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On the heels of filing a federal suit against the city of Tullahoma, the mayor and two local businessmen for $500,000, Alderman Jenna Amacher has filed a petition for writ of Certiorari with the Coffee County Chancery Court concerning the status of her daughter who she said was prevented from attending Tullahoma City Schools despite having every right to be a student in the local system.

By definition, what Amacher is asking for is a type of writ, meant for rare use, by which an appellate court decides to review a case at its discretion. The word certiorari comes from Law Latin and means “to be more fully informed.” A writ of certiorari orders a lower court to deliver its record in a case so that the higher court may review it.

Amacher maintains her child was barred from attendance in the Tullahoma system based on a local definition of “residency” that does not exist. She wants the court to make the system admit her child and reverse the school’s ruling.

In presenting the background of the case, Amacher said she was put on trial in Chancery Court to determine if she was really a resident of Tullahoma. To serve as alderman, it is required to have residency in the city. Amacher was ultimately found to have residency in the city and was permitted to keep her seat on the aldermanic board. It is that question of residency that brought her $500,000 suit against the city, maintaining she was conspired against to get her removed from office. The federal suit was filed in the Eastern District Court around the same time as Amacher filed her petition with the local Chancery Court.

After winning her case concerning her residency, Amacher said she placed her child in the Tullahoma School System and provided the proofs necessary. However, on the first day of school Amacher said her daughter was “intercepted” by school officials and was barred from classes due to questions of residency. An appeal was filed and school officials decided tuition would have to be paid for the child to attend city schools.

Amacher maintains she was not given a chance to argue her case. “If Amacher had received notice of the board’s position and a fair opportunity to respond, she very easily might have destroyed the board’s faulty logic,” the suit reads.

She maintains in her Chancery filing TCS is trying to force a definition of “residency” that does not exist.

“By applying a local definition of residency against Amacher that does not even exist within its policies, and which could not possibly exist because it would defy state law, and by refusing to uphold even its own policy of simply requiring a driver license and utility bill, the Board has acted illegally and arbitrarily,” the suit asserts.

The court filing was made by Murfreesboro-based attorney Drew Justice who is also handling her federal case against the city of Tullahoma.