Disabled Chesterfield girl’s case heading to court
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COURT RECORDS: • Mother's complaint • Judge's opinion |
A disabled Chesterfield County girl whose family claims she was abused by a teacher and an assistant deserves her day in court, two federal appeals court judges ruled this week.
The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim by the two educators, Wanda Moffett and Ann Minguzzi, along with the Chesterfield school system, that they have immunity from the lawsuit.
The case involves alleged mistreatment of a girl who could neither speak nor walk when she attended O.B. Gates Elementary School in the 2005-06 school year. She was 5 at the time.
The child's mother, referred to by the initials "H.F." in the court records to protect her daughter's privacy, claims she had grown concerned about daily seizures the girl suffered that year, as well as the school's hostile attitude toward her.
A tape recorder she secreted in her daughter's wheelchair allegedly captured Moffett, Minguzzi and others at the school telling the girl that she was "gross" and "had a face only a mother could love," and, "I'm ignoring you. I don't have to listen to you."
Neither woman works at O.B. Gates now, Principal Kasey Shane said.
County Attorney Steven L. Micas declined to comment when asked if Moffett and Minguzzi had been disciplined. Neither could be reached immediately for comment.
Micas said the county, which is representing the two educators, is considering appealing to the full court.
Judges M. Blane Michael and Roger L. Gregory ruled that the allegations in the lawsuit against the two school employees and the school were particularly disturbing because the girl's inability to speak meant she was unable to complain about her treatment.
They also found that "qualified immunity is intended to protect officials who make reasonable mistakes about the law. But the immunity simply does not extend protection to an official motivated by the kind of bad faith alleged here."
Judge Paul V. Neimeyer dissented, saying the other judges' ruling created law and leaves teachers exposed to legal claims in cases where they may have exercised poor judgment.
H.F. said her daughter's seizures have stopped since she removed her from school. She is home schooling the girl now.
Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or
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Reader Reactions
Once again the newspaper has only presented one side of a story. When one reads the article they immediately find the individuals quilty of terrible things and have tried and convicted them already. I am a retired Special Education teacher and happen to have taught at the same Elementary School and actually witnessed the interactions between this teacher and student almost every day as she arrived for and left school at the busloop. I never saw any inappropriate actions. As far as what occured in the classroom, I was not present there, but I taught with many of these teachers for a number of years and would find it very hard to believe the allegations reported in the newspaper. I think the media needs to be fair and present both sides. I will not condemn my former co-workers based on a very one sided article written in the newspaper.
Thank you, fmrspedteacher, for your comments in support of inclusive education! We wish we had more educators like you to advocate for a way of life that is simply common sense. That is, if you view people with disabilities as people first, with the same rights as everyone else. If the next generation of students grows up with kids with disabilities, then people will stop fearing and misunderstanding disability differences. Folks will naturally accommodate those with disabilities they have known as classmates and friends.
We look forward to the day when people with disabilities will not be referred to by their label, and even added to the label, a level, such as “mild”, “moderate”, or “severe”. Different people “function” in different ways with different gifting. Does Stephen Hawking have a severe disability? I know adults with “severe” disabilities who have master’s degrees. Some adults must use alternate methods of eating, writing, seeing, hearing, communicating their entire lives. Some adults must use wheelchairs for mobility. True developmental disabilities cannot be “fixed”. Are we going to spend endless hours and days trying to remediate a physical disability or teach students to read and participate meaningfully in a community of peers? If students can’t be accepted in the school community as children, how is it that society is going to accept them as adults? When they have been tucked away out of sight, out of mind, and poof! at age 18 to 22, they try to enter the work force with no skills.
I would say that most people will not be able to be employed without being able to read. Reading is a life skill, a functional skill. People recognize that those with disabilities need accommodations such as wheelchairs or walkers for mobility or assistive technology for communication but they need to be taught to read. They need to be accepted in community in order to thrive. Some folks with cerebral palsy may never be completely toilet-trained. Is this where focus should be day in and day out, throughout the school day? That is what I meant. I never wanted the school to sacrifice academics to focus on my children’s toilet training. I don’t consider toilet training the school’s job. When children with disabilities are included, there is no way this can be a focus. But the good thing is that children become potty trained via peer pressure from the other children, so everyone’s job is easier!
