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Federal judge denies motion in VPSB lawsuit

Posted at 1:36 PM, Sep 25, 2019
and last updated 2019-09-25 14:36:52-04

LAFAYETTE, La. — A federal judge denied a motion for a temporary restraining order filed by Vermilion Parish School Superintendent Jerome Puyau against members of the Vermilion Parish School Board during a hearing Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Lafayette.

A temporary restraining order, or TRO, is a court order to keep conditions as they are until there can be a hearing where both parties are present.

According to Puyau's attorney Brett Grayson, the judge denied the TRO and referred the case to a magistrate judge to hear the motion for preliminary injunction.

A date for that hearing has not been set.

Earlier this month, Puyau filed a federal lawsuit against three current school board members and one former board member, alleging that they violated his civil rights.

Board president Laura LeBeouf, vice president Kibbie Pillette, David Dupuis, and former board member Sara Duplechain are all named as defendants in the federal lawsuit.

According to lawsuit, the four board members denied Puyau his civil rights when they successfully moved to put him on administrative leave twice--once in August 2018 and again in July 2019--without a hearing.

According to the agenda for the school board's special meeting on Thursday, Sept. 26, there is an item for the board to move into executive session to discuss the pending litigation of this federal lawsuit and the state lawsuit that the board has filed against Puyau.