ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Hazelwood school officials are seeking punishment for Missouri’s attorney general after he launched an investigation into how diversity and inclusion practices in the district “contributed†to a teen’s brutal beating this spring.
The complaint, filed April 15 by a lawyer for the district, claims Attorney General Andrew Bailey violated state rules when he initiated a “frivolous†investigation into the district based on inaccurate claims, all while broadcasting the investigation to news outlets for political purposes.
“We believe that Attorney General Andrew Bailey must be held to the same standards as all other attorneys under the Missouri Rules of Professional Conduct and (American Bar Association) Model Rules of Professional Conduct and request that you take appropriate action to prevent Mr. Bailey from conducting himself in this manner in the future,†the complaint reads.
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The complaint, obtained by the Post-Dispatch through a records request, was filed with the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, the office that oversees Missouri attorneys.
Neither Bailey nor Hazelwood schools responded to a request for comment Wednesday.
Bailey launched the investigation into the district’s diversity and inclusion practices on March 22 with a letter suggesting that Hazelwood violated the Missouri Human Rights Act by “treating students differently based on race.â€
Bailey’s probe came two weeks after a 15-year-old girl was beaten by another student during a brawl a few blocks from Hazelwood East High School. The fight, captured in a viral video, showed a Black student smashing into the pavement the head of white student Kaylee Gain.
Kaylee spent several weeks in a hospital intensive care unit after the fight, and the accused attacker, identified by family as Maurnice DeClue, has a hearing this month to determine if she will be charged as an adult.
Neither police nor school officials said they had any evidence that race played a role in the beating.
But since Bailey announced his investigation, Cindy Ormsby, an attorney for the district, said school employees have received hateful messages from across the country.
“Employees answering phones are called the ‘n’ word or ‘n-lover,’†Ormsby wrote in the complaint. “Bomb threats have been made to individual employees and at schools, to which law enforcement have had to respond.â€
The threats were all false alarms, but students, staff and parents still fear for their safety, Ormsby wrote.
Bailey’s investigation is “frivolous†and lacks a good-faith basis required by professional rules of conduct, according to the complaint.
The complaint notes that Bailey got several key facts wrong when he announced his investigation, including the time and date of the fight and his claim that the district has no school resource officers. Ormsby said several schools in the district have school resource officers, and the ones that don’t have security officers and monitors.
But the fight was also off campus and out of any resource officer’s jurisdiction, Ormsby noted.
Additionally, Ormsby wrote, by sharing correspondence between his office and the district simultaneously with news outlets, Bailey failed to refrain from making “extrajudicial comments,†that brought “heightened public condemnation†of the district.
Missouri rules of professional conduct allow attorneys to make statements of fact that serve a “legitimate law enforcement purpose†and don’t raise the likelihood of public condemnation of the accused.
The complaint, sent to Chief Disciplinary Counsel Laura Elsbury, will be screened by the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel for probable cause before it can move forward. If it does, the complaint would undergo a lengthy investigative and hearing process, and punishment could range from a reprimand to disbarment.
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and former ºüÀêÊÓƵ Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner faced the same processes for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and mistakes in the prosecution of former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, respectively.