As far as abuse not allowed to happen in segregated classrooms… How was abuse to H.H. allowed to continue all year? There are too many other cases like this as well. What about Adriana Long? How was that abuse allowed to continue?
What about the House Hearing by the Education/Labor Committee on Capitol Hill on May 19th? An investigation by GAO uncovered abuse and neglect, restraint and seclusion is widespread across this country. How has this been allowed to happen?
It is true that bad parenting makes teachers’ jobs harder. This is not going to get better. This is true for all kids, with and without disabilities. But this is no excuse for schools to participate in abuse. (Poor academic outcomes are also blamed on parents who refuse to teach their children at home. Does this mean teachers should stop teaching too?)
I don’t agree with you that a self-contained setting sets up opportunities for abuse to occur. There are other people that work in the classrooms, as well as administrators and other educators in the buildings that would hear or witness abuse if it were occurring. The windows and doors aren’t blocked out, the door may be closed, but the walls aren’t sound proof. If actual abuse were to occur it would be stopped immediately.
As per your comment about toilet training and feeding, do you have a child with a severe disability? I’d guess you probably don’t. I taught children with severe disabilities and they come to school not being potty trained, and not knowing how to feed themselves (as do a significant number of children with severe disabilities) Once these tasks were achieved, the children continued to come to school in pull-ups and diapers as the toileting task was not followed through with at home. As for feeding tasks you can tell after a child returns to school after even a short break what they were doing when not in school as they have reverted back to eating with their fingers or stopping feeding themself altogether.
I’m very much with you that self-contained classrooms are not the best way to go with children with any type of disability. What do they learn by constantly being surrounded by students who behave the same as they do. There is nobody to set the good example for them on all fronts. I was blown away that classrooms like these even exsist still as where I went to college, every student in the schools where I worked, no matter the disability were in “regular education” classrooms full time.
I’m by no means sterotyping children with disabilities by my comments about feeding, sickness, clothing and cleanliness, I’m just stating what I witnessed on a consistent basis while I was a teacher in a self-contained classroom. A lot of time I would say no, that public education PERIOD doesn’t allow for future employment and independent living as the teachers are tied to having to teach the SOL’s, not functional skills.
“So often families want to place the blame on the caring, hard working special education teachers that take on the task of not only academically educating, but toilet training, teaching feeding and so much more, tasks which are not followed through with at home. While parenting a child with a disability is no small task either, so often I would have students come to school sick, inappropriately dressed for the temperature, not fed, and not clean.“
Surely, the segregated setting is a set-up for abuse to occur. Many parents fight for their children with disabilities to be educated in the regular classroom. We are parents who like the “checks and balances” that the regular classroom provide as well as the higher academic bar, the peer models for speech, communication, behavior, and social skills. We send our children to school to learn to read, write, and do math, same as all parents. We do not send our kids to school to be potty-trained and learn how to eat. They learned this just fine by watching other kids who were potty trained and could feed themselves, as well as from us at home. The purpose IDEA 2004 (special education law) is to prepare students with disabilities for employment, further education, and independent living. Do segregated classrooms work to this end?
Double standards: Many students who do NOT have disabilities come to school hungry. In Title I schools, breakfast is provided for poor students. Many middle class and rich students who do not have disabilities come to school with a short-sleeved T-shirt in the winter time. Teachers just chuckle. Many students who do not have disabilities come to school sick and unclean. These stereotypes must end!!!
Parents are not blaming sped teachers so much as we are blaming the corrupt system. We do not like the fact that sped teachers are not speaking out as they should when they know that outcomes are better in inclusive schools, where are students education. The excuses go on and on. Parents can now predict every excuse, every mantra.
