Ex-Superintendent of Schools for Deaf, Blind Suing State

The former superintendent of West Virginia's state schools for blind and deaf students has filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse his firing.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports Martin Keller Jr. is suing the state Board of Education and state schools superintendent Steve Paine. Keller's attorneys, Dave Hammer and Christine Glover, say Kanawha County court filed the suit on Monday.

Glover says she hopes the filing leads to Keller's reinstatement and that a federal lawsuit doesn't have to be filed.

The board didn't explain why it fired Keller on Nov. 17. He was hired in August 2015 and officials said he was the first deaf superintendent in the schools' history that stretches to 1870.

Kristin Anderson, state education department communications director, says a responsive pleading will be filed soon.