An adverse learning environment for minority children with special needs in the Sequoia Union High School District allegedly contributed to an escalation of events that culminated in a Menlo-Atherton High student being forcefully restrained and injured by police in April.
In a claim filed against the district on Wednesday, Oct. 25, San Francisco-based law firm Special Education Collaboration Project makes that and other allegations on behalf of the M-A student. Students' videos of the arrest circulated widely online, and the case spawned youth-led protests against police misconduct and grabbed headlines.
"This young man has not been educated for many, many years, and much of that amounts to disability discrimination,” said Evan Goldsen, the firm’s co-founder. “We're also raising claims for discrimination on the basis of race.”
Attempts to obtain comment from the district and its Board of Trustees were not immediately successful.
The claim names the student only as “K.C.” because he is a minor but describes him as an African American youth with the disabilities of emotional disturbance and speech-and-language impairment.
“At the age of 7, K.C. witnessed the shooting of his mother and uncle,” the claim says. “K.C.’s uncle died as a result of the shooting, and his mother survived. K.C. was traumatized by this event, and the negative impact would exacerbate challenges he encountered throughout his educational career.”
The claim points out that the district gave K.C. an individualized education plan (IEP), a personalized roadmap laying out the special-education instruction, resources and services to help a student with a disability thrive in school. Part of K.C.’s IEP placed him in M-A’s Successful Transition Achieved with Responsive Support (STARS) program, which provides academic, behavioral and other support to special-needs students.
However, if Sequoia Union had “fostered a non-hostile learning environment for K.C. and other Black and Brown students with disabilities, utilized positive behavior-intervention strategies consistently and applied trauma-informed de-escalation strategies on April 28, 2023, K.C. would not have been violently assaulted by Atherton police in front of his high school and peers or facing criminal charges,” the claim contends.
On that day, as shown by bystander videos, Atherton police pinned and arrested K.C. at a bus stop across from the M-A campus.
Police previously reported that they were dispatched to the scene after receiving a call about a student pushing a school administrator against a wall and yelling homophobic slurs at him.
The student also tried to push the administrator’s glasses off his face and spat on him, police said. When officers arrived, police said the student walked away from them and resisted.
In the days leading up to the arrest, the claim says, K.C. and his friends were playing a game at M-A using “water toys,” which school staff confiscated. K.C.’s friends eventually were able to get their toys back, so he went to the school’s main office to pick his up.
But as the school secretary was about to hand the toy to him, the claim says, then-Vice Principal Stephen Emmi “physically blocked K.C.” from retrieving it. This caused K.C. to bump into Emmi, the claim says.
“Mr. Emmi was confrontational with K.C. and repeatedly told him that he cannot have his ‘water toy’ back as K.C. grew more and more emotionally distressed,” the claim says. In this highly agitated state, K.C. shouted at Emmi to return his toy as it was unfair given that others had gotten theirs back.
During this confrontation, the claim says, Emmi used his cell phone to surreptitiously record the boy without the youth’s consent.
As staff called police, the claim says, K.C. walked out the office and to the bus stop, where officers approached him and his friends.
When officers grabbed K.C.s shoulder, the claim says, the boy told them not to touch him while raising his hands and backing away. K.C. does have sensory sensitivities associated with his disabilities that are heightened when in an emotionally dysregulated state.
However, an officer slammed K.C. into the ground, the claim says. K.C. had recently undergone surgery on a hernia, and the force of his body slamming to the ground caused him significant pain and discomfort.
The whole ordeal caused K.C. considerable physical, emotional and other injuries — including stomach and back pain, scrapes, damage to his reputation, lost educational opportunities and removal from the school, the claim says.
Among the system failures, the claim says, the district denied K.C.s IEP team the opportunity to discuss how the lack of training for its staff in positive-behavior intervention and appropriate de-escalation strategies led to the April 28 incident in the main office.
The claim also argues that the district should have explored remedial measures by the school to head off a similar situation in the future.
Instead, the claim says, the district offered K.C. an alternative school placement in the STARS satellite program that is housed at a district office. The STARS satellite program is isolated from the general student population with a disproportionate amount of Black and Brown students who (the district) has identified as having serious mental-health and behavioral needs.
Furthermore, the claim maintains that the district was dismayed by the outside attention K.C.s case brought. Because of this, the claim alleges, internal efforts were carried out to besmirch K.C.s reputation by sending the message that he is an extremely behavioral Black student with a serious mental-health condition who cannot control his behavior.
An example of this besmirching tactic is Emmis surreptitious cell-phone video of K.C. being shown to the district board, the claim says, while the boys mother and legal team have yet to receive a copy.
Goldsen asserted that the issues detailed in the claim are a districtwide problem. Look, from my perspective, it's pervasive, and it extends far beyond just K.C. alone, he said. I think it's all similarly situated students in that district.
His firm is investigating other potential cases in the district, he said. We're just trying to see how big that pool is.
Defendants named in the claim include Emmi, M-A Vice Principal Nick Muys, Principal Karl Losekoot and district Superintendent Crystal Leach.
If the district rejects the claim as anticipated, Goldsen said, his firm can proceed to file a lawsuit in state or federal court.
The claim is the second such legal filing to follow K.C.s arrest. The other was filed against Atherton in June by the Oakland-based practice of well-known civil-rights lawyer John Burris, alleging that officers use of unnecessary force caused substantial injuries to K.C. In August, Atherton denied that claim.
In the wake of K.C.s arrest, M-A students launched several protests, speaking out against police brutality and calling for de-escalation training on campus. Their efforts brought widespread media coverage to K.C.s case.
Meanwhile, K.C. is being homeschooled. He has not been able to return to school because of his safety and welfare, an investigator for the boys legal team said. We're fighting for him, and the district's not cooperating. We want him to be placed in a place where he can get a fair, objective and healthy education.
