Attorneys for the Monroe County School System on Thursday filed a motion in Monroe County Chancery Court seeking summary judgment for dismissal of a $2 million lawsuit filed by former Sequoyah High School football coach Ronnie Summey.

In extensive court documents, attorneys from Knoxville law firm Taylor, Fleishman & Knight state there are no issues as to material fact in the case and therefore the school system is entitled to summary judgment.
In March 2007, Summey was hired as non-tenured, part-time employee for the school system and as head coach of the Sequoyah High football team.

Summey was not given a specific job description because his duties changed frequently, the court papers state.
In court papers, the defendants' attorneys state Summey "immediately set out to institute discipline into Sequoyah High on day one."

The school system alleges Summey "began policing the hallways" of Sequoyah and created his own hall pass and refused to recognize anything other than his "official hall pass."
The school system alleges Summey removed nearly three dozen students from class for having their heads down during class. The school system states Summey did not have permission to remove the students from class.

The school system outlines numerous alleged clashes between Summey and Moser throughout the coach's stay at the school over student attire and other discipline issues.
The court papers further detail allegations of the former coach's clashes with his own coaching staff and players, which ultimately led to Summey's dismissal as Sequoyah's coach in May 2008.
According to the papers filed with the motion for summary judgment, Summey punished a special education student for being late to practice by making the student run around a light pole for an hour during practice.

When one of the assistant coaches questioned the player's safety running around the pole in full pads on a hot day, Summey said the player was too stupid to know when to quit running, according to the court papers.
The defendants allege Summey was accused of sexual harassment toward a teacher and female student at the school.

The school system states though Summey was dismissed as Sequoyah's football coach, he was not fired as a part-time teacher but reassigned to Vonore Middle School and never reported for duty.
The papers then spell out the specific legal reasons why the case should be dismissed.

According to defendants' attorneys, the plaintiff's claims against the individual Monroe County Board of Education members who were on the board in May 2008 and are named in the suit should be dismissed from the lawsuit because the individual board members were not involved in the decision that was made to relieve Summey of his coaching job or to assign him to Vonore Middle School.
The plaintiff voluntarily dismissed one board member, Sonya Lynn, from the suit.

The defendants and their attorneys said the plaintiff's claims of his constitutional rights being violated should be dismissed because the United States Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution do not recognize private causes of actions for violations of the same.

The attorneys for the defendants state the defendants are entitled to summary judgment because the director of school's decision to reassign Summey to Vonore Middle was valid under the plain and unambiguous terms of the plaintiff's contract with the school system.

tommy.millsaps@advocateanddemocrat.com | 337-7101