Most people have bought into the mantra about behavior. Students with ED labels make up a very small percentage of students with disabilities. In fact, most of the worst behaved kids are in the regular classroom and do not have labels. These kids are actually poor models for our children with disabilities, but they have always been around. Kids with disabilities in segregated classrooms are acting out many times from abuse situations. Wouldn’t you? I have heard aids testify that they have to hold the hands of the kids in their self-contained classrooms from the moment they exit the classroom. When asked why, the state it is because the kids will try to run away. Why is this? If parents could witness what goes on in these classrooms (not much learning), maybe adults would want to run away also. My kids do not want to run away from the regular classroom; they love being there with their friends where they have a sense of belonging and acceptance!!
Stop the stereotypes, stop the excuses!
This is a civil rights issue that has its roots in the history of the treatment of people with disabilities!
The two women no longer work there due to other reasons, not because they were fired by the county. This case has been drawn out for so long. Now while teaching children with disabilities is a huge task to undertake, it is a much more difficult task when you are in a self-contained environment. So often families want to place the blame on the caring, hard working special education teachers that take on the task of not only academically educating, but toilet training, teaching feeding and so much more, tasks which are not followed through with at home. While parenting a child with a disability is no small task either, so often I would have students come to school sick, inappropriately dressed for the temperature, not fed, and not clean.
Ramgoose, They are also being sued in their official capacity.
The district spends quite a bit of taxpayer dollars to fight parents. Instead of being accountable to provide accommodations and modifications and a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities, they spend $$ to avoid this. (btw, one of the 4 core values in CCPS is accountability!) For FY 2008, the approved amount budgeted for Professional Legal Services was $85,000. According to the School Board’s Approved FY 2010 Financial Plan, Page 49, Account 531500 Legal Svcs shows the FY 2008 Actual Amount to be $911,815. Almost a million dollars. This does not include the staff attorney’s annual salary which is almost $200,000. (What does he do?)
Also, I want to alert readers to click on the links to the court records and read the mother’s complaint and the judges’ opinion. These provide the details of the abuse.
This abuse is widespread.
If parents would like their stories told, contact Kandise Lucas.
Just curious. If they cannot claim sovereign immunity and are being sued in their personal capacity, why is the county attorney and the county defending them with taxpayer money?
No child with a disability is safe from physical, emotional, or verbal abuse in Chesterfield County Public Schools. The system is thoroughly corrupt. When parents express concerns, they are dismissed with arrogance and issues go unaddressed. Notice how the school, even with the proof provided, rather than apologize and correct the wrongs is filing an appeal.
When kids with disabilities are segregated, abuse is prevalent. Kids are verbally abused; there are double standards in all areas of schooling. One student was told she stunk and dressed like a prostitute. Another incident involved the teacher shooting a student in the head with her hand in the shape of a gun. Kids are restrained and secluded in CCPS for not following directions or for talking out of turn. Most of these students cannot go home and tell the parents, having limited communication. It is a set up for abuse by immoral teachers.
Thank goodness, there are teachers and aids who do speak out about what is happening. Many lose their jobs though. This is all White Chalk Crime.
People need to wake up as to how the least among us are being treated. It won’t stop with kids with disabilities - abuse extends to others over time. Kids in regular classrooms are also beginning to suffer from verbal abuse at the hands of immoral teachers.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.“ -MLK
See archived webcast at:
http://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/2009/05/examining-the-abusive-and-dead.shtml
See:
http://www.whitechalkcrime.com/
The system “forces” teachers to participate in unethical behavior:
http://www.endteacherabuse.info/
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.“ - Edmund Burke
“Neither woman works at O.B. Gates now, Principal Kasey Shane said.“
I would hope these two primates would be fired completely from the Chesterfield County School system. Surely there are more humane and qualified candidates out there who need jobs and would treat disabled children with respect and kindness, something these two obviously are unable to do.
How shameful. There may be no greater injustice, truly, than one against someone without the ability to speak up or stand up for themself.
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