Man who criticized former Colleyville Heritage principal likely to refile complaint
A federal district judge dismissed a motion seeking an injunction against the Grapevine-Colleyville school district over its policy on limiting speech at board meetings.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman ruled Tuesday that since new policies were adopted after Mitchell Ryan filed his lawsuit alleging that his free speech rights were violated, that the motion was “moot.”
However, Pittman’s ruling stated that Ryan can file a status report outlining his concerns over the newly-adopted decorum policy and file an amended complaint.
Pittman’s order also stated that “It remains unclear whether the entire civil action is moot. After a review of the record, it appears that Ryan has accomplished his goal of forcing the GCISD to repeal the August open forum policies that allegedly violated the First Amendment.”
Ryan sued the school district and board president Jorge Rodriguez after he was repeatedly stopped from speaking during an Aug. 23 board meeting where he spoke about Colleyville Heritage High School Principal James Whitfield. Whitfield faced criticism over accusations that he taught and promoted critical race theory.
In his lawsuit, Ryan alleged that Rodriguez repeatedly stopped him from speaking although he allowed others to speak in support of Whitfield. The suit stated that Ryan anticipated being “shut down” again by Rodriguez over the district’s speech content policies.
On Monday, the school board voted unanimously to approve a settlement agreement with Whitfield, who will be on paid administrative leave until August 2023. Whitfield was the first Black principal at Colleyville Heritage.
Kristin Snively, a spokeswoman for the school district, said in an email to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the school district does not comment on ongoing litigation.
Ryan’s attorney, Tony McDonald, said his client will file a status report and will likely file an amended complaint against the school district as he believes there are still problems with the board’s decorum policy that was adopted last month.
McDonald said the new policy does not allow “shaming” of employees or board members.
“People should be able to tell government officials that they should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.
“The policies still allow the board to restrict speech from someone like Mr. Ryan, who was shut down when he called for James Whitfield’s contract to be terminated,” McDonald said.
McDonald said trustees want to shut down speech that they don’t want to hear.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 8:30 PM.