Olathe school board member fights to have his censure revoked and hints at a lawsuit
Saying officials “overstepped their authority,” Olathe school board member Brian Connell on Thursday unsuccessfully fought to have his censure revoked and security measures taken against him to be removed.
During a special meeting in May, the school board had voted 5-2 to censure Connell over his pattern of outbursts — yelling and storming out of meetings. The board removed Connell from committee assignments and barred him from serving in leadership positions until further notice. It also directed district staff to enforce security measures “they see fit.”
Connell said Thursday that at the end of last school year, “I still walked through the buildings under the proposed threat from the district that at any point in time, per your censure, could withdraw my ability to access any facility and building as an elected member of this community.”
District spokeswoman Erin Schulte said Connell has not been barred from school facilities, and, “often in situations like these where safety is a concern, a process is put in place so that our Safety Services team has an awareness of where individuals are within our district.”
Connell has defended his behavior, saying he has a right to free speech and to excuse himself from meetings. He previously told The Star in a text that the censure was a “planned, coordinated and well orchestrated attempt at character assassination.”
During Thursday evening’s meeting, he made a motion for the board to remove his censure, “in an attempt to avoid future litigation.” That led to a heated discussion with members raising their voices before the board voted 5-2 to reject Connell’s motion.
“I would love to move past this. But the language in this resolution is a non-starter,” school board president Brad Boyd said. “There’s no way I can support this. So if you want to go back and next month bring another resolution with some clear language, some clean language, I’ll revisit that at that time. But today, I can’t support this.”
Connell’s proposed resolution stated that “district staff at the direction of the Board of Education overstepped their authority to enforce security measures against Board member, Brian Connell and without due process violated his constitutional rights.”
It also said, “the Olathe Board of Education has held different standards for Board Member’s behavior and the Board chose to censure Board Member Connell when others have exhibited the same behavior.”
Only board member Robert Kuhn voted with Connell to remove the censure. The pair won seats on the board in 2021 on conservative platforms, running against mask mandates during the height of COVID-19.
Much of Connell’s comments appeared to be gearing up for a lawsuit, as he said, “I’m an elected official who has a right to the First Amendment right to say what I want, where I want, in a public dialogue.”
“You all did something to punish me, and then your various comments made, slandered, defamed me.”
It was the second attempt at having the censure revoked. Kuhn in July offered the same resolution, which was rejected 5-2.
The board censured Connell following a May meeting where he interrupted and shouted at fellow board members, then walked out. At the meeting he said he was kept in the dark when three fellow members formed a committee to review the school board’s ethics policy. He pressed for answers on how the committee and proposed policy were formed.
“I’m walking out because what you’re doing is railroading myself and the community and failing to answer the questions in front of you,” Connell said as he stormed out.
Later, the board president sent an email to families that said Connell’s behavior did not meet the board’s standards of acting as “role models of courteous and respectful public discourse.”
At-large board member Joe Beveridge said at the special meeting later that month that it was the second time Connell “stormed out of a meeting and fourth time he has screamed and yelled at a board member during a meeting, including referring to a fellow board member as ‘missy’ while he screamed at her.”
Board members argued that Connell’s behavior escalated to where staff members said they felt unsafe.
During May’s packed special meeting, with many residents there to support Connell, board member Julie Steele called for him to resign.
She said Connell has spread misinformation and made false accusations of the board several times, “refused to participate in a significant portion of our annual evaluation” and has made statements some board members viewed as threatening.
“Our goal today is not to silence Mr. Connell or prevent him from being able to use his voice or his vote,” Steele said at the time. “Our goal is to maintain safety, regain decorum and respect, and provide assurance … there are consequences for the behavior exhibited by Mr. Connell on multiple occasions.”
Connell told The Star in a text at the time that the “ambush style meeting … illustrated exactly the shenanigans of leadership and disrespect for Board Policy and the greater community that has been in place for far too long. The blatant disregard for the truth by some board members was on display.
“Unfortunately, the board chose not to offer actual evidence, chose not to record the whole proceedings for all to see and shut down actual discussions (in) lieu of innuendo, fictitious accusations and straight up false information that the general media picked up and ran to their newscasts without actually researching and verifying.”
On Thursday, Connell argued the board censured him without offering him “due process” or an “opportunity to defend” himself. During the special meeting in May, then-board president Shannon Wickliffe gave each member three minutes to speak on Connell’s censure. He asked Connell to go first. Connell asked to speak last since he was the topic of the vote, but Wickliffe did not allow him to.
Connell also accused the board of holding different standards for other members. He referenced Beveridge instructing former board candidate Jennifer Gilmore to be removed from a meeting where she hurled accusations at her election opponent. Gilmore, a conservative running for school board again this fall, is now suing, in a lawsuit that has cost the district more than $200,000 so far.
At Thursday’s meeting, Boyd claimed he has reached out to Connell “multiple times” about the issue. Connell started to interject, which led to Boyd raising his voice: “I have the floor, sir. I did not interrupt you. … I didn’t stop another board member from interrupting you. So please, give me the same courtesy that I gave you.”
After Boyd’s comments, saying that the language in Connell’s resolution was not something he could support, Connell asked to respond. Boyd did not let him have the floor again, except to make his failed motion.
Boyd said he would be open to discussing an end to Connell’s censure, but it is unclear when. Connell did not immediately return the Star’s request for comment on Friday.
This story was originally published September 8, 2023 at 1:12 PM.
