A special education coordinator who was accused of abusing a 5-year-old autistic student at a Catholic school has been fired from her most recent job at a Bronx charter school following an inquiry by The Washington Post.
Mary Ellen Sanchez, the former principal of St. Joseph School in Bronxville, was accused of beating, violent grabbing and infliction of “emotional distress” in a 2022 lawsuit.[ing]”A boy. His mother, Maria Kelly filed a lawsuitNews 12 reported at the time that a lawsuit was ongoing against Sanchez, the Catholic school and the Archdiocese of New York.
Sanchez was fired and taught at the yeshiva until last school year, before taking a position at the Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health Sciences Charter School in the Bronx last month, according to sources.
She was hired as special education coordinator at Morrisania Charter School, shocking parents and staff.
“Teachers are frightened that a woman with this background is in charge of teaching special needs children in their schools,” one educator told The Washington Post.
But by Friday afternoon, she was gone.
A school official told The Washington Post that school officials were unaware of the allegations when Sanchez was hired, adding that “she no longer works for us.”
According to court documents, in 2020, Sanchez allegedly traumatized the 5-year-old by slapping and scolding him, pinning his wrists against a desk, throwing toys across the room and yelling abuse at him.
A teacher confronted him about Sanchez's alleged behavior and expressed the belief that the school was failing to meet the boy's needs, but Sanchez continued to mislead the parents and failed to evaluate the boy, Kelly claims in the lawsuit.
“Even the most superficial background check should have raised doubts about her past reports of misconduct,” Kelly's lawyer, Andrew Bazin, told The Washington Post this week.
“If I were a parent at that school and I learned about the events that have come to light during discovery in our case, I would question how the school determined she was fit to be in the classroom,” he added.
Prior to St. Joseph School, Sanchez worked as a teacher, facilitator and chair of the Special Education Committee for the New Rochelle City School District. According to reports.
She could not immediately be reached for comment.
