EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — East Palestine City Schools filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Norfolk Southern on Wednesday for what superintendent James Rook called “broken promises” and what the board of education claims the railroad failed to do following the 2023 train derailment and chemical release — including following through on a $30 million wellness center and the relocation of school athletic facilities.

“This disaster upended our students’ lives. Norfolk Southern promised it would not walk away and would help our community recover and thrive,” Rook said during a press conference on Wednesday. “But Norfolk Southern did walk away from our students.”

According to the district, aside from backing out of a promised wellness center, Norfolk also failed to reimburse East Palestine Schools for virtual learning costs and costs of using school facilities and services during the emergency response. School grounds were used as an incident command center and both the high school and middle school gymnasiums were used as temporary housing for residents following the disaster. District school buses were also used to transport residents displaced by the mandatory evacuation orders.

Ashlie Case Sletvold of the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the district in Youngstown’s District Court, described the derailment-related expenses already incurred by district as “backward” damages and lost operating expenses as “forward” damages. Those damages include the derailment’s impact on enrollment and both property values and resident income on which the schools’ operating budget relies.

“East Palestine has not recovered from the perception of contamination and long-term health consequences,” Rook said. “Student enrollment fell significantly in 2024 and will continue to fall because Norfolk Southern has broken its promises to ‘make it right.’ The impact on our students is heartbreaking. Our district will hold Norfolk Southern to its promises so we can continue to give our students the education they deserve.”

Sletvold said the district is seeking reimbursement of all disaster-related costs, lost revenue from property taxes, income taxes, and decreased student enrollment (through relocation or open enrollment) as well as the $30-plus million pledged for the wellness center. She said the school board “entrusts” the jury to determine how much damages the district is owed.

“There is no question where the blame lies,” Sletvold said. “Norfolk Southern has no right to walk away from the catastrophe it created.”

Nor does it have the right, according to Rook, to abandon plans for the wellness center — a concept initiated and presented to the district by the railroad.

“Norfolk Southern initiated the idea to build the wellness center,” Rook said. “They hired the contractor and the architect. Soil samples were taken. They are the ones that chose the location and said the athletic facilities would have to be relocated.”

Rook said Norfolk Southern executives flew from Atlanta and took school officials to other wellness centers in the area that had been built by the same local contractor hired by the railroad to build one in East Palestine. Norfolk Southern asked the district to form a steering community, which it did, and encouraged input from students which they offered.

“It’s beyond the pale to get students involved in a project that Norfolk Southern initiated and then just abandon it,” Sletvold said.

Rook said status updates regarding the wellness center were held on a regular basis throughout 2023, 2024 and into the new year. Talks began to slow at the start of 2025 as communication broke down and then broke off completely.

“(Norfolk Southern) stopped returning our calls,” Rook said.

The discussions seemingly stalled as the two-year anniversary of the derailment approached and with it the statute of limitations to file suit against the railroad for damages caused by the Feb. 3, 2023 derailment.

Rook, who was named East Palestine superintendent in August to replace now-Boardman superintendent Chris Neifer, said that, at first, Norfolk Southern was ardent to “make things right.”

A month after the disaster, an open donation of $300,000 was made by Norfolk Southern with $40,000 earmarked for athletics due to the cancellation of sporting events and opponents’ unwillingness to come into the village. Another $52,000 in gift cards from the railroad was distributed to the district staff as part of an appreciation event.

Norfolk Southern also committed $750,000 ($75,000 a year for the next 10 years) to for public relations and marketing, but to date Rook said the district has only received $150,000.

Other money received by East Palestine Schools from Norfolk Southern was $100,000 to clean the track (polluted by the vent-and-burn) and $75,000 to repair the elementary school parking (damaged during the derailment response).

Former Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw also made a personal donation of $400,000 to establish an endowment scholarship at the high school. The Bulldog Legacy Scholarship will be awarded to four soon-to-be graduates every year.

Aside from establishing the scholarship, Shaw was the face of Norfolk Southern in the weeks and months following the disaster. It was Shaw who made most of the promises as he made regular trips to the village. He has since been terminated for having an inappropriate undisclosed relationship with the company’s chief legal officer — a violation of Norfolk Southern’s code of ethics.

Mark George replaced Shaw last September to head the railroad but to date is yet to make any public statement related to East Palestine’s post-derailment recovery, rarely making mention of the rail disaster at all.

Sletvold said it doesn’t matter who promised what or who is in charge now.

“Norfolk Southern has an obligation to clean up its own mess,” she said. “And Norfolk Southern doesn’t get to change its mind because personnel changes.”

Sletvold said the lawsuit and “this entire situation could have been avoided” had Norfolk Southern noticed its train was on fire 20 minutes before it derailed and not made the decision to perform the vent-and-burn of 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride. Sletvold added that Norfolk Southern has suffered little in the wake of the derailment, leaving the East Palestine community to bear that burden.

“Since the derailment, Norfolk Southern has made over $16 billion in profits, a windfall it achieved because it pawned off the costs of the trainwreck on this community while hoarding its profits,” she said. “Norfolk Southern’s eagerness to resume its operations by unnecessarily exploding toxic chemicals to clear the tracks left the schools facing financial instability. Norfolk Southern promised to ‘make it right’ for East Palestine It must keep that promise to East Palestine’s students.”