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ST. LOUIS — A frequent critic of St. Louis Public Schools says the district violated his constitutional rights by banning him from public meetings, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday.

Chester Asher, a former charter school director, regularly blasts the SLPS board during public comment sessions at their monthly meetings. Asher recently completed a six-month ban from SLPS property and is directing the campaigns of two candidates for the April school board election through his group .

At the SLPS board meeting in September 2023, Asher said, “we come to the board of education and hear nothing, not a goddamn thing about education and literacy and reading for our children,” the lawsuit states.

Asher was sent a warning letter from an SLPS lawyer that stated his disrespectful manner and use of profanity violated district policies. In March 2024, Asher interrupted an event at an SLPS high school called “The Real Truth about Charter Schools” and was escorted out by security after yelling at panelists including Carron “CeeJay” Johnson, now president of the American Federation of Teachers-Missouri.

“When people are trying to hurt our public education they pay people that look like us to hurt us. They pay people to come and be disruptive at our school board meetings,” Johnson in reference to Asher.

The district’s subsequent ban on Asher from SLPS property “prevented, chilled, and inhibited (Asher) from engaging in constitutionally protected First Amendment activity,” reads the lawsuit from Chester’s lawyers at the First Amendment Clinic at Washington University. “The Board’s public comment rules requiring that speakers remain ‘respectful’ and refrain from ‘speaking derogatorily about anyone’ ... are viewpoint discriminatory restrictions on speech and are unconstitutional on their face.”

Asher was sued in 2023 by North Side Community School and agreed to pay back nearly $120,000 for failing to disclose his outside income while also collecting severance from the charter school where he served one year as executive director. Asher has since failed to find a sponsor for his new Ali Academy, a venture backed by charter school funders .

Charter schools are state funded but run by nonprofits independent of SLPS.

The SLPS board faces increased scrutiny including a state audit of the one-year tenure of ex-Superintendent Keisha Scarlett, who was fired in September for questionable spending practices including six-figure salaries and contracts for her colleagues.

A former member of the SLPS board has also been banned from all district buildings for six months. Bill Monroe received the ban in part for speaking beyond the three-minute limit at board meetings.

Monroe is one of 11 candidates in the April school board election trying to unseat Antionette “Toni” Cousins, who is seeking reelection. Cousins, who is named in Asher’s lawsuit, did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment.

“What they are primarily trying to do is to stop the fight that Chester Asher and I brought to this board,” Monroe said.