Lanning responds to lawsuit’s dismissal
By Jazmine Knight
A St. Joseph school board member is responding after a civil lawsuit filed against her was dropped.
Whitney Lanning said she is glad to have the suit, which was filed by fellow board member Isaura Garcia, behind her. Garcia dropped her suit, which stemmed from a Feb. 26 incident between her and Lanning, on Tuesday.
“Overall, I’m glad to have this suit behind us,” Lanning said in a statement sent to News-Press NOW. “I look forward to having one less distraction from the important work of improving our district for our students and staff.”
Lanning said she believes the lawsuit had been “orchestrated” in partnership with a local company “as one of their many attempts to make me resign from the board and silence me from sharing the many ways they are working to destroy public education locally and statewide.”
Lanning pleaded guilty earlier this month to a misdemeanor charge of second-degree harassment regarding the Feb. 26 incident at the Troester Media Center. Video footage captured by school district cameras shows Lanning following Garcia, yelling and eventually throwing her own belongings at a wall as another board member walks between the two women.
Lanning said her actions followed a board meeting during which her daughter was brought up.
“A school board member made a derogatory comment about my 6-year-old child, who is a student of this district,” Lanning said. “My daughter is and always has been the real victim here.”
Lanning is on probation in the harassment case and has been ordered to attend an anger management course.
On Tuesday, Garcia said she no longer feels the need to pursue civil litigation following Lanning’s guilty plea.
“I am pleased that our criminal justice system held Mrs. Lanning accountable for her outrageous conduct when she pled guilty to harassment earlier this month,” she said in a statement. “While I remain convinced that her actions make her unfit to serve on the Board and believe she should resign, I sincerely hope that we can work together professionally for the remainder of our tenure on the Board.”
