A Trussville father said he was banned from his daughter’s school after raising concerns that staff had failed to safely manage her diabetes, according to a federal lawsuit filed this month.

In a complaint filed Sept. 1 against the Trussville Police Department, the police chief, a school resource officer, and Trussville City Schools, Michael Kidd and Denise Kidd said local officials repeatedly violated disability law as well as the parent’s First Amendment rights, causing them physical and emotional distress and eventually prompting them to take their daughter out of school for more than a year.

Nearly two years after their daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, the Kidds say they have still been unable to secure appropriate accommodations for their child and are left with few options for her education.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern Alabama, comes after the family repeatedly complained to district, state and federal officials about the conduct of school staff. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is also investigating the district for complaints of retaliation and discrimination.

“The district has weaponized and conspired with the Trussville Police Department in their discrimination and retaliation,” the Kidds wrote in an OCR complaint filed in 2023, alleging that the district has a pattern of discriminating against students with disabilities.

Superintendent Patrick Martin did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. Police Chief Eric Rush, in an email to AL.com, said he could not comment due to pending litigation.

In January 2022, the Kidd’s daughter, who attended Cahaba Elementary at the time, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes after being admitted to the UAB Children’s Hospital with life-threatening ketoacidosis.

After her hospitalization, the girl missed nearly a month of school, the lawsuit states, because no staff was trained to manage diabetes.

In February 2022, she was cleared to return to school, but her IHP and 504 plans, which are supposed to provide her specific accommodations and instructions for treating her disability, were incorrect, according to the parents. One of the forms, created by the school nurse, included the wrong insulin dosage. The parents complained about the nurse to state officials.

On Feb. 23, a substitute nurse texted the Kidds, saying she was confused about their daughter’s insulin dosage and had calculated a much higher dosage than she was prescribed. The nurse did not respond to the parents’ texts or calls, the lawsuit claims, and out of fear that she would overdose their daughter, the Kidds called 911 and drove over to the school.

When they arrived, they said they were met by the principal and a school resource officer, Robert Antonio. The resource officer falsely accused the parents of being “uncivil,” the suit claims. The parents reported him to the local police department.

Two days later, Michael Kidd arrived at his daughter’s school to bring her more snacks. He was met by Officer Antonio, who ordered him to stop and place the snacks on the ground.

Principal Joy Tyner, according to the suit, said she wanted Michael Kidd banned from the property because she feared for the safety of her staff. In the complaint, lawyers claim the no-trespass order was an act of retaliation against the student’s parents for “asserting their rights under federal law.”

“He never made any threats, he was just standing up for his daughter,” Scott Morro, an attorney for the Kidds, told AL.com.

Throughout the spring semester of 2022, school personnel failed to communicate with the Kidds about their daughter’s health, and on several occasions reprimanded their child for using her cell phone to communicate with her parents about her spiking glucose levels and management of her diabetes, the lawsuit stated.

Before school started back in the fall of 2022, their daughter’s treatment changed, and school staff assured the Kidds that her health plan would be updated before she returned to school.

But on Aug. 19 2022, when the student’s blood glucose rose to a dangerously high level, the nurse delayed treating her, putting her at “serious risk,” the lawsuit alleges.

“It was then clear that our daughter was not safe at school, and we were forced to take her out of school,” the parents wrote in an OCR complaint.

The Kidds kept the girl out of school for the remainder of the year, citing the school’s failure to provide her with appropriate care and accommodations.

Matters appeared to escalate after an interaction with one of the student’s teachers at a football game, where, in response to a question about how he was doing, Michael Kidd stated he was “aggravated,” and that he would be “less aggravated if people would do their jobs.”

The lawsuit states that shortly after that interaction, Trussville Police Chief Eric Rush called Michael Kidd and implied that the Kidds should stop filing complaints, and then threatened to trespass him from all district property.

By February of 2023, the student was still out of school, and had yet to receive any homebound services or proper adjustments to her health and behavioral plan. Frank Costanzo, the interim superintendent, allegedly told the parents that the district was struggling to find an at-home teacher because “they’re scared of y’all,” the lawsuit says.

The trespass order was eventually lifted against Michael Kidd, Morro said.

But by August of 2023, he said the district had still failed to provide requested accommodations for the student’s transition to the local middle school.

On Aug. 23, after repeated meetings with school officials about her care plan – and alleged threats that the parents could be prosecuted for truancy – the student went back to school.

But three days later, her blood glucose rose again. The lawsuit states that a teacher still gave the student an assignment during that time, and then sent her to the nurse without an adult escort. The principal then accused her of using her phone for social media – which she denied. The parents claim all three actions by school staff violate the health plan and best practices for diabetic students.

The Kidds pulled their daughter from class again, only to discover a few days later that the school was logging her absences as unexcused, the lawsuit says.

Morro said he’s working to schedule a hearing with the judge to prevent school officials from holding the parents responsible for truancy.