J-M reaches settlement with parent banned from school facilities
Jefferson-Morgan School District has settled a federal lawsuit with a football player’s father who was banned from the campus after he was accused of threatening the team’s head coach following a game in 2020.
The settlement with Virgil McNett of Mather will allow him to visit school grounds to pick up his children and attend his son’s high school graduation later this year, Superintendent Joe Orr said Monday, although no other terms of the agreement were released.
McNett filed the federal lawsuit in Pittsburgh last August and accused the school district of violating his First Amendment rights by banning him from visiting school facilities or taking part in the district’s youth football program. The two sides agreed to the settlement March 4 and U.S. District Judge Robert Colville subsequently dismissed the lawsuit.
McNett was accused by school administrators of angrily shouting profanities at head football coach Aaron Giorgi following a game on Sept. 18, 2020. McNett denied the allegations in his lawsuit, claiming he “calmly asked (Giorgi) to resign” from his position. But the school district sent him a letter a week after the incident prohibiting him from stepping on school grounds or attending events after it accused him of “bullying, intimidation, physical or verbal aggression, and the repeated use of profanity.”
Details of the settlement were not released, and it was not known if there were any restrictions placed on McNett when he visits the district’s campus. However, Orr said the settlement has prompted the school district to put policies in place to handle future situations with parents, should they arise.
“We want our parents to come and enjoy (events), and I’m sure that will be able to happen. There is an expectation of behavior,” Orr said. “The procedures would be that you clarify the expectations and conduct and behavior and you outline what those would be going forward and what those responses would be.”
Orr said that there was never an expectation for a “lifetime ban” on McNett, although the district never put a time limit on when he was not permitted on campus. But he added that the federal judge denying McNett’s request for an emergency injunction helped bolster their case.
Orr said he hopes the situation will lead to better behavior by parents at sporting events or student activities.
“We want our guests to come to sporting events and act appropriately, and when they don’t do what we have to do to control this,” Orr said. “And that’s what this case was all about.”
McNett’s attorney, Anthony Werner, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment.