Parents Claim their Nonverbal Son was Assaulted by a Paraeducator

By Shea Johnson - The News Tribune | Follow the link to access the online article

A nonverbal kindergartner with developmental delays was assaulted by a paraeducator at Whitman Elementary School, leaving the boy with redness and scratches around his ears and neck, according to a tort claim filed this week by a lawyer representing the student and his parents.

The tort claim alleges that the student was in his classroom May 28 when the paraeducator wrapped her left arm around his neck, squeezed and lifted the boy approximately six inches off the ground. The paraeducator stopped, the claim said, only when a substitute teacher who was also present turned around and yelled, “Hey.”

Details of the incident were reported to the Tacoma Police Department and Child Protective Services, according to the tort claim — a copy of which was obtained by The News Tribune. “We are aware of the incident that occurred, and a subsequent investigation was done,” Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson Tanisha Jumper said in an email. “We will not be making any further statement on pending litigation.”

Investigative materials obtained by The News Tribune show that the paraeducator denied the allegations, including ever wrapping her arm around the student’s neck. She claimed that the boy had been spitting on and biting her when she — standing face to face — placed her hands on either side of his head and told him she didn’t like when he spat on her.

“I have good (evaluations), this has never happened to me before. Again, I was trying to re-direct him from spitting on me. I wanted him to be focused on what I was saying to him,” the paraeducator said on June 18 during a Loudermill hearing, which is a pre-disciplinary hearing afforded to public employees. “I could have done it differently. I just was trying to remind him and to redirect him. I was not angry I was just trying to get his attention.”

The paraeducator was not criminally charged. Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson Adam Faber said that the office never received a referral from TPD.

The school district issued a letter of reprimand and notified the paraeducator that she would be transferred to a new site during the current school year, according to an investigative document.

A tort claim is typically a precursor to a lawsuit. The claim in this instance, filed Monday, didn’t specify damages being sought but noted that juries in similar cases had awarded between $100,000 and $1 million. “The most interesting thing to me, in addition to an assault on a special needs student, is that there was a teacher that called it in,” attorney Loren Cochran, who is representing the boy and his parents, said in an interview. “It’s significant because whatever this paraeducator was doing to this child alarmed this teacher enough that she ultimately felt that she needed to report it to the police.”

An Officer Responds

Although the alleged assault occurred shortly after 10 a.m., a Tacoma police officer wasn’t dispatched to contact Whitman Elementary School’s principal until around 4:30 p.m., according to a police report provided by Cochran to The News Tribune.

A copy of the report was requested independently by The News Tribune through a public records request to South Sound 911, a police and fire dispatch agency used by departments in Pierce County. The record was withheld by the agency, which said that the report was part of an active investigation and exempt from disclosure under state law.

Whitman Elementary’s principal informed the responding officer of the substitute teacher’s account: The paraeducator had purportedly lifted the boy into the air while standing behind him, holding him in what appeared to be a headlock-type position, the police report said.

The principal, who said the incident wasn’t reported to her until near the end of the school day, told the officer that she didn’t speak with the paraeducator about the alleged assault nor did she ask follow-up questions of the substitute who witnessed it, including why the incident wasn’t reported sooner.

Sometime afterward, the officer spoke to the boy’s parents at the family’s home and observed “a very small red mark” behind the child’s right ear, according to the report. Because the student is non-verbal, he couldn’t communicate what occurred. His mother, Kaisha Walker, said she received a call from the school’s principal about the incident but hadn’t been given any specific details.

Due to a lack of information to classify the incident as an assault, the officer wrote an information-only report.

In an interview with The News Tribune, Walker expressed frustration over how the situation was handled.

“I just felt like there were a lot of missed steps in the process,” Walker said. “It’s really concerning when you send your child to school, and you have to worry about outsiders coming in, but, in this case, it’s insiders who have brought harm to your child.”

A Struggle for Information

Walker, who requested her son’s name remain private, said he was 6 years old at the time. He had been picked up after school by his father, who was given general information about the incident by the principal, Walker said.

Walker said she was upset that neither she nor the boy’s father were informed sooner; that her son and the paraeducator apparently remained together all day; and that she had to jump through hoops to discover more information because she felt ignored by the district and school.

After filing her own public records request, Walker obtained full copies of the school district’s internal investigation into the incident nearly three months later, she said. Walker shared the documents with The News Tribune.

In addition to reportedly struggling to get answers, Walker claimed that the Tacoma Police Department inadvertently didn’t file the police report until two months after the incident when she called to ask about the report. Walker also alleged that she was told by an officer that the report would be forwarded to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for consideration of charges.

TPD didn’t respond by deadline Wednesday to an inquiry offering an opportunity to dispute or clarify Walker’s account.

“The system is just not doing what it’s intended to do,” Walker said.

Walker said her son is loving and energetic but acknowledged that he maintained attention-seeking behaviors, which weren’t violent unless he was upset. She said that she had moved him out of the school and wanted the paraeducator charged, noting that tolerance and patience were necessary in that role.

“Physically assaulting a child is just never OK,” she said.