Mothers from a Jasper High School choir booster club filed a lawsuit claiming Plano Independent School District (ISD) participated in civil conspiracy and had them falsely arrested.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, which names Laura Cervantes and the Jasper High School Choir Booster Club as the plaintiffs, describes the series of events that led to the filing.<\/p>\n
Cervantes was elected as president of the booster club<\/a> in 2019, and in June 2022 the club was filed as an incorporated nonprofit organization. The club utilized a Prosperity Bank account, and three directors, Cervantes, Krisinda Lingenfelter, and Maria King, assumed oversight.<\/p>\n Cervantes\u2019 lawsuit states, \u201cNeither Plano ISD, nor any of its employees, were members, officers, or employees of the organization\u201d at that time.<\/p>\n The directors reportedly sought funding from Plano ISD for repairs in the theater, but allege that the district then flipped the script, asking the booster club to instead fund improvements. When they responded that repairs were not in the description of the club\u2019s functions, Plano ISD claimed that the booster club was no longer acting in compliance with district guidelines and staged a coup, according to Cervantes.<\/p>\n The district disavowed the club and elected new leadership, despite the club operating as a legally separate entity from the district. The lawsuit claims that during that time, \u201cDefendants continued to divert the Booster Club’s mail, kept it, opened it, and used its contents (namely bank statements).\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit also claims that the newly elected booster club directors, along with the school\u2019s fine arts director, subsequently went to Prosperity Bank in order to replace the original club directors as authorized signers on the account.<\/p>\n The lawsuit states, \u201cThese Defendants’ conduct likely constituted the crime of forgery under [the Texas Penal Code<\/a>], because they intentionally presented documents intended to defraud the bank and harm the Booster Club by taking over its funds.\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, the bank notified the three moms that it would be closing the account, and they proceeded to take the check and deposit that money into another bank account at Vantage Bank in the name of the booster club. The check bounced.<\/p>\n In August 2024, a Plano Police Department detective executed a probable cause affidavit \u2014 which Cervantes claims was \u201cbased entirely off the knowingly false statements of each Defendant\u201d \u2014 and obtained warrants for the arrests of Cervantes, Lingenfelter, and King \u201cfor the felony offense of theft over $2,500 but less than $30,000.\u201d<\/p>\n They were booked into the Collin County Jail with their bonds set at $25,000 each.<\/p>\n A Collin County grand jury declined to indict the women \u201cfor any crime for want of probable cause, and the prosecution was terminated in Cervantes’s favor.\u201d<\/p>\n Plano ISD released a statement<\/a> about the legal drama, arguing that school-affiliated organizations, including booster clubs, \u201cmust follow established guidelines for financial accountability, annual audits and open communication with district leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement did not address the termination of the prosecution, or the district-led formation of the new booster club, but maintained, \u201cPlano ISD did not file any suit against the former booster club- these proceedings were strictly between the current booster organization and the previously disbanded group.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement by Plano ISD also detailed that they gave the $4,437.39 recovered from the old booster club\u2019s account to the new club.<\/p>\n On May 27, the federal lawsuit was filed with Cervantes at the helm. Allegations cover 11 items, from false arrest and unreasonable seizure of property to violations of the rights to free association, free speech, petition.<\/p>\n The lawsuit alleges, \u201cPlano Independent School District and its employees conspir[ed] with private citizens to assume control over a private non-profit organization, take control of its property and monies, and eventually, have the directors of that organization falsely arrested and publicly humiliated \u2013 all because the officers of a high school choir booster club would not bend the knee to an out-of-control public school district.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit is one of several legal battles that Plano ISD is currently involved in.<\/p>\n The district was also named alongside Houston and Katy ISDs in a case that challenges part of Texas Senate Bill (SB) 12<\/a>, which delineates restrictions for K\u201312 public school discussions on race, sexual orientation, and gender identity and restricts LGBT student groups and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.<\/p>\n The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Transgender Law Center, and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT).<\/p>\n Last year, a federal judge granted a temporary injunction and blocked the enforcement of SB 12 in the three school districts as litigation continues.<\/p>\n Additionally, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced<\/a> investigations into Plano ISD last year \u201cfor permitting and facilitating antisemitic behavior.\u201d Paxton\u2019s press release stated that school officials provided \u201cexcused absences\u201d for students who participated in pro-Palestine school walk-outs, \u201ceffectively making it a school-sponsored anti-Israel activity.\u201d<\/p>\n