ASHLAND — A federal judge on Tuesday tossed out most of the claims in a 2010 lawsuit filed against the Greenup County School District by two of its former teachers who alleged they were wrongfully terminated and their daughter was discriminated against because of her disability, but left standing the one claim at the heart of the case.

In a 19-page ruling, Senior U.S. District Judge Henry R. Wilhoit Jr. let stand only one count in Lonnie and Wendy Nixon’s suit while dismissing six others.

However, that one remaining count — that the district failed to comply with Audrie Nixon’s disability plan, commonly “504 Plan,” after the Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 — was the impetus for the lawsuit.

The 504 plan was necessary because Audrie Nixon, who at the time was a second-grader at McKell Elementary School, has Type 1 diabetes. It was developed to allow the youngster to fully participate in the educational opportunities at the school.

The Nixons, who both taught at McKell, alleged in their suit, filed in June 2010, they were let go because of their complaints about the district’s repeated failure to comply with the disability plan. In addition to the school system, the suit names as defendants former Superintendent Randy Hughes, McKell Elementary Principal Thomas J. Kouns and five district employees identified only as “John Does.”

The school district maintained it complied fully with Audrie Nixon’s disability plan, and that Lonnie Nixon, a fifth-grade teacher at McKell during the 2009-10 school year, wasn’t terminated, but left the district of his own volition to take a job in North Carolina.

Tuesday’s ruling was in response to a motion for summary judgment filed by one of the school district’s attorneys, Jonathan C. Shaw of Paintsville.

In the ruling, Wilhoit said “factual issues” precluded him granting summary judgment for the defendants in the claim about Audrie Nixon’s disability plan.

According to the ruling, in seeking dismissal of the claim, the defendants relied upon the testimony of Sharon Moore, a former 504 coordinator and special education coordinator for the Pike County schools. Moore testified the district did not ignore the Nixons’ complaints and there were several meetings during the 2009-10 school year to revise the girl’s 504 plan.

Also, Moore noted the district assigned a school nurse to McKell and assigned an aide to the girl to assist with monitoring her blood sugar levels and to help her with snacks and other diabetes care activities, the ruling states.

However, the plaintiffs disputed the validity of Moore’s testimony, noting it was based on misunderstanding of certain key facts. For example, the ruling states, the plaintiffs contended Moore wrongly assumed the nurse assigned to McKell worked only there, when in fact she divided her time among three schools, and the aide assigned to the girl had no other duties than that, when in fact she testified she had many others.

“ ... factual issues about with regard to whether and to what extent defendants failed to comply with the 504 plan. As such, summary judgment as to this claim is not warranted,” Wilhoit wrote.

With regard to the other claims, Wilhoit ruled the plaintiffs’ equal protection, due process and First Amendment claims failed as a matter of law, as did Lonnie Nixon’s claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, that Wendy Nixon’s claims were invalid because they were filed outside the one-year statute of limitations and that the Nixons had failed to prove they were retaliated against because of their advocacy for their daughter.

The judge also ruled Hughes and Kouns were entitled to immunity in their individual capacities.

The Nixons are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, plus court costs.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or

(606) 326-2654.