Parker Jensen, 18, is a high school senior in Maryland where he attends Towson High School, located near Baltimore. He is now suing school officials, two police officers, and the Baltimore County Board of Education after he was suspended for seven days after a video-recorded confrontation with school staff in the school district office.
Sarah Spitalnick, an attorney representing Jensen, told Fox News her client demanded the high school follow a Maryland law mandating Old Glory be flown in every classroom.
“Once he brought it to the Board of Education, they not only told him to go away, and disregarded the fact that he was reporting something,” she alleges, “but then went further to then summarily suspend him from high school with no due process whatsoever.”
According to the lawsuit, Jensen showed the state law to his high school principal – twice – but assumed his request went ignored because of the school’s left-wing political environment. Frustrated over Towson High not following the law, the high school senior visited the district office where he intended to talk to someone and file a complaint.
Instead, after waiting 40 minutes to talk to someone, an employee realized Jensen was recording on his phone and ordered him to stop. The senior refused to do so, however citing his First Amendment right, and then was led away by three police officers.
When he was under arrest, a school safety official told the senior he was suspended from school and was being trespassed from the school property by the police officers.
Beyond alleging violation of his First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights, Jensen’s lawsuit alleges he is the victim of a left-wing political environment, too. The high school senior says he is a patriotic, pro-life, President Trump-supporting conservative student who is outnumbered by Trump-hating school faculty that routinely bashes the president in class.
To demonstrate that political environment, the complaint includes a photo of a school banner about “Immigration Support and Resources” for illegal aliens who attend the school.
Towson High also printed and distributed “Pride” t-shirts for students and faculty, the complaint states with a photo of the t-shirt pictured in the complaint.
According to news reports, Baltimore County Schools is not speaking publicly about the lawsuit but has told the media the two American flags have been installed in the two high school classrooms as of April 1. The lawsuit was filed April 10.
It is routine for a school district to refuse to comment on litigation.
The student’s complaint, if true, means the high school might have tripped on several legal rakes. The lawsuit claims Jensen was told he couldn’t record because he wasn’t a credentialed journalist, for example, which Spitalnick says is not true and a violation of his First Amendment rights.
His attorney also says the video recording, which got him in trouble, also disputes the school district's claim her client was suspended because he acted “unhinged” and “disrespectful.”
That claim was made by Kimberly Culbertson, the high school principal, in a phone call with Jensen’s mother, the complaint states.
The lawsuit states:
Culbertson either knew these statements were false or made them with reckless disregard for the truth, and she knew or should have known they could cause Plaintiff and his mother severe emotional distress.
