AHSAA Executive Director Heath Harmon could take the stand today in a hearing in U.S. District Court in Montgomery in response to a federal lawsuit filed by the mothers of two Mary G. Montgomery High School students who were ruled permanently ineligible for athletics at the school by the AHSAA. The women said their constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection under the law and those of their sons were violated by the AHSAA. (Jimmy Wigfield/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
A federal lawsuit claiming their constitutional rights and those of their sons were violated by the Alabama High School Athletic Association has been filed on behalf of two mothers of Mary G. Montgomery students who were declared permanently ineligible to play football there by the AHSAA.
Tameka Dale and Ashley Davis are seeking a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to restore their sons’ eligibility plus compensatory damages for irreparably harming their futures, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit names AHSAA Executive Director Heath Harmon, Mobile County Public School System Superintendent Chresal Threadgill and MGM Principal David Diaz as defendants.
U.S. District Judge Bill Lewis scheduled a hearing on the case for Thursday at 10:30 a.m. in Montgomery.
Michael Kidd
Attorney Michael Kidd, who filed the lawsuit, said he hopes a favorable ruling for the students could lead to substantive changes in how the AHSAA operates.
“That’s the end game here,” he told the Call News Wednesday. “It’s very evident that it is damn the torpedoes with regard to everything that would be contrary to (the AHSAA’s) transfer rule. They are willing to try to preserve their transfer rule at all costs. Damn a court order, damn the U.S. Constitution, damn federal law.”
The lawsuit is the latest legal salvo launched against Harmon and the AHSAA over a case in which MGM was given restrictive probation and banned from the playoffs for a year and coach Zach Golson was put on probation for a year and ultimately lost his job.
The genesis of the case is freshman welcoming ceremonies at MGM the students attended in 2024 and 2025 after their mothers said they had already filed paperwork for their sons to go to school there. Diaz said the students were not invited to the ceremony and the mothers contend no recruiting for football occurred.
Kidd filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on behalf of Dale, the mother of a minor identified as T.D., and Davis, the mother of a minor identified as B.G. Both are still students at MGM, although they were declared permanently ineligible for athletics there because the AHSAA said they were involved in violating its recruiting rule.
T.D. and B.G. are among 21 students the AHSAA declared permanently ineligible to play at MGM, according to Harmon’s May 18 letter to Diaz disclosing the sanctions.
Kidd previously filed a lawsuit on behalf of Dale on Sept. 4 in Montgomery County Circuit Court claiming the AHSAA and Harmon used an improperly modified rule to punish her son and the school. Those claims are maintained in the new lawsuit.
AHSAA attorney Benjamin Espy filed a motion to dismiss the initial state lawsuit, saying the circuit court has no jurisdiction over the association. But Kidd pointed to legal precedent giving the circuit court authority to overrule the AHSAA “if acts of the association are the result of fraud, lack of jurisdiction, collusion or arbitrariness.”
Golson claims he was denied due process and defamed in a separate lawsuit filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court against the AHSAA, Harmon, Threadgill, Diaz and AHSAA investigator Chuck Anderson.
If Lewis grants a temporary restraining order, the students could be eligible to play on Oct. 2 when MGM visits Baker.
Ironically, Baker played a role in the investigation that resulted in the AHSAA’s probation against MGM and Golson being removed as the Vikings’ coach by the Mobile County Public School System before the sanctions were announced.
Baker turned in Mary G. Montgomery after two other middle school players zoned for Baker attended MGM’s freshman welcoming ceremony on April 23, according to the May 18 letter sent by Harmon to Diaz.
T.D. and B.G. attended previous MGM welcoming ceremonies after their mothers said they had already filed paperwork for them to attend the school and the federal lawsuit claims their rights to exercise free speech and to be given equal protection under the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution were violated.
Any contact between MGM, Dale, Davis and their sons was “truthful and non-coercive communications sought by a student and parent who had already chosen the school” and is unconstitutional because it restricts free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2007 recognized “truthful communications” as a protected right in a Tennessee athletics eligibility case, Kidd said in the lawsuit.
