Two families who home-school their children filed lawsuits Friday, asking a judge to force their nearby public schools to let the four students play sports.

Kanawha Circuit Court Judge Duke Bloom temporarily granted three of the four requests late Friday afternoon. The fourth will go before Judge Irene Berger during a hearing Thursday.

Greg and Tina Lambert, of Summers County, sued for their children, 12-year-old Kristan Lambert and 9-year-old Justin Lambert, who want to try out for school sports teams at nearby Shady Spring Middle School and Ghent Elementary School. The Lamberts home-school their children because of moral and religious concerns, according to their Kanawha County Circuit Court lawsuits. Both children have previously been allowed to attend Raleigh County schools because their home in Summers County is farther from that county’s schools.

Dale and Misti Tolliver of Ghent also asked that their children be allowed to try out and participate in public school sports teams. Their children, 12-year-old April N. McBride and 9-year-old Kyle Dale Tolliver, also are home-schooled for a variety of reasons, including religious and moral concerns, according to their lawsuit.

Complete story at http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/Other+News/2004082725

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Conversation with Gregory Lambert 8/30/04:

Judge Bloom was assigned one of the four requests and attempted to handle all of them together; he was successful in getting all but one case. Judge Berger refused to allow the case she was assigned (for Kristan Lambert) to be handled by Judge Bloom; she scheduled a hearing for Thursday, September 2.

It is Judge Bloom's decision of last September in the Jones case that is being appealed before the State Supreme Court; a date for that hearing has not yet been assigned.

When I asked how he had managed all the legal paperwork involved in requesting a preliminary injunction, Mr. Lambert replied, "Prayers. And God." A clerk in the Kanawha County Circuit Court faxed him a copy of Attorney Randy Minor's request for a preliminary injunction in the Jones case, but not before explaining that the office does not usually do that. Mr. Lambert then spent several late nights studying that and other legal documents and researching legal cases so that his complaint would be ready by August 28. It was important that the request be filed by that day because tryouts and practice for basketball and soccer -- the two sports the Lambert and Tolliver children wanted to play -- begin this week (8/30). Mr. Lambert's friend, Dale Tolliver, who is also the father of the Kyle Tolliver and stepfather of April (Nikki) McBride (two of the other plaintiffs), drove Mr. Lambert to Kanawha County Circuit Court in Charleston on Friday.

Prior to deciding to handle the legal work on his own, Mr. Lambert did consult with Scott Woodruff of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), since the Lamberts are members of that organization.  Mr. Woodruff explained that despite the article about this issue on HSLDA's website http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/wv/200406220.asp, HSLDA will not be able to help in their case because the organization helps people who want to homeschool, not homeschoolers who want to play sports in public school. The Lamberts also spoke with other attorneys in West Virginia, but none of them wanted to take the case because of the pending appeal of the Jones case before the State Supreme Court.

Mr. Lambert said it's especially hard on his daughter Kristan because of all the children named in the complaint, she is the one who wants to play the most. "They all want to play," says Mr. Lambert, "but Kristan really wants to play." Miss Lambert's friend, Nikki McBride, is now allowed to participate in soccer practice at Shady Spring Middle School, but Miss Lambert can only watch from the sidelines. Out of sympathy for her friend's plight, Miss McBride is sitting out the practices until a decision is made in her friend's case.

Mr. Lambert is anxious about the hearing scheduled for Thursday, and he is eager to consult with anyone with legal expertise who might be able to help his daughter's case.

-- Betsy Kocsis