Cheshire Academy. Photo: Skranish via Wikipedia Commons

A lawsuit filed in Connecticut Superior Court alleges a prestigious boarding school, Cheshire Academy, this week expelled an outspoken sophomore over his conservative political views.

The college preparatory school's associate head, David Dykeman, was served Wednesday with the lawsuit, filed against Cheshire Academy and two top officials: Julie Anderson, head of schools, and Wesley Simon, the dean.

The three-count lawsuit alleges breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and defamation at the academy that was founded in 1794 and is now one of the oldest boarding schools in the country. Boarding and tuition costs about $62,000 per year, according to information on the school's website.

But the lawsuit alleges fellow students criticized and verbally attacked Michael Mancini, a member of the school's football team, because of his conservative views, which was known among staff and students.

Mancini was expelled from the school on Tuesday, one day after his father, Theodore, unveiled a website chronicling his son's tenure at the school. The site is called “The Real Cheshire Academy” and, according to Mancini's attorney, Jamie Sullivan, the website “soon went viral among the kids at the school and kids from other prep schools.”

“The school also knew that the family has retained an attorney,” said Sullivan, a managing partner at Howard Kohn Sprague & FitzGerald. “I had written a letter threatening a lawsuit.”

Sullivan said in the wake of Mancini's immediate expulsion, his parents would soon be amending the complaint to demand that Cheshire Academy allow him to return to school. The suit also seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Sullivan said Mancini was upfront with his political views when Dykeman, also the school's football coach, recruited him to play football. Mancini, Sullivan said, was promised the school accepted all points of view and was open to a free exchange of ideas. That changed soon after Mancini joined the school as a sophomore in September 2018, Sullivan said.

In one incident outlined in the lawsuit, Mancini made some general observations in an English class at the academy, allegedly prompting several students to yell at him. The class was discussing William Shakespeare's “Twelfth Night” when Mancini stated the play was not historically accurate with regard to a cross-dresser because that behavior was frowned on in England at the time. Some in the class, Sullivan said, thought the reference of Viola, who crossed-dressed as a man, portrayed transgenderism in a positive light.

“Michael was verbally attacked and screamed at by two students for making those comments, for his opinion,” the lawsuit states. After the incident, the lawsuit said, Mancini and his teacher had a conversation on “how to steer clear of language that can upset others.”

In another incident, Mancini was suspended for five days for jokingly answering, “Obviously, I am black” when a teacher asked him in a mandatory Martin Luther King Jr. workshop to tell the class something about his identity. The lawsuit said students of all colors laughed at the comment and that Mancini had apologized several times.

“The school had a close-minded perspective and did not want to embrace a diversity of thought and interpretation,” Sullivan said. Mancini was suspended after the comment about being black “because of his conservative views and his lack of political correctness,” Sullivan said.

No attorney has appeared for the academy, and Dykeman said Thursday, “With Michael being a minor, the school does not have a comment at this time.”

According to Sullivan, the school claimed that one reason for Mancini's expulsion was that he taped some of the disciplinary proceedings against him.

The attorney said he has been told that dozens of Mancini's supporters, fellow students at the school, will be staging a walkout at the academy soon.

Sullivan said, “He has the support of all of the football players, and that includes white and black players.”