High School Student and Football Player Sues Cretin-Derham Hall
Jackson Crawford was on his way to becoming a 2018 graduate at Cretin-Derham Hall when the school determined he was ineligible to graduate. On graduation day, Crawford was given an empty diploma and the school has continued to withhold the diploma.
Cretin-Derham Hall stands behind their decision, saying that Crawford failed to meet the graduation requirements by failing to fulfill a religion credit. Crawford, who has now filed a lawsuit against the school in Ramsey County in order to obtain his diploma, argues that the school failed to accommodate his disability.
Crawford began inpatient treatment in February of 2018 for behavioral disabilities, and the school agreed that Crawford could turn in a reflective journal that detailed his experience in treatment in order to fulfill the religion credit. When the due date came around for Crawford to turn in his journal, the teacher was not at school when he came to drop it off. Crawford felt as though the journal was too sensitive to leave with another staff member, so Crawford did not turn it in. Both Crawford and the school failed to follow up about the religion credit. But, according to Crawford’s complaint, the school also did not make Crawford aware that he would be ineligible to graduate for failing to turn in the journal. Crawford obtained his GED after he was unable to graduate, but his hopes of continuing his football career fell by the wayside due to this conflict.
The school has filed a motion to dismiss Crawford’s complaint, which a Ramsey County will review at a hearing in November.