A Daily Mail opinion from the Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Supreme Court on Tuesday correctly threw out a lawsuit filed by ousted state schools superintendent Jorea Marple against the state Board of Education and its former president Wade Linger.
As readers will recall, the board awkwardly fired the superintendent during a public meeting in November of 2012, then had to redo the firing a couple of weeks later to assure it had complied with the state’s open meetings act.
“We do not pass judgment on the wisdom, correctness, or fairness of Dr. Marple’s termination,” Justice Menis Ketchum wrote in the opinion, reported the Gazette-Mail’s Kate White. But, he added, “The West Virginia Constitution, statutory law, and her employment contract all gave the Board and Mr. Linger discretion to terminate her position at their will and pleasure.”
Just how clear does the law need to be to Dr. Marple that the superintendent position serves the board, and not the other way around?
Marple claimed her due-process rights were violated and that Linger defamed her and put her in a false light.
Yet, the only one who did any harm to Dr. Marple’s professional reputation was herself, both through the action of filing a frivolous lawsuit after the firing, but more importantly, her lack of action leading up to her termination…
