By banning a parent from all Limestone County Schools property, officials hoped to send a clear message: mistreatment of administration will not be tolerated. The parent banned says the district has gone too far.

The incident happened Feb. 19 at Creekside Elementary School. According to the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office, a parent in the car line began yelling at a staff member. Creekside Principal Matt Scott approached to see what was going on, and the parent began yelling at him, too, before driving off.

A complaint filed in Limestone County District Court states the parent, identified as Travis Lee Stanley, shouted “I am going to have your job” and “I’m a (expletive deleted) tax payer” before speeding out of the school parking lot. Stanley was later arrested on a charge of harassment.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Limestone County Schools Board, the board members voted unanimously to ban Stanley from all Limestone County Schools property for the rest of the school year and one full calendar year after.

Superintendent Tom Sisk said he wants the ban to serve as a clear message to other parents who might be inclined to behave similarly.

“If you confront a school administrator that’s trying to do their job, accost them with profanity or threaten them in any way, we don’t want you on campus,” he said.

Sisk said Stanley can apply to him after May 31, 2020, to have Stanley’s ban lifted.

“It’s not that I’m anti-this guy,” Sisk said. “… We’re in a hypersensitive mode because of the safety of children, and when someone comes in and says something like this, I don’t know what direction they’re going to go.”

Stanley’s response

While Sisk says he’s not against Stanley, Stanley told The News Courier he’s against Sisk.

“People in this county are definitely upset with Sisk,” Stanley said. “Someone like myself, that was attacked by a teacher in the parking lot, and then I get banned. They actually swore out a warrant for my arrest.”

According to Stanley, he was the one in charge of dropping his children off at school that day, something he said he doesn’t get to do often. As a result, he said he wasn’t used to the way car line is handled at Creekside, and he made a wrong turn in the parking lot.

“This teacher ran up to my car with a tablet and an umbrella — it was raining,” he said. “She hit my car like, four or five times.”

He said his van had multiple scratches from the teacher hitting it with the umbrella. As he tried to leave the parking lot, Stanley said, a man came running over.

“This guy comes running up to my car and starts yelling at me,” he said. “He didn’t even tell me who he was. Turns out, he was the principal, Matt Scott.”

Stanley said he did stop and exchange words with the principal, but he insists he never used profanity or threatened Scott. Scott tried to get Stanley to come to his office for a meeting, but Stanley refused and left the school instead.

Stanley said it wasn’t until LCSO arrived on his property with an arrest warrant that he became aware of the harassment charge filed against him.

“Matt Scott harassed us by calling us multiple times one after another, where we had to actually turn off our phones during business hours. Then when we thought it was the end of harassment, Matt Scott filed a harassment charge against me and had me arrested in front of my children for a false allegation,” Stanley said. “My children were crying in confusion. Now my children are afraid of police officers and of going to school because of this.”

It wasn’t until The News Courier called Wednesday that Stanley said he became aware he’d been banned from LCS property.

“I did nothing violent,” Stanley said. “… I can’t pick my kids up, can’t have lunch with them.”

Stanley said his family has started looking for a new home outside Limestone County. He has also retained an attorney, with plans to sue the district.

“We moved to Limestone because we felt like it was the new Madison,” Stanley said. “… It’s so much different now.”