Two recent lawsuits filed against the Roanoke County School Board based on alleged mistreatment of students have been dismissed on grounds of sovereign immunity.

Roanoke attorney Harvey Lutins, who filed both suits in Roanoke County Circuit Court, said on Friday that he intends to explore whether the cases can be pursued through other legal avenues.

One suit involved a 2006 incident in which a 10-year-old boy with autism was punished by being made to clean school bathrooms. The other involved accusations that a middle school teacher forcibly cut a 14-year-old's hair in front of his classmates.

In the case of Joshuah Underwood, the boy with autism, a judge's order signed Feb. 13 dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning that it cannot be brought back.

A judge's order has not yet been filed in the case of Alexander Allen Brown, the boy who received the haircut, but Lutins said on Friday that Brown's case has been dismissed on the same grounds.

Virginia's sovereign immunity doctrine originates in a centuries-old assumption of English law that a monarch can do no wrong. In practice, the doctrine bars lawsuits against the state or state employees unless a judge rules that a suit can proceed.

In both cases, Roanoke County judges ruled that the school board is an arm of state government and thus protected by sovereign immunity.

Considerable controversy surrounded the punishment meted out to Joshuah Underwood on Oct. 26, 2006.

That day, Glenvar Elementary School staff determined that the boy, a fourth-grader, had written an obscenity in one bathroom and smeared human excrement in another. Principal Danny Guard made the boy clean both bathrooms.

The next month Guard was placed on paid leave while the Roanoke County Department of Social Services investigated. The department ruled that the punishment "resulted or was likely to result in moderate harm," according to a report received by the boy's mother.

While parents and teachers voiced their public support for Guard, he appealed the department's ruling. Social Services reversed its decision and Guard returned to work.

The suit Lutins filed in June on behalf of the boy's mother had asked for $100,000 in damages.

The other lawsuit alleged that on Sept. 24 a teacher at Hidden Valley Middle School "growled" at Alexander Brown about his long bangs. The next day, the teacher made him stand in front of the class and "completely butchered his hair and his appearance," embarrassing him in front of his classmates. That suit had sought $51,000 in damages.