‘Upskirt’ Saga: Midlands School Board Member Slapped With Lawsuit

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An employee of Richland County’s scandal-plagued school district one has filed a lawsuit alleging that board member Jamie Devine disseminated an “upskirt” photograph of her as part of an effort to belittle her after she publicly complained about the district.

The plaintiff, GED instructor Ali De La Cruz, began publicly expressing concerns with decisions made by district leadership in January of this year. According to a lawsuit filed this week in the S.C. fifth judicial circuit, De La Cruz “regularly offers objective criticism” of the school district’s actions. Her complaints were not limited to mismanagement at the district level. De La Cruz also criticized district officials for allegedly failing to test and evaluate her daughter for an individualized education plan – even after she informed the district multiple times of her daughter’s ADHD diagnosis. She attributed this failure to the school board appropriating insufficient funds to hire an adequate number of psychologists to conduct these assessments.

De La Cruz believes this public criticism caused Devine to take “multiple inappropriate, ‘upskirt’ photographs” of her “without her knowledge or consent while she was sitting in the front row” of an April 23, 2024 school board meeting – and to subsequently distribute “the inappropriate photographs to others via text message” with the intention of “harassing, intimidating and/or embarrass(ing)” her.

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Spartanburg attorney Tyler Rody filed the suit on behalf of De La Cruz, calling the alleged misconduct “so extreme and outrageous as to exceed all possible bounds of decency.” Rody added the dissemination of upskirt photos “must be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”

The suit accused Define of retaliation in violation of the First Amendment, of the intentional infliction of emotional distress, of voyeurism and of violating the Equal Protection clause by harassing De La Cruz because of her gender.

Devine could not be immediately reached for comment, but his attorney Nekki Shutt told reporters for the The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier and The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspapers that Devine “categorically denies taking inappropriate photos at any time” and that the allegations were “categorically untrue” and a “political hit job.”

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Devine has held his seat on the school board for the past sixteen years, and is currently seeking another term in office. His wife, state senator Tameika Isaac Devine, is also seeking re-election this November.

The school district’s board of commissioners is also named in the suit, and is alleged to have created an environment which led to the inappropriate behavior. Richland School district one does not comment on pending litigation, so its spokesperson was not available for comment.

FITSNews was made aware of these allegations shortly after the alleged dissemination of the photo, and was provided with an image which appears to have been taken from Devine’s seat on the dais. However, we were unable to independently verify the provenance of the image – or that it was distributed by Devine.

The photo provided to this news outlet, which was not included in the initial legal filing, is a wide angle image that wouldn’t immediately have been identifiable as an “upskirt” photo without the context of the alleged disparaging comments made about the plaintiff’s private parts.

Anyone with relevant information related to this story is encouraged to reach out to Dylan@fitsnews.com.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

(Via: Travis Bell)

Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.

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