The Bryan school district and former superintendent Tommy Wallis are among 14 defendants in a lawsuit filed by surviving family members of a southeast Texas high school principal who took his life after leaving a meeting with Wallis.
Members of the Dennis Reeves family are seeking unspecified monetary damages and the removal of Wallis and all employees and school board members in the Kirbyville school district who they say were responsible for Reeves’s death.
Wallis is in his second full year as Kirbyville’s superintendent, after he was forced out in Bryan in October of 2016.
Reeves’s parents, widow, and two sons accuse the Bryan school board of sharing in the responsibility of Reeves’s death by writing what the lawsuit describes as a glowing letter of recommendation for Wallis.
In a prepared statement, Bryan school board president Mark McCall said “The Bryan Independent School District Board of Trustees denies all allegations of wrongdoing referenced in the lawsuit that was recently reported on in the local media.”
The lawsuit, first reported by KFDM television in Beaumont, was filed February 28th. A Bryan ISD spokesman says the lawsuit was not discussed by the school board during Monday’s meeting.
And the Bryan ISD board has so far not hired outside legal assistance…as it did after Wallis sued board members and central office administrators in his attempt to block the release of personnel documents that led to his separation agreement in October 2016.