School Aide Mistreated Autistic Child, Kept Job: Lawsuit
NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Disturbing allegations of the mistreatment of a special needs student at a New Rochelle elementary school are headed for a courtroom and grabbing national headlines. The child at the center of this story and his parents have been identified in media reports, but because of the child's age, Patch has chosen not to identify the family in this report, which relies on court filings. A lawsuit filed in NYS Supreme Court earlier this spring makes a series of troubling allegations against New Rochelle school officials, saying the child was manhandled and mistreated by an aide tasked with helping the second grade student. The parents filed the complaint, on behalf of their child, in March of this year, against the City School District of New Rochelle and the Board of Education of the City School District of New Rochelle.According to the complaint, the currently eight-year-old third grader who lives with his parents in New Rochelle, was a student at the William B. Ward Elementary School up until this most recent school year.The student has been diagnosed with autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia, according to the complaint, which describes the child as 4'5" and approximately 60 pounds. He was classified by the New Rochelle school district as a child with autism. On June 22, 2022, a meeting of the New Rochelle school district's Committee on Special Education was held and was attended by the child's parents, an educational advocate, and the child's private therapist. It was decided that the child would be provided with a one-to-one aide to assist him with transitions and safety concerns. Chief amongst those concerns was a fear that the child might attempt to leave the school.The complaint alleges that on March 29, 2023, the child was assaulted by the very aide who had been assigned to him by the New Rochelle school district to keep him safe.On that day, the child's mother arrived at the school to pick him up early for an appointment. The aide approached her and told her that her son had refused to read fiction books in class because "they weren't engaging."On March 30, 2023, the already concerned mother received a phone call from the principal and assistant principal at Ward Elementary School. The school officials told her that they were investigating a reported incident where someone "put their hands on her son," according to the lawsuit. The principal reportedly told the mom that her child had been resisting reading, and in addition to the aide, the general education teacher and the special education teacher, had also been in the room. The principal added that "this person" was pulling the child by the arm and added that "I can't say who, but you can probably guess," according to the allegations. The complaint states that the aide had been "power struggling" with the special needs child under his care throughout the morning of March 29, and began yelling at him when he refused to read fiction books. It was noted in the court documents that it is common for some high-functioning autistic children to strongly prefer non-fiction to fiction reading materials. The aide's yelling was described as "disruptive and loud enough to be heard in the hallway." The aide continued to yell at the child despite being told by a classroom teacher to "stop the screaming."When the mother later asked her son what had happened at school, he explained that while he was sitting on the floor, the aide had pulled him really hard by the arm towards the classroom door after he declined to read a fiction book, according to the lawsuit. He told his mom that the aide was upset and wanted to take him to the school psychologist, and that when the aide pulled him towards the door, it hurt him. The child also told his mother that he would not let the aide "take me out of the classroom," and that "my legs are strong." When asked if this had ever happened before, the child said that this "was not the first time," and said that the aide had previously pulled him forcefully by the arm to take him to the school pyschologist, according to a conversation recounted in court filings. The child also said that there were additional incidents with other Ward staff members when he was physically grabbed or pulled by the arms, including being pulled by the arms through the school hallway and up the stairs, explaining that each incident "hurt" and caused him physical pain.The complaint also alleges that the aide previously engaged in inappropriate behavior with the child, earlier in the school year. During the winter of 2022, the child reportedly told his parents that the aide was not taking him outside for recess with his fellow classmates. She was instead taking him to the school auditorium, along with a physically disabled child and that child's aide.The complaint alleges that "clearly indifferent to [the child's] well-being, his aide routinely required him to spend his recess in the auditorium, because it gave her the opportunity to sit around and chat with her friend." When the mother learned of this alleged practice, she emailed the aide, the general education teacher, the special education teacher, and the school psychologist about the situation. As a result, her child was once again permitted to go outside for recess.After the incidents with the aide, the school district continued to employ her. While no longer directly assigned to the child, the aide was assigned to a classroom in the same corridor and the aide was also assigned to the child's school bus at dismisal.The complaint says that the district "continued to subject the child to ongoing, and frequent, contact with the aide notwithstanding its knowledge of her demonstrated willingness and ability to cause the child physical and emotional harm."The parents decided to place their child in a private preparatory school in lower Manhattan for the 2023/2024 school year.The family is seeking compensation from the school district over negligence, gross negligence, failure to supervise, and negligent infliction of emotional harm. The complaint states that the school district had a duty to provide the child with a safe school program and to provide the child with an environment free of adult violence and aggression, and failed to do so. Lawyers for the family contend that the district had a duty to adequately supervise the aide. Once notified that the student had been subject to inappropriate conduct by the aide, when confined to the auditorium during recess, the district had a special duty to either provide the child with a competent aide or to properly supervise the current aide in order to protect him from further misconduct, but they failed to do so. Once notified that the child had been subjected to violent conduct by the aide, the district knew that the child needed protection from harm, but failed to protect him from ongoing contact with the aide, the family says.In addition, the lawsuit contends that the parents "have experienced financial and emotional injuries resulting from the District's failure to provide a safe environment for their son. In order to provide their child with an appropriate educational environment, free of violence directed at him, [the parents] were required to place him at an alternative school, [a private preparatory school in Manhattan], where, in the absence of emotional abuse and physical aggression from a school employee, the child has flourished.""It was very confusing and unnerving for him," the mother told the New York Post. "Like he didn't understand if he had done something wrong, why she was still there and in charge of him. And it was surprising to me as a parent, like I don't want this woman anywhere near my kid."A New Rochelle school district spokesperson has told media outlets that they are declining comment due to their policy of not issuing statements on pending litigation.However, in an answer to the complaint last month, the New Rochelle school district and the board of education, through their lawyers, denied any knowledge of information of selected accusations or claimed to not have enough information about other allegations. In response to the complaint, the district and board of education demand (1) the plaintiff's complaint be dismissed, along with the costs and disbursements of the action and (2) alternatively, if N.P.'s family prevails, the district demands "judgment determining the respective percentages of fault on the part of the defendants and the plaintiffs, and thereby reducing the amount of the damages as against the defendants by the respective percentage of fault of the plaintiffs.""We were really desperate to find a school where he could learn and be safe," the mother told the newspaper.A second legal action from the family demands that the New Rochelle school district pay for the child's new school."New Rochelle needs to do better by its disabled students," the mother told the Post.The article School Aide Mistreated Autistic Child, Kept Job: Lawsuit appeared first on New Rochelle, NY Patch.
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