Special education students in Central Bucks were abused, a disability rights group finds

Students in a special education classroom in a Central Bucks elementary school were abused, and district administrators failed to adequately investigate — or accurately report to authorities — what happened, according to a disability rights watchdog group.

A report released Wednesday by Disability Rights Pennsylvania found that allegations of abuse by a teacher and educational assistant at Jamison Elementary School were credible. The organization said it interviewed multiple staff members who corroborated the account of a personal-care assistant who submitted a written complaint to the district in November.

The teacher and educational assistant abused two students in the autism support classroom — which had four students — by illegally restraining them, causing a “reasonable likelihood of bodily injury” and also likely interfering with their breathing, the report said. It noted that the Pennsylvania Department of Education also found the district had used restraints against students without reporting them, as required by state law.

The teacher and assistant also created “a likelihood of sexual abuse or exploitation” of one student by allowing and encouraging him to masturbate, failing to teach him the behavior was inappropriate in the classroom, the report said.

All students in the classroom “observed or experienced illegal restraints, neglect, aversive techniques, nudity, physical hitting by students without appropriate intervention, and demeaning treatment on a daily basis,” the report said — an environment “likely to cause physical and psychological harm and to result in long term harm if continued.”

The report also accused Central Bucks administrators, including Superintendent Steven Yanni, of failing to appropriately respond to the allegations.

Charles Malone, the district’s assistant superintendent of secondary schools, said in a message to the community Wednesday night that the report “contains concerning information that the board and district will review with utmost seriousness.”

“It is important that we take the appropriate time to carefully evaluate the information presented before commenting or acting on any details,” Malone said.

The Central Bucks school board in February hired a law firm to investigate the allegations; findings have not yet been announced.

Malone said the district will consider the findings from that investigation along with the Disability Rights Pennsylvania report. The district is “committed to taking any necessary action,” he said.

The Disability Rights Pennsylvania report, meanwhile, criticized the school district’s already completed internal investigation. While administrators said they found no evidence of abuse, “the district’s own investigation still revealed significant corroboration of the abuse,” the report said. It said the district “erroneously informed” parents and police about its findings.

Meanwhile, the report said, the district was slow to file a report with ChildLine, the state hotline for child protective services. When it did, administrators, including Yanni, “withheld relevant information from ChildLine and then the police,” the report said.

The investigation became “a self-fulfilling circle,” the report said: “Dr. Yanni provided limited information in the ChildLine report and to the police; Dr. Yanni told the police that the District’s investigation found no abuse; the police relied on that conclusion in closing the file; and [Human Resources Director Robert] Frieling disowned any responsibility for the District to investigate abuse as it was the police’s role.”

Disability Rights Pennsylvania said the teacher and educational assistant — neither of whom was removed from the classroom as a result of the allegations — “should be appropriately disciplined by the district and relevant governing bodies for their abuse, neglect, and violations of the rights of students.” (Both staff members are currently on leave, but Yanni said the leaves were not disciplinary, according to the report.) Neither staff member was named in the report.

The report also said administrators should face discipline. “As Dr. Yanni was directly involved in these issues, such discipline should likely come from the school board,” the report said.

Jim Pepper, a school board member whose son was among the students in the classroom, has called for Yanni to resign. Pepper declined to comment Wednesday.

Disability Rights Pennsylvania, a nonprofit organization that acts as a statewide agency to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities, said it interviewed 13 staff members who worked in the special education classroom this year, along with numerous Central Bucks administrators. The teacher and educational assistant accused of the abuse declined to be interviewed, the group said.

The group also reviewed student educational records and records from the district’s investigation, including notes taken by administrators during interviews.

Those notes, according to the Disability Rights Pennsylvania report, indicate that staff members told administrators they witnessed students being yanked and dragged, and that a “cage” was set up in a corner of the classroom where two students were sometimes held. They also reported that one student had been denied access to water; that the teacher and educational assistant did not respond to students who were crying; and that the teacher failed to intervene when students were hitting.

Four staff members told administrators the teacher “refused to implement tools and interventions recommended by special education staff because they caused the teacher extra work,” according to the report.

The district’s human resources manager told Disability Rights Pennsylvania that during an interview, the teacher “had explanations for the allegations,” according to the report. The teacher said one student “was cornered with his desks to prevent harm to other students.” She also said that the student was sent to the bathroom if he took his clothes off, and that she allowed him to masturbate in the classroom bathroom.

The human resources manager told Disability Rights Pennsylvania the teacher’s approach “may not have been best practice, but it did not appear to be abuse,” according to the report.