Court dismisses lawsuit School district free from allegations by ex-bus driver BY MATT BRUCE matthew@theitem.com
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2014
SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894 5 SECTIONS, 36 PAGES | VOL. 120, NO. 40
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A former Sumter County bus driver, who was fired last year after being involved a fight with a student on her bus, had her defamation lawsuit against Sumter School District dismissed earlier this month. Deloris Rainwater, a 61-year-old Lexington County woman, filed the civil complaint July 8, 2013, about two months after Sumter School District administrators officially fired her from her position as a district bus driver. The
district’s decision came on the heels of a March 1, 2013, altercation between Rainwater and a student at Crestwood High School that ended with the student punching the driver in the face. Authorities arrested the teenage student at the scene of the incident, and she was subsequently charged with simple assault in connection with the incident. Rainwater, however, lost her job after school district officials conducted an internal investigation and decided that she helped provoke the fight by behaving unprofessionally during
the escalating argument. The investigation included statements from several student witnesses, whose names and testimonies are sealed in court documents. It also included surveillance footage from a school bus video, which showed the fight. According to Rainwater’s seven-page claim, she was a 15-year veteran who had been driving for the school district for two years before the March 2013 incident. The lawsuit claimed the student attacked her and began beating
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Uninsured eligible for Checkup screenings BY SEANNA ADCOX The Associated Press
Clemson breaks 5-game losing streak Tigers beat Gamecocks 35-17
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Gail Geddings, left, passes off the bell to Kai Svenningsen, 8, to ring outside Walmart on Friday. The Salvation Army volunteer said they were doing so well she might need another bucket.
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Senior Cpl. Warren Davis with Sumter Police Department’s Crime Prevention Unit holds one of the art kits he received Saturday while set up outside Walmart with the Cram-A-Cruiser toy drive. The department is collecting toys for The Salvation Army, and next Saturday will be set up from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Walgreens, 201 N. Lafayette Drive.
COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s Medicaid agency is offering residents who fall into an insurance gap because of Republicans’ refusal to expand Medicaid eligibility a limited-benefits program intended to catch illnesses early. What happens if a problem is detected is still being worked out. The program, named Healthy Connections Checkup, provides physical exams every other year that include screenings for obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and several types of cancer. The coverage that began Aug. 1 expanded on a 20-year-old state program that provided only “family planning” services. “You want folks to know their health status, and Checkup is a way for folks to stop wondering and start knowing, diagnostically, where they stand,” said Christian Soura, interim director of the Department of Health and Human Services. The estimated 450,000 South Carolinians eligible for Checkup are mostly the same people who would qualify for full Medicaid benefits if the state expanded eligibility as the federal health overhaul intended. The limited-benefits program represents the agency’s fastestgrowing segment. Roughly 140,000 people are enrolled in Checkup. That’s an increase of 30,000 since July 1 and more than three times the number enrolled in the previous “family planning” benefit when Gov. Nikki Haley took office in January 2011, according to the agency. It hopes 200,000 will be enrolled by next summer. Signups generally occur when people fill out applications through the state agency or healthcare.gov and learn what they can get, Soura said. He called it a cost-effective way
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Ferguson tries to move on from unrest BY JIM SALTER The Associated Press FERGUSON, Mo. — Life won’t return to normal in Ferguson for a long time, but there are signs that people in the community are trying to move on after days of intense unrest about the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case.
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Officer who shot Brown resigns FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — The white police officer who killed Michael Brown has resigned from the Ferguson Police Department, WILSON his attorney said Saturday, nearly four months after the fatal confrontation with the black 18-year-old that fueled
protests in the St. Louis suburb and across the nation. Darren Wilson, 28, has been on administrative leave since the shooting on Aug. 9. His resignation was announced Saturday by one of his attorneys, Neil Bruntrager. The resignation is effective immediately, Bruntrager said.
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