RIVERSIDE, Missouri (AP) — A school district in northwest Missouri faced massive disruption after four freshmen issued a “petition” suggesting restarting slavery, district officials said in a statement. response to a federal complaint filed by the students’ parents.
A Park Hill South High School student was expelled and three others were suspended for 180 days after the petition was posted on social media in September 2021.
In their federal lawsuit against the district, the students’ parents argue the petition began with “jokes” between freshman football players — some of whom are biracial or black — on a team bus. They allege the district overreacted to the incident and violated the students’ free speech and due process rights by removing them from school, the Kansas City Star reported Wednesday.
In its response to the lawsuit, the district said it spent hundreds of hours counseling upset students and parents after the incident gained national attention. The controversy set back the district’s efforts to promote diversity and inclusion, took time off for teachers’ professional development and caused substitute teachers to refuse assignments at Park Hill South, court records show.
Then-superintendent Jeanette Cowherd said the petition “resulted in the greatest disruption she had experienced in nearly 40 years in public education,” according to the court filing.
The district asked the judge to deny the parents’ request for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction that would allow the four students to return to school.
The Associated Press