Kalispell Public Schools Retaliated Against Father and Son in Wrestling Lawsuit, Jury Finds
Kirk and Clifford Nance filed suit against the school district for adverse action it took against them after they reported the sexual assault of wrestlers to the school district. Their lawyer said they hope the finding in their favor sparks more safeguards for whistleblowers from Kalispell Public Schools.
By Mariah Thomas
Kalispell Public Schools retaliated against a father and son who came forward to report instances of sexual assault and harassment in Glacier High School’s wrestling program, a Missoula jury found on Thursday.
“For Kirk and Clifford [Nance], this has always been about student safety,” said Avery Field, a lawyer with Bliven Law Firm representing the plaintiffs. “This was never about money for them.”
To underscore that point, Field said the plaintiffs asked for $1 in nominal damages; an award Field said the jury granted in a unanimous finding for Kirk and Clifford Nance, who first filed their lawsuit against the school district in January of 2025.
“It was always about doing right by students and student safety,” Field continued.
The jury’s verdict wraps — for now — a year and a half long legal battle between the Nances and the Kalispell school district, which tried to paint the trial as a “parent issue, not a student issue.”
At the suit’s center were claims that after Kirk reported the assault, the school barred him from observing his son, Clifford’s, wrestling practices; and claims Clifford was removed from certain activities and spaces, that the amount and quality of coaching he received decreased, and that the district opposed his request to transfer to Flathead High’s wrestling team the following year.
The lawsuit also dealt with an incident at a Missoula hotel that ultimately resulted in Kirk receiving a disorderly conduct charge and being trespassed from Kalispell Public Schools property — a charge which Field said came because of adverse action against Kirk from the school district.
Field said his clients hope the verdict “causes Kalispell School District 5 to look closely at how it treats whistleblowers, and how it treats parents and students who come forward to report any kind of misconduct, and put safeguards in place so that those parents and students aren’t targeted by district staff or other individuals who have reason to try to keep the whistleblower quiet.”
“We respect the jury’s decision and appreciate their service,” Matt Jensen, Kalispell Public Schools’ superintendent, wrote in an email Thursday. “While we continue to believe our coaches and administrators acted in our students’ best interests, we are carefully reviewing the verdict, considering any lessons that can be learned from this process, and evaluating our options for appeal.”
The Nances’ case is not the only lawsuit against Kalispell Public Schools regarding the wrestling team’s conduct in late 2022. Field’s firm is also representing a former athlete who filed a lawsuit against the district in January alleging fellow wrestlers sexually assaulted and harassed him in a Billings hotel room during a wrestling trip in 2022. That lawsuit has a pretrial conference set for July 8 in Missoula.
A third lawsuit against the district, which accused the district’s administrators and athletics officials of failing to address the assault of the plaintiff’s son and permitting a culture of hazing and violence within the school’s wrestling team, was dismissed for “lack of subject matter jurisdiction” in January 2025.