Teen's lawsuit born out of passion for education

18 year old Chapin High School senior Casey Edwards says she did not file a lawsuit before the State Supreme Court for a decision on whether the General Assembly can override Governor Sanford and appropriate $700 million in stimulus funds for publicity or for a class project. Edwards says improving public education for her has become a passion because she has seen the need after viewing the documentary “Corridor of Shame.”
“In the beginning of my senior year my student body at Chapin High School raised $10-thousand for an elementary school in Dillon County District Two and we gave the money to them for the holidays. I also joined the “Goodbye Minimally Adequate” campaign to change our state constitution so that it would read “requiring a high quality education” for all public schools in South Carolina.”
Casey says as far as her future is concerned, a career in the legal profession is a possibility but she’s considering other professions as well.
Casey’s dad, David Edwards works in commercial insurance and owns a florist in Chapin. Edwards says he’s not surprised that his daughter decided to take action on the stimulus funds issue by filing the lawsuit. “If you give Casey an argument, she’s going after it. She strongly believes that everybody deserves a good education. Chapin is a phenomenal district, a phenomenal school and she wants the rest of them to have it. When she went there (the school in Dillon) she hated that. She was talking about how they couldn’t go when it flooded, when it rained. She said I don’t see how we can say no when our school districts are so bad.”
Edwards describes himself as a political conservative. Edwards says his daughter has supported Governor Sanford in the past, she just happens to disagree with him on the issue of his turning down $700 million in stimulus funds.