She protested her son’s bullying. Independence schools kicked her off district property | Opinion
When Ashley Richey received a summons in the mail in September alleging she had trespassed on Independence School District property the month before, she was stunned.
Who could blame her? No one in the district approached the Independence woman in person to inform her she was breaking the law.
The citation, dated Sept. 5, was delivered via mail about a week after Richey filed a petition to sue the Independence School District on Aug. 28. In the trespassing complaint, Ken Jarnagin, Independence schools director of public safety, accused Richey of violating a trespass order issued to her last May by Superintendent Dale Herl.
Richey denied she was on district property on the day of the alleged ordinance violation.
“It’s bogus and fake,” Richey told me last week. “It makes no sense. How do you trespass on public property?”
That is what I wanted to know. What evidence did district officials uncover to issue the summons weeks after the alleged infraction? To me, retaliation should not be ruled out.
I emailed questions to top officials with Independence schools, City Hall and the police department. Only a police spokesperson bothered to reply.
Apparently Richey was nabbed for walking up the driveway of Glendale Elementary School, according to Independence police officer Jack Taylor. Police had nothing to do with the summons, Taylor said.
If proven true, how petty can this school district be?
Public protests against bullying of her son
Since May of 2023, Richey has stood on a public sidewalk next to Glendale Elementary School in the 2600 block of Lee’s Summit Road to protest what she described as incessant bullying of her 10-year-old son.
The public demonstrations began after Herl banned Richey from district property for a year. In the months since, Richey’s continued to protest almost daily, she said.
“We’re not stopping until the bullying stops,” Richey said during a recent conversation we held outside the school.
To this day, Richey still doesn’t know why Herl put the restriction in place. Herl’s letter to Richey announcing the building ban does little to explain what she did wrong to violate the district’s code of conduct policy for adults.
In the correspondence, Herl only alludes to a vague policy that is in immediate need of revision. It is unconscionable that the Independence School District Board of Education would allow its superintendent to keep a parent away from district property without any recourse to appeal the decision.
Independence has a nine-member committee that reviews challenged reading materials in schools. Based on that committee’s recommendations, the school board votes on whether or not to keep certain books available to school children. Because the board refuses to stand up to Herl’s punitive tactics, the district needs a similar advisory group to hear grievances from citizens banned from school grounds.
The district should also consider offering an appeal option similar to other school districts around the metropolitan area.
No one should fear a building ban or arrest for exercising their right to peacefully protest on public property.
Petition alleging human rights violations
In a petition filed in Jackson County Circuit Court in August, Richey alleges human rights violations committed by the school district against Richey and her young son.
Eight days after Richey filed the petition, she was cited for trespassing. A municipal court date is scheduled in March. It marked the second time Richey was accused of trespassing on school district property.
Last summer, officers arrested Richey as she enrolled her child in school for the 2023-24 school year.
That day, Richey was aware of the building ban when she was summoned by a school district employee to district offices in the 200 block of Forest Avenue in Independence.
Soon after, officers placed her in handcuffs and whisked her off to jail. During the arrest, part of which was captured on a phone camera, officers injured Richey’s wrist, she claimed in court documents.
Earlier this month, Richey was convicted of trespassing in the first case in Independence Municipal Court and placed on unsupervised probation for a year.
Earlier this school year, Richey took her son out of Glendale Elementary. She transferred the child to a private school in south Kansas City after it became apparent to her that Glendale Principal Todd Siebert, the school’s anti-bullying coordinator, wouldn’t put parameters in place to stop the alleged bullying her son experienced at the hands of a school janitor and another student.
Richey made these claims in a lawsuit she filed on her own against the Independence School District.
Not the only adult banned from district property
Richey isn’t the only resident accusing the district of suppressing free speech. Last year, Jason Vollmecke of Independence was escorted out of a school board meeting by public safety officers and arrested for trespassing. In May, he too was found guilty in municipal court.
Vollmecke, an Independence chiropractor and one-time school board candidate, appealed the verdict and awaits a jury trial. He filed a civil rights lawsuit against the district, a case that was in court-ordered mediation heading into the weekend.
In December, a federal judge lifted Vollmecke’s one-year ban given to him by Herl.
In granting Vollmecke temporary relief, Beth Phillips, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Western Missouri, ruled that district leaders, led by Herl, likely infringed on Vollmecke’s First Amendment right to criticize school board decisions in a public meeting.
He has since returned to school board meetings, and in December filed to run for a board seat in April’s general municipal election.
What Independence School District officials have done to Richey is a travesty. This miscarriage of justice is so unfair that Superintendent Herl, the board and Siebert must be held to account for these serious allegations of misconduct.
In this case, the actions of Jarnagin, district director of public safety, shouldn’t avoid scrutiny, either.
