Following a nearly three-year-long legal battle, the District and the Atherton Police Department (APD) agreed to settle with former M-A student Keanu (Shay) Caldwell on Feb. 27. In agreeing to the settlement, the District and APD will pay $400,000 and $160,000, respectively. Caldwell, who attended M-A until 2023, was arrested by APD in 2023 following an altercation with school administrators. His arrest went viral on social media, sparked campus-wide outrage, and a student protest.
The arrest prompted legal action from Caldwell, who filed a civil rights complaint against five APD officers and one district staff member in 2023. He later amended the complaint to name the District and an additional administrator in 2024.
Despite agreeing to the settlement, in statements issued to the M-A Chronicle, both the District and APD emphasized that they did not claim any liability.
“The Town [of Atherton] and police department have no comment, other than the settlement was reached with an express acknowledgment that the Town or police department has not made any statements of liability or unlawful conduct,” APD Commander Dan Larsen wrote.
“Settlements are not admissions of wrongdoing or liability; they are pragmatic decisions made to limit risk, protect resources for students, and allow the District and its employees to move forward,” SUHSD Public Information Officer Naomi Hunter wrote.
The District added that its portion of the settlement costs will not come out of its general funds but will instead be covered by the District’s insurance. It also cited “prolonged litigation and significant additional legal costs” as the main reasons for settling.
APD provided no additional comment as to its motives for settling or where the settlement money will come from. However, the Town of Atherton and its entities are covered by the Pooled Liability Assurance Network Joint Powers Authority (PLAN JPA). The plan, which draws its money from participating taxpayer-funded agencies, provides liability coverage, legal defense, and risk-management services for lawsuits filed against participating public agencies.
Caldwell’s arrest took place on Friday, April 28, 2023. Previous reporting from the M-A Chronicle found that earlier that week, many students—including Caldwell—had brought water guns onto campus as part of a student-led ‘senior assassin’ game. The water guns were later confiscated by the administration. Caldwell went to the office to retrieve the water gun that Friday, but Administrative Vice Principal Stephen Emmi refused to return it, prompting an argument.
According to a 2023 statement from Larsen regarding the incident, Caldwell “physically assaulted a school administrator by pushing them into a cubicle wall, tried to push the administrator’s glasses off their face, spit on them, and called them derogatory homophobic slurs.”
The lawsuit notes that Caldwell experienced multiple learning disabilities, including anxiety and depression, in addition to deficits in auditory processing, short-term memory, and executive functioning. According to the lawsuit, these conditions—outlined in his individualized education plan (IEP)—“can cause him to exhibit signs of frustration and feeling overwhelmed,” and may have influenced his reaction toward Emmi.
Caldwell denies ever pushing or spitting on Emmi or anyone else in the office. Rather, the lawsuit claims that Emmi “physically pushed into minor K.C.’s [Caldwell’s] body.”
Caldwell then left campus for the Middlefield Road bus station while an administrator called APD, citing a disturbance at the school’s office.
APD officers David Metzger and Diego Romero were dispatched to the bus stop, where they pinned Caldwell to the ground and arrested him. According to the lawsuit, Caldwell had recently had hernia surgery and was in “immense pain” when forced to the ground by Metzger. Caldwell claims that his Miranda rights were not read to him until he had reached the APD station.
This settlement comes nearly a month after the District voted to close TIDE Academy, in an effort to cut costs amid budget deficits and declining enrollment districtwide. The District is also currently involved in nine other legal disputes that remain unresolved.
