District 155, Cary-Grove senior reach settlement in free speech suit

CRYSTAL LAKE – A settlement was reached between Community High School District 155 and a Cary-Grove High School student after he was suspended for using a smartphone to take video of Cary's mayor speaking at the school.

District 155 board members approved the settlement Tuesday after meeting in a closed session.

Cary-Grove senior Matthew Ahmann alleges administrators discouraged him from speaking before Cary Mayor Mark Kownick visited one of his classes, and they later suspended him for posting recordings of the mayor’s speech online.

​Board President Adam Guss and Ahmann’s attorney, Nemura Pencyla, said they could not say what was agreed to in the confidential settlement that was filed with the U.S. District Court in Rockford in January.

The District 155 board said in a statement that neither Ahmann nor the board admits any wrongdoing by settling. The board was prepared to aggressively defend the lawsuit, but found settlement to be the most cost-effective, according to the statement.

Ahmann sought more than $50,000 in damages and requested his suspension records be expunged. The lawsuit alleges the conduct of Kownick and Cary-Grove Dean Jim Kelly was a "prior restraint upon" Ahmann's First Amendment rights.

Ahmann wouldn’t comment on the settlement, but previously said on Facebook he plans to donate any financial benefit from the settlement to educational foundations and the Wounded Warrior Project.

The lawsuit stems from a Sept. 26 incident in which Kownick gave a speech about government and politics at the high school.

Before presenting, Kownick approached Kelly about Ahmann’s “prior political activity” and asked that he be restrained from saying or doing anything during the mayor’s speech, the lawsuit stated. Kelly approached Ahmann, pulled him away from others and “forcefully instructed” him not to say or do anything during Kownick’s speech, according to the lawsuit.

Kownick said he never spoke with Kelly about Ahmann, and said he came to the school as part of a question-and-answer session with no speech prepared.

“I would have loved for him to pay consequences for lying in a lawsuit,” Kownick said. “People need to be accountable for their actions. He illegally taped me and then put it online. Even as elected official, I have rights in a school because schools have more restrictive rights than anywhere else.”

Ahmann is a moderator of an online group that discusses political topics and has criticized Kownick’s politics in the past, according to the lawsuit.

Weeks after the mayor’s visit, Ahmann posted video and audio recordings of Kownick’s speech online. The student’s attorney stated in the lawsuit that because the recordings were of a political figure performing his public duties, Ahmann had the right to post them online.

On Oct. 12, Ahmann was given a one-day in-school suspension for “inappropriate cellphone use in class without permission,” the lawsuit states. Ahmann accused school administrators of not letting him appeal the suspension.

Kownick also said Ahmann took a photo of his family and degraded the image and wrote his family is “the scum of Cary.” Ahmann denied this and said he has never said anything about Kownick’s family.

“He doesn’t even live in Cary [nor] could [he] vote for me,” Kownick said. “I’m a public official and people can go after me. I signed up for it, but you can’t go after my family.”

Ahmann said he has a right to voice his political opinion regardless of where he lives.