By Fallan Patterson

Staff Writer

Osceola County School Board Chairman Cindy Hartig filed two lawsuits seeking damages against a fellow school board member for calling her “mentally ill” and against a resident for publicly alleging Hartig bullied a local principal into moving her daughter's math grade up a letter.

In a lawsuit filed April 7 in Osceola County court, Hartig is seeking $15,000 in damages, excluding attorney fees and costs, against Cyndi Pauley for publicly alleging Hartig had bullied Liberty High School Principal Robert Studly into changing her daughter's math grade from a B to an A.

Pauley's email, which was also sent to the Osceola News-Gazette April 1, states Pauley was told directly by two Liberty High School teachers that Hartig met with Studly and demanded he direct the unnamed math teacher to change her daughter's grade.

“I believe these teachers are telling the truth,” Pauley wrote in the email. “One is a very close friend of the math teacher in question.”

The lawsuit states Pauley made these statements “without reasonable care” to the truth of the comments and that a proper investigation of the allegations would have shown Pauley that the statements were “false and misleading.”

Calls to Hartig were not returned and contact with Pauley was unsuccessful Friday morning.

Martha Mann, public information officer with the Osceola County School District, confirmed Friday that School Board attorney Suzanne D'Agresta is looking at hiring a private attorney or investigator to look into the matter. Calls to D'Agresta's Orlando office were not returned.

In the second lawsuit, filed April 11, Hartig is seeking $15,000 against fellow School Board Member Jay Wheeler for defamation of character.

Wheeler has, on multiple occasions since October, the lawsuit states, called Hartig “mentally ill,” “in need of a medical professional” and “crazy.”

In weekly email updates Wheeler sends to anyone who wants to sign up, he has gone after most of his fellow board members, calling Hartig and Board Members Tom Long and Barbara Horn “egocentric, vindictive and narcissistic” in his March 29 email update. However, Hartig often bears the brunt of the comments.

In an Osceola News-Gazette story that ran in October, Wheeler said Hartig “has been disruptive for no reason” and that she became a “different person” after running unopposed for the School Board in 2008 after Thomas Chalifoux Jr. withdrew from the district 3 race.

In a Jan. 9 Wheeler email update, he calls Hartig “mentally ill” and claims she needs “professional helps.”

He goes as far as to say he is willing to make DVD copies of past School Board meetings and hire board-certified psychiatrists and psychologists to review Hartig's behavior to get their professional opinion on Hartig's “mental state.”

“If (my fellow board members) continue to allow Cindy Hartig as chairman, I will publicly embarrass them with opinions from licensed psychiatrists and psychologists about the mental fitness of Cindy Hartig,” Wheeler wrote in the same email, adding Hartig appears to get a “chemical high” from “being bombastic and mean to people” and that Hartig “is sick and needs help.”

Hartig's lawsuit claims Wheeler made the statements intending to expose Hartig to “hatred, ridicule or contempt” publicly.

Hartig previously announced in the October Osceola News-Gazette story she was not bothered by Wheeler's comments.

“It really means nothing to me. It's not even a blip on my radar,” she said at the time.

Wheeler said Friday morning he would hire legal representation and declined to go into details about the lawsuit against him. He did mention his curiosity about one aspect of Hartig's lawsuit.

“I think one of the odd things is she says (in the lawsuit) she is not a public figure and she's on the School Board,” he said.

Check back with the Osceola News-Gazette at www.aroundosceola.com for updates.