(WKYT) – The parent of a Pulaski County student filed a lawsuit alleging that Pulaski County Schools and law enforcement officials violated the student’s civil rights.
The student, who holds a valid Federal Communications Commission amateur radio license, reportedly brought two-way radios to school with him at Southwestern High School on Jan. 31, 2025.
The lawsuit alleges that Deputy Ronald Hellard with the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office seized the radios without a warrant while off-duty and threatened to arrest the student’s father, Braden Bowman, after he objected to the seizure.
“When Mr. Bowman objected that no warrant had been obtained and no applicable rule or policy had been violated, Deputy Hellard replied, as captured on his own body camera, ‘I don’t need a warrant,’ and ‘I don’t have to have a warrant. I don’t have to,’” the lawsuit reads.
According to the lawsuit, there was no school policy that prohibited two-way radios at Southwestern High School at the time of the incident. The lawsuit says the school has since implemented restrictions on two-way radios.
After the seizure, the student was charged, but a judge suppressed the radios as evidence and dismissed the juvenile case with prejudice.
The lawsuit claims the student was also suspended three times despite the school’s principal acknowledging that no policy prohibited the radios at the time.
The student’s family is seeking damages and an order blocking the district from enforcing a radio policy it claims was improperly adopted.