A Long Island special education teacher allegedly tied a nonverbal autistic teenager to a chair with rope last month. The boy was afraid to return to the classroom, and his desperate father continued to search for answers.
The minor victim, identified as “CD” in a notice of claim filed with the Sewanhaka Central School District in Nassau County, was restrained in his seat by a teacher named William Buse at New Hyde Park Memorial High School around noon on April 4th. It is said that Police report obtained by The Post.
Because of the horrific incident, the 15-year-old Elmont Memorial High School student, who goes to neighboring New Hyde for extra instruction Thursday, will not be able to return to class, his father Carlos Diaz said. He says he became scared.
“I don’t understand why he tied up my son,” Diaz, 45, a bakery employee from Elmont, New York, told the Post in an interview this week.
“He should know that my son is autistic,” he continued. “My son doesn’t talk, so I don’t get any answers. So I don’t know if this is the first time, the second time, what happened. I don’t know. It’s crazy…I need answers. I need answers. I need to know what really happened.”
It’s unclear why Buis, a 40-year-old track coach who graduated from Valley Stream North High School in 2002, allegedly tied up the boy or how long he left him there before someone found him.
The next afternoon, the school reported the incident to the Nassau County Police Department and the boy’s father, according to police reports and family members.
Diaz also wondered why the school district waited more than 24 hours to inform anyone about this shocking act.
“Why on Friday?” Diaz asked. “I don’t understand why they didn’t call me on Thursday. I don’t think they care about it.”
Diaz now plans to sue both Elmont and New Hyde Park high schools, as well as the Sewanhaka Central High School District, for $3 million in damages, according to the complaint.
“CD was assaulted, harassed, abused and tied to a chair by a student named Special Needs Student Teacher. [William Buith]” the notice said, adding that a teaching assistant and a nurse notified the special education department chair on April 4 after witnessing Buis’s actions.
“We are deeply concerned by this reprehensible conduct and are working to ensure accountability for the negligence that led to this incident,” Diaz’s attorney, Stephanie Obadiah of the Sanders firm, said in an emailed statement. We will vigorously pursue this matter.”
School officials “immediately conducted an investigation” after learning of the incident, according to an emailed statement from Dr. Thomas Dolan, the district’s interim superintendent.
“The teacher was removed from the classroom and appropriate authorities, including Nassau County Police and the New York State Department of Education, were immediately contacted,” Dolan said.
“As this matter is pending, the district cannot comment further.”
The boy’s father, Diaz, said the school district told him there was no need to worry because Buis had been suspended from school.
But he said he hadn’t heard anything more.
“I feel like it doesn’t matter,” he said. “They don’t care about it.”
The boy did not appear to be physically injured in the incident, according to a police report.
Diaz said her son returned to school after a two-week vacation on May 8.
In his online biographyBuis says his coaching philosophy is to “teach and inspire young adults about commitment and personal responsibility through cross country and track and field.”
He did not respond to calls, texts or emails seeking comment.
