Individual defendants removed from Wright suit, VHS principal drops countersuit

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Individual Vashon school district administrators named in a lawsuit against the district that alleges harassment and discrimination at island schools, have had their names removed from the suit.

The action means that Vashon High School principal Danny Rock, McMurray Middle School principal Greg Allison, Vashon Island School District (VISD) Superintendent Michael Soltman, his assistant Donna Donnelly and the district’s former Title IX Coordinator Paula Cummings, all initially named as individual defendants in the suit, have been dismissed and are permanently protected from being named in the suit again. The suit will move forward with VISD as the sole defendant.

According to court documents, the action came on March 22, less than two months after the lawyer representing Rock filed a countersuit against Kelly Wright, the island naturopathic physician who, along with another island family, filed the initial suit against the district and administrators last spring. The countersuit alleged that Wright was suing in retaliation against, and as a distraction to, school administrators who had questioned her office’s drug prescription practices in a situation with a student unrelated to either suit.

The case is on schedule to go to trial this fall. Depositions are still underway at the school district.