SC school board member took upskirt photos of teacher during public meeting, lawsuit says
A Richland School District 1 board member used a district phone to take “inappropriate” photos of a teacher during a public meeting last spring and shared them with others via text message and email, according to a lawsuit filed against the district and the board member.
Jamie Devine, a longtime Richland 1 school board member, took multiple “inappropriate,” “upskirt” photographs of the teacher at the meeting without her knowledge or consent while she was sitting in the front row next to her husband, according to the lawsuit.
His “conduct was so extreme and outrageous as to exceed all possible bounds of decency and must be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” the lawsuit, filed by Spartanburg attorney Tyler Rody, read.
Devine, husband of state Sen. Tameika Isaac Devine, D-Richland, could not be reached for immediate comment Thursday afternoon.
His lawyer, Nekki Shutt, told The State that she advised her client not to comment on the pending litigation, but called the suit a “political hit job.”
“That’s deeply offensive,” Shutt said. “It’s upsetting for him to be accused of this.”
Devine, who has been on the board for 16 years, is seeking reelection this fall.
The school district declined to comment.
Ali De La Cruz, an adult education teacher at Richland 1, regularly attends school board meetings.
She criticized the district during the public participation session of the April 23 school board meeting, claiming it failed to evaluate her daughter with ADHD after several requests to do so, the lawsuit said. At that meeting, De La Cruz also faulted the district for its budget and for not being able to hire psychologists to assist students with learning disabilities.
The photos, the lawsuit claims, were taken on a phone that was property of the school district with harmful intent. It was a crime of “moral turpitude,” the lawsuit said.
Devine took the photos for his own “sexual gratification” or the sexual gratification of others, the lawsuit alleges, and distributed the photos to others via text message and email to “harass, intimidate, and/or embarrass” De La Cruz while acting in his official role as a school board member.
It was retaliation for De La Cruz’ critique of school board conduct, the lawsuit claims, which was protected free speech under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Such retaliation would deter an ordinary person from speaking at future school board meetings.
The lawsuit blamed the school district for developing and maintaining policies and practices of “deliberate indifference” towards the constitutional protections of citizens.
De La Cruz has since experienced embarrassment and emotional distress, the lawsuit said, and Devine was further accused of negligence and voyeurism. He was also accused of violating the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which is meant to shield citizens from discrimination, because Devine would not have taken the photos had De La Cruz not been a woman. According to the lawsuit, it was sexual harassment.
This story was originally published August 22, 2024 at 2:46 PM.
