IN: Parents to sue Union Co. schools

East Central Special Services also named in notice of intent to seek damages for treatment of former special ed student
BY PAM THARP • CORRESPONDENT • January 12, 2009
http://www.pal-item.com/article/20090112/NEWS01/901120301

LIBERTY, Ind. -- The parents of a former special education student at Liberty Elementary School have filed official notice of their intent to sue the Union County-College Corner Joint School District and East Central Special Services over the care and treatment of their child last fall.

The family is asking for $3 million in damages for each alleged incident, which includes battery, negligent supervision, abuse, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation and gross negligence by elementary school employees, the school district and the special education co-op. Co-op member schools include Western Wayne, Northeastern, Franklin County and Union County schools, with Union County the administering district for the co-op.

The school received notice of the family's claim for damages on Oct. 20, 2008. Notice of a potential lawsuit against a public entity in Indiana is required before a civil suit can be filed. The school board met last month in executive session to discuss the threatened litigation, Superintendent Lynn Sheets said. Sheets declined to comment on the case.

Sheets released the tort claim notice this week in response to a public records request last month by the Palladium-Item. The names of the child and the family were marked out on the notice to comply with student privacy laws, Sheets said. The family is represented by the Indianapolis law firm Frazier & Associates.

The child began attending Liberty Elementary School in August 2008, but parents removed the child from the school on a physician's advice for safety reasons, the notice said. The child had become very upset about attending school and would cry upon arriving there, according to the notice.

Upon the advice of legal counsel, Sheets said he couldn't release the date the child was withdrawn from school nor whether the Department of Child Services did an investigation of the allegations.

According to the notice, on several occasions in September the child was allowed to fall on the floor while using the restroom. The instructional aide is accused of ordering the child by using "abusive and derogatory language" to get up from the floor by taking hold of the toilet rim on a toilet in the nurse's restroom used by ill children, the notice said.

Documentation of the falls and the instructional aide's action leaving the child on the floor are documented in the school's own records, the notice said.

The notice also alleges the child was fondled by another special education student, but school and special education officials refused to move the child from that classroom until the sexual abuse was acknowledged at a case conference in front of a parent advocate. School officials also allegedly ignored the child's mother's request for confidentiality on the sexual abuse issue by telling the parent of the alleged abuser, which resulted in a confrontation between the parents, the notice said.

The elementary school, the school district and East Central Special Services were "either negligent and/or grossly negligent in the hiring, training and supervision of the personnel involved in the incident," the notice said.