Kidd also said in the lawsuit that the AHSAA violates the 14th Amendment by treating independent inquiries about joining a school’s band or other clubs and joining an athletic team unequally.
“In one group, you’ve got the band director and the (Student Government Association) and all that stuff,” Kidd told the Call News. “You can go up there and have those conversations all day long. But if you talk to the coaches or anything involving athletics, then all of a sudden not only are you suspended for a certain period of time, you’re suspended permanently for all athletics. It’s the death penalty in high school athletics being given to a student and that’s not only extreme, it’s extremely arbitrary.”
Those violations are tied into improperly altered AHSAA rules that limit free speech and deny equal protection, Kidd said in the lawsuit.
The original lawsuit claimed portions of the recruiting rule were changed without proper authorization from the AHSAA’s Legislative Council during the tenure of former AHSAA Executive Director Steve Savarese.
Kidd cited a rule in the 2015-16 AHSAA handbook that said: “It is permissible for a coach or anyone else connected with a school to talk or speak with a student(s) or parent(s) who, on their own, visit their school for any specific purpose.”
The rule also said: “No person connected in any way with a school may contact a student or prospective student or his/her parents or guardian who resides outside of the school district to inquire or encourage them to transfer or enroll in their school for the chief purpose of participating in interscholastic athletics.”
Golson, Dale and Davis each said nobody from Mary G. Montgomery contacted them or their sons about playing football. Golson said any contact with any of the students at a welcoming ceremony was inadvertent.
The recruiting rule was later changed without approval by the AHSAA’s Legislative Council, Kidd said in the lawsuit, to prohibit contact with a student through phone calls, emails, text messages and social media. However, the language allowing a coach or a school representative to speak with students and their parents who visited a school on their own “for any specific purpose” remained.
That language changed in the 2022-23 AHSAA handbook from “any specific purpose” to “any specific purpose other than athletics” and was not approved by the AHSAA’s Legislative Council, Kidd said in the lawsuit.
Kidd said he wants Harmon to explain under oath about the rule Kidd said was improperly changed and used to punish Mary G. Montgomery, T.D. and B.G.
“Either produce the documentation proving that these rules that are in question went through the proper authentication or obviously they didn’t,” Kidd told the Call News. “That’s pretty straightforward. I want to ask what’s the deal with bypassing your bylaws and effectively stripping your membership of being able to have a say in this? This rule has morphed into something that has never been approved. If we’re wrong, they can come in and produce the minutes where it went through the proper procedure, then we’ll withdraw those complaints. But even if they did approve it the way it was supposed to be approved, they cannot restrict all speech.”
Kidd said the harm done by the constitutional violations gives his clients a better chance to succeed in court.
“The precedent has been set by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has clearly indicated that you cannot restrict all speech,” Kidd told the Call News. “A parent has a constitutionally protected right to go to a school and communicate with a coach or a principal or any other administrator about their kid and obtain information that helps them make decisions, what courses they’re going to take, what extracurriculars they’re going to be involved in. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that you can’t impede on that unless it’s directly tied to not just recruiting but recruiting that would be considered coercive, with undue influence, things of that nature.”
T.D. and B.G. were each attending Clark-Shaw Magnet School when their mothers brought them to MGM’s annual welcoming ceremony in 2024 and 2025, respectively, according to the lawsuit.
B.G. was zoned to attend Baker and T.D. to Vigor, although both high schools were classified as failing, entitling both students to transfer, according to the lawsuit. However, Baker had an overall score of 82 in 2023-24 and was not a failing school, according to the Alabama Department of Education.
Davis said she wanted her son to attend MGM because of its signature academies and, as Dale had done, filed paperwork for B.G. to transfer to MGM before attending the school’s welcoming ceremony in 2024, according to the lawsuit.
Golson said in his lawsuit the freshman welcoming ceremony was approved by MGM’s administration and added in a statement approved by his lawyer that he welcomed an examination of all his phone and text records.
