Federal lawsuit filed against Ashtabula Area City Schools
Jul. 7—CLEVELAND — A federal civil rights lawsuit has been filed against Ashtabula Area City Schools, claiming a teacher assaulted a special-needs student.
The complaint was filed by Cleveland attorneys Jared Klebanow and Avery Friedman in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on May 24 in Cleveland. The attorneys are representing a family who say an intervention specialist attacked their son in 2017.
An intervention specialist license in Ohio qualifies a person to teach children in grades K-12 with mild to moderate disabilities.
At the time, the student was in the third grade at Michigan Primary School.
The boy's family is asking for a jury trial and are seeking "appropriate compensatory, exemplary and punitive damages," as well as a declaration that the conduct of the defendants was a violation of the child's civil rights, according to the complaint.
The complaint claims the student was being punished for entering an area of his classroom he wasn't allowed to be in. They said the intervention specialist forced the student into a restroom, placed her hands around his neck, and choked him all while hollering at him.
The child threw up on the floor and the teacher allegedly made him clean up his own vomit, according to the complaint.
When the child escaped from the bathroom, the complaint claims the intervention specialist dug her nails into the back of his neck and dragged him back into the bathroom, according to the complaint. The child's neck was bleeding from the attack, according to the complaint.
The teacher resigned in 2019.
Ashtabula Area City Schools Superintendent Mark Potts said Wednesday he's been advised by the district's attorneys to not comment because it is in litigation.
According to the complaint, the family of the student charges the district did not conduct a formal investigation into the incident until 2020.
In the superintendent's investigative report, Potts concluded the incident did occur and the child was injured and appropriate paperwork was not filed.
No criminal charges have been filed.
Judge Dan Aaron Polster has been assigned to the case.
