By Paul Gattis
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle 
Nigel Shelby, 15, died by suicide in April, 2019.
A lawsuit brought by the family of a gay Huntsville student who took his own life has removed Mayor Tommy Battle as a defendant.
The family of Nigel Shelby filed the lawsuit in April. In the suit, the family claimed that the 15-year-old student killed himself after school officials failed to stop bullying he was experiencing because he was gay.
Nigel died April 18, 2019.
In a joint filing in federal court last week by both the Shelby family and the defendants, the parties asked that Battle and the City of Huntsville as well as Lauren Woltjen, an assistant principal at Huntsville High School when Nigel was a student, be dismissed as defendants. The filing asked for Battle and Woltjen to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning the claims cannot be filed against them in the future.
U.S. Magistrate Herman Johnson granted the dismissal May 12.
Remaining as defendants in the lawsuit is Huntsville City Schools board of education, Superintendent Christie Finley and school administrators Aaron King, Jo Stafford and David Whitener.
In addition to the assertion that school officials knew Nigel was being bullied because he was gay, the lawsuit also said that school officials knew the student was contemplating suicide and took no action.
The lawsuit was brought by Shelby’s parents Camika Shelby and Patrick Cruz. The family is represented by prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump as well as Jasmine Rand and former Madison County District Judge Lynn Sherrod.
The 54-page lawsuit has nine counts: Title IX violations based on gender/sex discrimination, Title VI violations based on race discrimination, Equal Protection Clause violations based on race and sex discrimination, recklessness willfulness and wantonness, negligence, premises liability, breach of contract, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In each count, the family asks for in excess of $75,000 in addition to compensatory, punitive and other damages.
No hearings have been scheduled in the case.