St. Paul Academy parent Matt Bauer and his son have sued the school for breach of contract and other claims related to the son’s dismissal for the upcoming academic year. The son did nothing wrong. That is undisputed in the lawsuit.
Mr. Bauer did nothing wrong either, but he has offended head of school Luis Ottley with his opposition to the Ottley regime. Ottley has invoked what I call “The Ottley protection provision” of the enrollment contract dismiss Bauer’s son on account of Bauer’s opposition to Ottley.
Bauer’s lawsuit has been assigned to Ramsey County District Judge Laura Nelson. Along with his complaint Bauer has moved for a temporary injunction ordering the school to admit his son for the upcoming school year. Judge Nelson held a hearing via Zoom on the motion this past Thursday morning. Judge Nelson had read the papers filed by the parties and was well-prepared for the heaing. I attended online and want to offer a few notes as an update. The filings can be accessed by a search here on “Matthew Bauer.”
The larger issues present in this case attracted the attention of the Star Tribune in a June 21 page-one story. SPA resents the negative publicity, but Ottley has worked hard to earn it. See, for example, his treatment of the parent I wrote about in “Ordeal by Ottley.”
In his oral argument SPA’s attorney echoed Ottley’s messages to the school community. The dismissal here attributable to the conduct of a parent is the first of its kind in the school’s 126-year history! He didn’t mention that the Ottley protection provision of the enrollment contract under which the Ottley acted was only introduced in the 2025-2026 school year and they have already used it twice. In addition, Ottley held threatened to dismiss Bauer’s oldest son on the verge of graduation in June and induction at the Naval Academy later that month. As I keep saying, the in terrorem effect on other parents should be obvious.
In its memorandum opposing Bauer’s motion SPA complains of the time spent in responding to Bauer. At the hearing SPA’s attorney complained that one administrator spent 15 hours and another 20 hours. All together, according to SPA’s attorney at the hearing, administrators spent “dozens and dozens” of hours on the matter.
Judge Nelson did not seem to be impressed. She didn’t ask if all that that time was essential to the protection of their “phony baloney jobs,” as Mel Brooks’s Governor LePetomane puts it in Blazing Saddles, but she might have thought it.
Judge Nelson asked what level of public dissent from SPA’s administration is allowed before the school lowers the boom. SPA’s attorney cited the school’s magnanimity in the case of the parent who was subjected to the humiliating discipline for whatever Ottley thinks he did in connection with the Winter Dance. Judge Nelson observed that she wasn’t sure that case served the argument of the school here. Rather, she seemed to harbor the guilty thought that it illustrated the arbitrary use of the Ottley protection provision of the enrollment contract.
After treating that parent like dirt, by the way, the school now cites him in this case him as an exemplary citizen. His kids have been readmitted for the upcoming school year and the conditions imposed on the parent through the end of the past school year have now expired, all thanks to the wonder-working mercy of Luis Ottley. Judge Nelson asked where SPA draws the line in matters of legitimate disagreement.
SPA’s attorney argued that the school exercised its reasonable discretion in dismissing the younger Bauer on account of the conduct of his father in this case. “This is strong decision making,” he said. That’s a creative way to put it. He argued that there is necessarily subjectivity, but the school isn’t “just kicking them out.”
Judge Nelson also raised an issue regarding SPA’s characterization of Bauer’s conduct as disruptive and aggressive. She noted that he communicated by email in messages that were neither vulgar nor threatening.
At the end of the hearing Judge Nelson ordered the parties to mediation. They are to try to resolve the case with the assistance of a mediator over the next two weeks and report to the court by August 3. She urged the adults involved in the case to take heed of the teenage boy whose future is at issue (he is also a party to the lawsuit). Judge Nelson used the hearing to create incentives on both sides to resolve the lawsuit. If the case is unresolved in mediation, she will promptly issue her ruling on the motion for a temporary injunction.
