Text Bucks sues OTC over student info

New and used textbook seller Text Bucks filed a lawsuit July 8 in Greene County Circuit Court against Ozarks Technical Community College and the school’s president, Norman Myers, alleging that the school refuses to release student information in an attempt to monopolize book sales.

School spokeswoman Cindy Hinds said the school is following an internal policy.

“The college has had a policy since we started, in 1991,” she said. “It basically says that we don’t give information about students out to businesses, for the reason of solicitation. So we were following our own internal policy.”

Hinds declined to comment further on the case, saying only that the school “is reviewing our policy in light of that suit.”

Myers is not commenting on the case.

In the case, plaintiff’s attorney Joe Passanise of Dee Wampler Law Firm, alleges that the school steers its students to the college bookstore, creating a monopoly situation. Text Bucks is the previous legal name for Wampler Books Inc., which filed the case. Christoper Wampler owns Wampler Books Inc.

This is not the first case of legal trouble involving OTC in the past few years.

Former custodian Danny Marks was charged with invasion of privacy in November after he allegedly filmed female university employees using a campus restroom. Marks’ trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 26, according to Greene County court records.

In July 2004, Alice Gatimu filed a civil suit against the school. She claims OTC denied her admission to its practical nursing program based on her child-care duties at home, saying those responsibilities would prevent her from keeping up with the program. A trial date was not available in court records.

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