Police, school district write checks to settle teen’s suit alleging excessive force by police

Famed Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris. AP 2022 file photo.

(Read the original lawsuit from Jan. 26, 2024.)

(Read the order granting motions to dismiss from Sept. 24, 2025.)

BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer

The Atherton town government and Sequoia Union High School District have agreed to pay $560,000 to settle with a Menlo-Atherton High School student after a video of him being taken to the ground by Atherton police went viral.

The student and his family were represented by famed Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris.

The district will pay $400,000 and the city $160,000, excluding attorney fees, after the student filed a lawsuit, which was settled on Feb. 27.

The student, referred to as K.C. in the lawsuit, went to the school office on April 28, 2023, to retrieve a toy water gun he used in a game with others called “senior assassin,” according to the suit.

Former vice principal Stephen Emmi told the secretary not to give it to K.C. and spoke to him in a “demeaning and confrontational manner,” the suit said.

K.C. was “emotionally distressed” and started shouting at Emmi but did not touch or spit at him or anyone else in the office, according to the suit.

One of the secretaries called the police during the incident, and Atherton police officers arrived as K.C. waited at a bus stop. The suit claims police “slammed him into the ground, shoved a knee into his back and dragged him into a police car.” A video showing part of the incident was posted to social media.

School representatives previously said in a case management statement that K.C. was swearing and using derogatory slurs while administrators tried to confirm the water gun belonged to him.

Emmi previously said the San Mateo County Juvenile District Attorney pressed criminal charges against K.C.

District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said could not confirm whether his office pressed charges because the law forbids him from discussing most cases involving minors.

Other suits facing the Sequoia Union district

The district continues to face a series of lawsuits related to ethnic studies, alleged antisemitism and the closure of Tide Academy magnet school.

In January 2026, parents filed a suit in federal court to stop the closure of Tide in Menlo Park, alleging the district is discriminating against children with disabilities.

Chloe Gentile-Montgomery, a former ethnic studies teacher at Menlo-Atherton High School, sued the district for alleged racial discrimination and harassment, claiming the district did not defend her when she was being harassed by students, parents and fellow district employees.

The district is also being sued by a group of parents who claim the district fostered a culture of antisemitism.

The district has also been sued by a group called Parents Defending Education for withholding public records about the M-A Chronicle student newspaper’s copyright takedown of a video from YouTube. The parents contend school employees were behind the student newspaper’s move.

The video was a 38-minute documentary by filmmaker Eli Steele called
“Killing America,” which featured the district’s decision to get rid of honors classes in the name of racial equity.

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