According to the lawsuit, staff at a rural Kansas school district repeatedly pushed a boy with Down syndrome into a storage room, punched him and even took photos of the boy while locking him in a cage used to store athletic equipment.
According to the lawsuit filed Friday in federal court, a paraprofessional staff member working with a 15-year-old boy sent photos to Cow Valley District staff, likening the boy to an animal and “downplaying the boy’s serious, degrading and discriminatory conduct.”
The boy’s parents allege in the lawsuit that the teacher aide did not have a lock on the cage and had to enlist the help of other district employees to open the door and free their son, who is identified in the lawsuit only by his initials.
It’s unclear how long the boy was kept in the cage, according to the complaint, which also includes photos.
The lawsuit names paraprofessionals, other special education staff and the school district, which serves about 1,100 students and is based in St. Mary’s, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Topeka.
Online court records did not list an attorney for the district, and phone messages and emails left with district officials were not immediately returned.
The lawsuit alleges the boy was placed in the closet and cage for “inaction or minor behavior” that was due to his disability.
The lawsuit also accuses the teacher-aide of shouting insults inches from the boy’s face every day and of grabbing the boy by his shirt collar at least once a week on school grounds and pulling him.
The teacher aide punched the boy at least once in the neck and face, according to the lawsuit.
Speaking in short, clipped sentences, the boy described the incident using the words “hit” and “closet” and the teacher aide’s first name.
According to the lawsuit, the assistant teacher left the boy in dirty clothes for long periods of time and denied him food at lunchtime.
Some staff members raised concerns with the special education teacher who oversees the aide and the district’s director of special education, according to the lawsuit.
But the lawsuit alleges that neither intervened despite past complaints about the teacher aides’ treatment of students with disabilities.
According to the lawsuit, the defendants described their treatment of the boy as “tough love” and “how they should deal with him.”
According to the lawsuit, the director instructed his staff not to report concerns to state child welfare agencies.
But after the parents raised concerns, district staff reported the matter to authorities, citing concerns of abuse and neglect, according to the lawsuit.
Online court records do not list any criminal charges against the paraprofessionals or any of the employees named in the lawsuit.
And the state education department’s database lists no disciplinary actions against staff members.
The lawsuit alleged that the boy’s behavior worsened.
He was so scared he refused to leave the house, became nonverbal and began hitting himself in the head more frequently, according to the lawsuit.
