In a town of just 652 people, which the article mentions - this does sound like it is more of a personal issue between the family and the specific members of the school. Without being involved in either side of the story, with its slant towards the family, it does sound more like a power struggle with the school district and using the child in retaliation. However, as I mentioned, we don't know what is going on with the parents and the school district and as with all news story, there is always going to be a bias one way or another.
One thing I would say - even if/when my parents had a dispute with the school or teachers (and I had IEPs from kindergarden to when I graduated high school), there was one thing they made VERY clear to me. Regardless of the issues with the school and their feelings, I was not to use that to disrespect an authority figure including the school administration. Even if I felt that a teacher was wrong or did not treat me well, it did not excuse me to behave poorly against that teacher - they made that very clear to me and I got punished when I did act out against a teacher, even though they agreed that the teacher was not completely right either - they took care of that issue separately.
