The Okland family — parents Scott and Jennifer and daughter Avery — filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court against the private school on Aug. 7, claiming a breach of covenant and accusing the school of both negligently and intentionally inflicting emotional distress.
In a statement to Phoenix New Times, SCA Superintendent Brent Hodges said the Oklands’ allegations are “currently disputed and because they are under pending litigation we are unable to comment further.”
According to the suit, Avery Okland attended SCA from kindergarten in 2010 until earlier this year, when she graduated from high school. During that time, the family’s complaint said, she experienced bullying, harassment and abusive behavior from other students, which the family alleged school officials did little to stop. Finally, early into Avery’s senior year last October, the school allowed her to transition to remote learning.
But a month later, while the family was on vacation in Hawaii, SCA Principal Jeremy Richards sent Avery’s parents an email “demanding Scott and Jennifer attend a Zoom meeting with SCA to discuss a ‘threatening voice message,’” according to the complaint. The email added that Avery's enrollment at the school “depends on your good faith participation in this meeting” and that the family was instructed to “avoid all communication” with Hodges.
On the call, which the complaint said included SCA attorney Robert Brown, officials informed the family that the school had received a voicemail from an unidentified caller threatening to “come after” Hodges and SCA. Brown accused Scott Okland of leaving the message, writing in a follow-up letter that Okland’s voice “was identified as the probable source of the voice message by people who know you personally.” According to the complaint, SCA did not identify who those people were.
The family denied the accusation on the Zoom call, the complaint said. Additionally, the Oklands pointed out that they hadn’t had “any contact with Hodges” for “several years” and that, unlike the caller in the voicemail, Scott Okland had a strong Minnesota accent. Brown requested that Okland submit to forensic voice analysis, and Okland agreed and offered to pay for it himself.
The suit said the Oklands “offered information regarding additional suspects” and provided SCA with Scott Okland’s personal and business phone records. Scott Okland also agreed to “refrain from being on the SCA campus.” The family did so “under duress and the threat of Avery being expelled from SCA” during her senior year, which the complaint said caused Avery to have an “emotional breakdown.”
Avery Okland attended Scottdale Christian Academy from kindergarten through her high school graduation, though a lawsuit said her senior year was "tainted" by the school's accusations against her father.
Morgan Fischer
‘NOT the same’
Following the accusation, Scott Okland participated in what the suit said was a 65-minute voice analysis conducted by USA Forensics, which the complaint said was recommended to SCA by the Phoenix Police Department. Okland sent $7,500 to SCA to cover the cost, according to the suit.Five days after Christmas, about a month after the test was conducted, the school provided the family with the voice analysis results. “The voice recorded by USA Forensics LLC & the voice from the provided phone message are NOT the same,” the results stated, according to the suit. USA Forensics did not return a request for comment.
The Oklands thought that would be the end of it, but according to their lawsuit, it wasn’t.
In a January letter, SCA said Avery would be allowed to continue her last semester as a remote student at the school, but with conditions. The Oklands were to have limited contact with SCA staff and to refrain from disparaging or harassing school employees. Additionally, the complaint said, the family was still subject to a “formal trespass warning” for the remainder of the school year.
“Although SCA’s expert performed the forensic voice analysis, which Scott voluntarily participated in and paid for, which concluded that Scott did not leave the Voicemail, SCA nevertheless continued to treat Avery, Jennifer and Scott as if they had committed some wrongdoing,” the complaint said.
According to the suit, the Oklands requested to meet with the SCA board and asked that board members sign the letter, but both requests were denied. The family did sign the letter and agree to the restrictions, the complaint said, because “they felt immense pressure to comply with SCA’s terms so Avery would be allowed to finish her senior year.”
Avery did graduate, the complaint said, but the voicemail accusation and the investigation of it “tainted” her experience, leaving her “often unable to sleep” and dealing with “severe anxiety that at any moment she could be expelled.” The lawsuit also claimed that Avery “needed medical treatment to deal with the effects of SCA’s actions,” though the complaint did not specify what kind of treatment.
The family’s suit seeks general and punitive damages. The school has not filed a response in court, though the Oklands' attorney Michael Beethe told New Times that he expects the school to file an answer by mid-September.
