education accepted Fox’s resignation, which is effective immediately, during a closed meeting last week. He said she has accepted a job as principal at a school district in another part of the state.
“I told her as a professional courtesy that we would fulfill her contract, but she could move on and start preparing for her new job,” he said, adding that Fox accepted his offer. “It means that she’s no longer working on a daily basis.”
The cheerleaders, one of whom was the captain, said they were unfairly removed from the squad by Ms. Fox, according to the petition. On June 10, they were "informed they would be removed from the cheer squad immediately."
They were being disciplined, according to the lawsuit, "for conduct alleged to have occurred off district property when the school was not in session."
The lawsuit says Ms. Fox singled out the students in an interview with the Seneca News-Dispatch and at an assembly of students in August and that she tried to have the students sign a bullying contract. Nowhere in the lawsuit does it describe what transgressions the former cheerleaders allegedly committed. When KSNF broke the story this afternoon, it was reported that school officials told the television station that the lawsuit had nothing to do with the hazing incident involving Seneca football players at a camp at Pittsburg State University, but coincidentally, the cheerleaders were removed from the squad at almost the exact time the hazing allegations were leveled.
The bullying contract the cheerleaders said they were asked to sign is part of the new policy implemented by the school board following the hazing incidents.
It appeared that the allegations against the cheerleaders may have come from something posted on the internet.
One of the students, referred to as "P. A." in the lawsuit says the actions of the principal and board:
-Included removal of her position as cheer captain
-Threat of preclusion from her position as a top All-American Cheerleader
-She was removed as FFA vice president
-Her position on the National Honor Society was threatened.
-She was alienated from other students and from her fellow cheerleaders
-She was precluded from receiving certain scholarships.
The other student, referred to as K. E. also referred to her removal from the cheerleading squad, alienation from students and from her fellow cheerleaders.
Both say the actions of the defendants have been harmful to their "learning environment."
They say their constitutional rights of free speech, association, and privacy were violated.
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