Central Bucks moves to fire superintendent after allegations special education students were abused by teacher

The Central Bucks school board moved to fire Superintendent Steven Yanni on Wednesday, amid allegations that students in a special education classroom at Jamison Elementary School were abused by a teacher.

Yanni, who was placed on leave in April after a report by a disability rights nonprofit found the district had failed to appropriately respond to the abuse allegations, said Thursday that he was “incredibly disappointed” by the board’s decision.

“I look forward to resolving the matter by ensuring accurate information is shared, as the last few months have been punctuated with inaccurate information and attacks against my leadership, professionalism, and character,” Yanni said.

The board voted Wednesday to approve statements of charges against five employees, none of whom was named on its agenda. Multiple news outlets, including NBC10, reported earlier Thursday that Yanni was among those the board moved to terminate, citing sources.

Yanni said Thursday the statements of charges were “the first step in the process,” to be followed by hearings.

At the start of Wednesday’s meeting, board president Susan Gibson said that the employees had due process rights, and that the board would not be releasing “any documents laying out the legal advice that led us to here.“

A district spokesperson on Thursday reiterated Gibson’s remarks, declining to name any of the employees. The spokesperson, Michael Petitti, said the board had voted to ”take decisive personnel actions following the end of the investigation phase" of the district’s response to the abuse allegations.

The teacher who led the Jamison Elementary classroom, Gabrielle McDaniel, said she was also among those the board moved to fire Wednesday and would be challenging the decision.

“I am deeply disappointed by the District’s decision to terminate my employment based on allegations that have been thoroughly investigated and found to be unsubstantiated by the District itself and several agencies,” McDaniel said in a statement released ahead of the meeting by the Cozen O’Connor law firm.

The abuse allegations have rocked the district for months, following a whistleblower’s report last fall that students in the autistic support classroom at Jamison were being improperly restrained, physically punished, and denied water.

District officials said they investigated and did not find abuse occurred, and the Warwick police and Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn declined to prosecute.

But a board member, Jim Pepper, whose son was among the four students in the classroom, spoke out in January, accusing the district of covering up the claims and misleading police. Pepper has also accused law enforcement of prematurely dismissing the case.

In a report issued in April, Disability Rights Pennsylvania, a disability protection and advocacy nonprofit that investigated the claims, said that multiple staff members had confirmed the whistleblower’s account, and that students had experienced illegal restraints, neglect, and “demeaning treatment on a daily basis.” In some cases, students were restrained to the point it interfered with their breathing, the report said.

The report also said the teacher and educational assistant in the classroom had created “a likelihood of sexual abuse or exploitation” of one student by allowing and encouraging him to masturbate.

The report faulted district officials, saying they “erroneously informed” parents and police that they had not discovered abuse when in fact they had “significant corroboration.”

And it said officials, including Yanni, filed “delayed, incomplete and misleading” reports to ChildLine, the state’s child protective services hotline — influencing the decision by police not to bring charges.

The board placed Yanni on leave in the wake of that report.

A former superintendent in New Hope-Solebury, Upper Dublin, and Lower Merion, Yanni was named Central Bucks’ superintendent in May 2024, following a deeply contentious school board election. He pledged to work to unify the politically divided community.

Yanni said Thursday that he was “a staunch advocate for children — their education and their well-being."

“I will fight to regain the good name and reputation that I built over my career as an educator and advocate for children,” he said.

The Central Bucks board had faced criticism for not moving to fire Yanni and other employees earlier. Pepper, the lone Republican on the board, had said the board majority was divided on removing Yanni.

“Not everybody on this board cares about the children in our schools,” Pepper said Wednesday. “The only word that comes to mind is putrid politics.”

Wednesday’s votes, however, were almost all unanimous. (Pepper abstained from four of the five votes, but voted against one employee’s statement of charges, after saying he felt the district’s pupil services director, Alyssa Wright, was being wrongly terminated.)

Gibson, speaking at the start of the meeting, said it was time to “admit to the public and, more importantly, Mr. Pepper … that this district has let these students, your children, down.”

“We will do everything in our power to ensure this never happens again,” Gibson said. She said the district would use the summer “to develop meaningful policy reforms and a comprehensive training plan for our staff” to be in place for the coming school year.

The board did not comment Wednesday on the status of an investigation it commissioned earlier this year by an outside law firm to review the abuse allegations. Some members of the public asked whether they would ever be able to see lawyer Leigh Dalton’s report, and what the review had cost the district.

Among those who said he had unanswered questions was parent Michael Henry, whose child was among the students in the Jamison classroom.

“I had no idea what was happening to my kid. People were lying to me for a long time,” Henry told the board. Of Gibson’s comments promising changes, he said: “Please let those statements be true.”