BY ELAINE GOODMAN
Daily Post Correspondent
Parties are on the verge of a settlement in a case where a Menlo-Atherton High student, who has a mental disability according to his attorneys, was allegedly taken to the ground by Atherton police outside the school in April 2023.
A cell-phone video of the incident went viral on social media.
The settlement now only needs approval from “the appropriate legislative bodies,” according to minutes of a Nov. 21 settlement conference. Those include the Atherton City Council and the Sequoia Union High School District board.
The case is on the Atherton City Council’s agenda on Wednesday as a closed-door item. Court records in the case did not disclose terms of the settlement.
The lawsuit was initially filed in January 2024 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by two teenagers, who appear through their guardians and are represented by well-known civil rights law firm Burris Nisenbaum Curry & Lacy. The teens are referred to in court filings as K.C. and D.B.
Their complaint names as defendants the town of Atherton; an Atherton police sergeant and three officers; the Sequoia Union High School District; and Stephen Emmi and Nick Muys, who were vice principals at Menlo-Atherton at the time of the incident. It alleges excessive use of force, negligence, assault and battery, and infliction of emotional distress.
On April 28, 2023, the teenager referred to as K.C. went to the high school office to retrieve a toy water gun that looked like a pool noodle. The teen had used the toy as part of a game among students that week called “senior assassin,” according to the latest version of the lawsuit filed Nov. 21. The teen heard that other students had gotten their water toys back.
But when the teen got to the office, Stephen Emmi, who was vice principal at the time, told the secretary not to give the student his toy, the lawsuit alleged. Instead, Emmi “began speaking to minor K.C. in a demeaning and confrontational manner,” which escalated the situation, the lawsuit said.
The teen became frustrated and “emotionally distressed” and started shouting at Emmi, the lawsuit said.
“At no point did minor K.C. touch or spit at defendant Emmi or anyone else in the office,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit described the teen as someone who has “pervasive feelings of anxiety and depression” and trouble in areas such as auditory processing and short-term memory. The impairments cause him to feel frustrated and overwhelmed – feelings that are best addressed with positive behavior intervention and de-escalation strategies, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said school administrators should have called a special ed teacher during the situation in the office, who would have known how to calm the teen.
In a case management statement last month, school representatives described the incident differently. They said the teen started swearing at Emmi and used derogatory slurs while office staff tried to confirm that the water gun belonged to him. The teen allegedly grabbed Emmi’s arm, shoved him into an office partition and tried to slap the glasses off his face.
Emmi, along with then-vice principal Nick Muys and other office staff, tried to calm the teen, school representatives said.
They said the San Mateo County Juvenile District Attorney pressed criminal charges against K.C. as a result of the incident.
During the scene in the office, one of the secretaries had called the police. According to the lawsuit, Atherton police arrived as the teen waited at a bus stop with friends and “slammed him into the ground, shoved a knee into his back, and dragged him into a police car.” The lawsuit said dispatch had informed the officers that the teen had a mental disability.
The second teen, D.B., was detained and handcuffed because he didn’t want to leave K.C. alone with police, the lawsuit said.
Atherton representatives said in a statement that when police encountered K.C. at the bus stop, he was uncooperative and cursed and threatened officers. They said the teen stumbled to the ground while backing away from an officer.
The second teen refused to leave the area after multiple requests and was handcuffed, they said.
Why pay off the kid? From the description of the incident he was violent, out of control, and assaulted staff. Physically subduing him was necessary.