Federal judge rules against Park Hill students disciplined for slavery petition
A federal judge has ruled against four Park Hill South High School students seeking for their punishment to be overturned after they disseminated an online petition last year that called for slavery to be reinstated.
In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough wrote that the students have demonstrated that they face “irreparable harm” as a result of the punishment. But he found that the lawsuit is unlikely to be successful based on the law and that the public interest in retaining the punishment outweighs harms caused.
The civil case stems from a racist petition dubbed “Start slavery again” that circulated around the Park Hill school community in September. It was started by a group of ninth-graders on the football team during a trip on a school bus.
The petition, created on Change.org and widely shared over social media, received swift condemnation from school officials and parents after its existence became widely known. It also received heavy attention from news media across the nation.
In response, the district suspended three involved students for 180 days and expelled another. Three were allowed to continue studies through remote learning.
But the parents of the four punished students believe the school district’s response was too severe. A lawsuit was filed against Park Hill in the Western District of Missouri in November, alleging the four students’ constitutional rights to free speech and due process were violated.
In their defense, supporters of the disciplined students claim the petition was a bad joke and that the students are being made an example by the district through an unjust punishment. They also argue in defense of their actions that two of the students punished are of mixed race.
Arthur Benson, an attorney for the four high schoolers, said in a statement that the whole matter arose from “youthful bad judgment” from Black or biracial students “who often joked about their race.”
“Three white boys in similar bad judgment wanted in on the joke, intended only for the freshman players,” Benson said. “This bad judgment was punished as heinous acts that no one now still claims them to be.”
The lawsuit sought court intervention through an injunction before its legal resolution in part because the four students are experiencing the punishment now and federal lawsuits often span months if not years. Bough’s order Tuesday was a denial of that request.
In drawing his conclusions, the judge found the district was within its right to regulate the speech of the students in part because the petition caused “a substantial disruption” in its operations. He also concluded that the students were afforded due process in that they “had a meaningful opportunity to be heard and present their case” during district disciplinary forums.
The Star’s Aaron Torres, Robert A. Cronkleton and Sarah Ritter contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 9:39 PM.
