At Cretin-Derham Hall’s 2018 graduation ceremony, Jackson Crawford was handed an empty case without a diploma.

Crawford responded in kind, giving the school’s president the middle finger instead of a handshake.

More than a year later, Crawford, once a well-regarded football prospect, still is fighting for both his diploma and acceptance from the St. Paul Catholic school.

The school says he never turned in his work to earn a required religion credit. Crawford says the school failed to accommodate his disability, which relates to unspecified behavioral health and chemical dependency issues.

The St. Paul Department of Human Rights said in May that Crawford could sue, finding probable cause that the private school discriminated against him by withholding the graduation certificate.

Last month, Crawford filed a lawsuit in Ramsey County District Court, demanding a diploma, money and that Cretin-Derham Hall treat him like an alum.

RECOVERY JOURNAL

According to public records from those cases, Crawford began inpatient treatment in Florida in February 2018 after missing a lot of school and struggling academically.

He would take a required English course online, and Cretin-Derham Hall’s guidance counselor told him he could satisfy his religion credit by keeping a detailed journal of his time in treatment.

Two months later, after completing treatment, Crawford visited the high school to prepare for graduation and to show the journal to his religion teacher. However, the teacher had already left for the day, and Crawford decided against leaving the journal with another staffer because its contents were private.

Neither party followed up about the journal.

When Crawford was given an empty diploma case at graduation, his mother figured it was because she hadn’t yet paid the final tuition bill. She learned four weeks later that the religion credit was the problem.

“At no time did Cretin-Derham Hall inform my parents or me that I would not be eligible to receive my diploma,” Crawford wrote in his July 2018 complaint to the St. Paul Department of Human Rights.

Cretin-Derham Hall said Crawford “was afforded every opportunity to earn a diploma by granting him accommodations and exceptions to its requirements to allow him to graduate,” the human rights department said in a memo summarizing the arguments.

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The department sided with Crawford, writing that the school knew about his disability and should have made contact after he failed to turn in his journal.

The school, the department said, “should either waive the religion requirement and issue the diploma or adhere to its position that a journal must be turned in and arrange a meeting with (Crawford) to review (it) allowing the diploma to be issued promptly.”

RETALIATION

In the same memo, the human rights department said Crawford has made a plausible case that Cretin-Derham Hall’s refusal to award the diploma amounts to retaliation.

In April 2018, Crawford filed a separate human rights complaint after Cretin-Derham Hall barred him from attending prom, senior lock-in or graduation. The school said his attendance would “compromise his recovery.” The parties resolved that complaint.

But then, at graduation, after getting an empty diploma case, Crawford gestured toward President Frank Miley with his middle finger instead of shaking his hand, according to the human rights memo.

Crawford suggested the school was continuing to withhold the diploma as retaliation for the vulgar gesture and for filing the initial discrimination complaint in April.

COLLEGE TROUBLE

Crawford, who played quarterback for the school’s football team, was considered by one outlet to be the state’s No. 6 prospect in his class after a standout junior year, but Cretin-Derham Hall moved him to defense as a senior.

He planned to attend college in September 2018 but couldn’t do so without a diploma, so he completed his GED instead. He attended the University of St. Thomas in fall 2018 and spring 2019, the school said, but he’s not currently enrolled.

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Sept. 30 is last day for public comment on Pigs Eye Lake makeover Jackson’s parents did not respond to interview requests Friday.

A Cretin-Derham Hall spokeswoman declined to comment on the dispute.

The school filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which a Ramsey County judge will consider at a hearing in November.