ICAP represents Jevon Washington, a Texas high school student with intellectual disabilities, in a high-stakes civil rights lawsuit against a school resource officer (SRO) who repeatedly tased him. The incident occurred in 2016 at Mayde Creek High School after Jevon, then 17, became upset after being bullied by one of his classmates. Jevon sought to remove himself from the situation so that he could “walk off” his negative emotions. When he approached a school exit, Officer Elvin Paley put Jevon in a chokehold and fired his taser, continuing to tase the boy even after he was “prone on the ground, unable to move.”
While the district court initially denied the officer qualified immunity, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed in 2021, ruling that the law did not “clearly establish” that students have Fourth Amendment protections against excessive force by school officials. ICAP continued the fight, and in 2024, filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. By bringing this case, ICAP seeks to end the “blanket immunity” that often shields school police and to ensure that the Constitution protects children from state-sponsored violence within their own classrooms.
