The Park Hill School District has responded to the federal civil rights suit filed earlier this month by the parents of the four Park Hill South freshmen who launched an online petition to reinstate slavery.
The suit was filed Friday, Nov. 19 in the Western District U.S. Court against the Park Hill School District, its board of education, superintendent Dr. Jeanette Cowherd, Park Hill South principal Dr. Kerrie Herren and assistant superintendent Dr. Josh Colvin.
On Monday, Nov. 22, school district attorney Joseph Hatley filed a response opposing the paintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction. The 25-page document outlines the district’s side of the story, including details involving the incident and its fallout across the district.
One of the more interesting pieces of information in the filing states that one of the students involved in the slavery petition incident was later involved in a threat to “shoot up” Park Hill South High School on Oct. 17. After learning of his 180-day suspension, the student – identified as Plaintiff B in court documents – allegedly spoke to another current student about staging a school shooting. Parents reported the exchange and both teens were arrested after an investigation by the Platte County Sheriff’s Office. Since, that student has refused to cooperate with school authorities.
In the complaint filed earlier this month, the plaintiffs allege the entire situation mushroomed from a “joke” that was mishandled by the district. On Thursday, Sept. 16, boys on the way to a freshman football team launched a petition on Change.org entitled “Start slavery again.” Within hours, the petition and screen shots of the comments attached to it were circulated within the school community and shortly into the larger community. The story went viral and put Park Hill in the national spotlight.
“The petition caused massive disruption not only to Park Hill South, but to the entire school district,” the response states. Cowherd called the situation the most disruption she has experienced in her nearly 40 years in public education. “The district’s ongoing efforts to promote diversity and inclusion were waylaid by the need to manage the crisis that plaintiffs’ petition caused.”
Since, the district states in the response, some substitute teachers refuse work at Park Hill South, district staff has lost professional development time, students were taken out of classes for assemblies and Herren estimated he and his assistant principals have spent more than 310 man hours dealing with the petition’s fall out.
The day following the online publication of the petition, Herren reported he was receiving worried queries from teachers, as one wrote: “I am not sure what is going on with freshman football but my third hour class was in uproar about the situation. I have been fighting fires all day. I have several girls crying and scared for their lives. I’m just not sure what’s going on besides what students have told me. I could use some help or update on this situation. I have been doing a lot of counseling today and trying to give support but I am concerned about the girls that are scared or crying. Please let me know.”
The crux of the suit brought against the district claims the students were exercising their right to free speech in an environment without proper boundaries. The district refutes this claim and outlines the actions of other students on the bus at the time who weren’t amused by the “joke.”
“One of the other players on the team reported that he and two other players tried to get Plaintiff A to delete the petition, but that Plaintiff A ‘just laughed it off and acted like it wasn’t a big deal,’” according to the student’s statement. “We had warned him and told him to delete it and he didn’t care. What had me even more angry is that all of the teammates in the group chat were trying to help them the best we could, and the[y] didn’t care at all.”
Another player shared the petition because he did view it as racist and the story spread from the team’s SnapChat to the larger Twitter arena. Once the post was tagged with #BlackTwitter, the viral spread was under way.
Parents and teachers reached out to the district, which was criticized for its public handling of the situation.
Details also emerged of the investigation, decision to expel Plaintiff A – the creator of the petition – and 180-day suspensions of Plantiffs B,C and D, as well as the board of education’s decision to uphold the decisions during a 10-hour board meeting held Nov. 3 and extending to 3 a.m. Nov. 4.