Lawsuit alleges harassment, intimidation
Reagan Reese
Daily Caller News Foundation
An Ohio school allegedly reported two parents to the police, launching a retaliation campaign against them for questioning its curriculum and financial spending, according to a June lawsuit.
Amy Gonzalez and Andrea Gross announced the filing of a lawsuit Thursday against Columbus Academy, a private institution, for allegedly painting the parents in a “false light” after they asked the district about its spending of funds and its “politically biased curriculum.” After Gonzalez and Gross voiced their concerns in 2021, Columbus Academy allegedly expelled the parents’ children from school and filed a police report against the parents in an effort to “harass and intimidate” them, the lawsuit stated.
“The [school] wanted this to be political, which it is not,” Gross told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We have said from the beginning. This is not a red thing. This is not a blue thing. It’s a human thing. It is about kids, and it’s about kids who learn differently and where are their resources, and about kids that are Latino and kids that are different religions.”
Over the last several years, the school district had veered into a “politically biased” environment as teachers pressured students to take certain stances, the lawsuit alleged. One teacher allegedly told students they would not communicate with individuals who supported President Donald Trump and another told kids that there is “only one side” when discussing politics.
Students who were late to a “walkout” in order to tribute Martin Luther King Jr. were allegedly called racist by other students while staff looked on, the lawsuit stated. The academy allegedly offered an “emergency pandemic fund” to be used “exclusively” on African American students and the school planned several events for “Black History Month, while offering substantially fewer activities for Hispanic Heritage Month.”
After the parents brought their concerns regarding curriculum and spending to the school board in an open letter, their students were expelled from the institution and the school labeled the parents as “anti-black” and “bat-shit crazy Republicans,” the lawsuit alleged. Administration allegedly deemed the parents an “indirect threat against the Academy and its personnel” before telling its faculty that the FBI had been notified.
The lawsuit says the parents don’t believe an actual FBI report was ever filed, but that the “notification was done to harass and intimidate” them.
In 2021, the National School Boards Association sent a letter to the Biden administration comparing parents at school board meetings to “domestic terrorists.” In response, AG Garland issued a directive for the FBI to “use its authority” on parents who protested at school board meetings.
Around the country parents are pushing back against gender identity and race-based curriculums in schools; in California, parents fought with activists while protesting against the inclusion of a LGBT-focused curriculum for students. A Virginia parent was arrested while protesting Critical Race Theory (CRT) and a transgender policy within a school district.
Columbus Academy did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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