SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST STUDENT WHO SAYS HE GOT POOR EDUCATION

(12/03/2008)

The state Supreme Court has ruled against a 2004 graduate of Sissonville High School who says he received a defective education. The Supreme Court says the parents of Thomas Sturm failed to exhaust their administrative remedies before bringing the case. "We further find that the appellant has failed to meet the burden of proving an exception to the exhaustion requirement," Chief Justice Spike Maynard wrote in the opinion. Sturm's attorney Mike Clifford told the court during a September 23 oral argument the school system knew Sturm was failing most of his classes just months before his graduation, but he received a diploma anyway despite Sturm not being able to adequately read or write. Clifford said the system failed to follow Sturm's Independent Educational Plan that is supposed to insure proper progression. Attorney Charles Bailey, for the Kanawha County Board of Education, told the court Sturm's parents failed to take advantage of the appeals process.

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