Toddlers with disabilities at Burleson elementary school were physically abused, parents say

A former teacher and her teaching aide, who were terminated from Norwood Elementary School in Burleson and later charged with three counts of assault against disabled individuals, were accused of holding toddlers’ mouths shut, pinching them under their armpits and berating the children, according to parents who had students in the developmental learning class.

Cheyenne Oakley and Giulia Herndon are two mothers who said their toddlers, both 3-year-olds with special needs, who were non-speaking at the time of the abuse, attended classes with teacher Jeanna Mangus and paraprofessional Holly Monroe, who were arrested the day before Thanksgiving.

The Star-Telegram requested copies of warrants detailing the allegations against the educators, but the documents were not available Tuesday.

Herndon’s son, Archer, who turned 3 in April, began attending classes at the school in the spring, she said. She recalled times he would come home with scratches and bruises, but she always thought it had to have come from another student.

“If he was in daycare, I would’ve been so much more like, ‘Where are these bruises coming from?’ I feel like I would’ve questioned a lot more. I put so much trust in [the school] and it’s broken,” Herndon said. “I would have never assumed it was a teacher. I was like, ‘It’s got to be another [student] with special needs — I’m aware that some special needs children can be aggressive. It has to be another child.’ Never in a million years would I have thought it would have been the teachers. At all.”

Herndon said she believes non-verbal students were “targeted,” especially after she stopped seeing marks on her son after he progressed over the summer.

The initial report of the abuse was brought to school officials on Sept. 30, Oakley told the Star-Telegram, but parents were not made aware of the allegations until Oct. 5 when the principal called to provide an update to what was going on.

“It hurt my heart even more to know that my son was trying to communicate to me, and tell me, and I didn’t know,” Oakley said, adding that her son, Sutton, was often in distress when being dropped off and picked up from the facility. Oakley thought it was just an adjustment issue.

“After a few weeks of attending there, he was flinching,” Oakley said. “Anytime I would go to kiss him, or pick him up, or move him out of his [wheel]chair, or even put food on his tray to eat, he was flinching.”

The school’s principal informed Oakley that her son was “inappropriately touched,” by the teacher and her assistant, saying that the pair would cup the 3-year-old’s mouth for up to 30 seconds until he would stop crying or gasp for air. Oakley was also told that Mangus and Monroe would stick their fingers under the children’s armpits and claw them, knowing it wouldn’t leave a mark.

“I was also told that when the [children] were changed, that they would have him laying in the middle of the floor instead of a changing room,” Oakley said. “They had him in front of all the other children and they were making remarks about how bad it stinks, telling him to his face, ‘I shouldn’t have to be doing this. You need to be changing your own diapers. This is disgusting.’ They were gagging and laughing at him until another paraprofessional tried to step in. They wouldn’t let her change him. So the therapist came in and was like, ‘He understands what you’re saying.’”

The school’s principal sent a message to parents last week that said officials became aware on Sept. 30 that the teacher and aide had been using improper restraint methods on students with special needs behind closed doors.

The principal wrote in the message that school officials removed Mangus and Monroe from the classroom, alerted district officials, notified parents of all students in the preschool classroom and contacted law enforcement.

The principal noted that the staff at Norwood are trained only to use CPI (Crisis Prevention Institute) restraint techniques and only when necessary to protect a child, but that the two women were not using CPI techniques even though they were trained to do so.

The school has since replaced the teacher and the aide, and although Oakley said she’s met the new teachers, her son has not returned to the classroom as she struggles with overcoming the trauma both she, and her son, went through.

“My biggest fear is someone being ugly to Sutton. … There’s always going to be ugly people in the world, there’s going to be times where he’s in places I’m not, and with that being said, I never ever would have thought it would be so soon,” Oakley said.

The school has also installed cameras in the special-needs classroom, something both mothers didn’t know was an option.

“It’s an extra security. Maybe [other parents] trust their teachers, you know, but it’s one of those things where trust has been broken, and we just can’t trust people nowadays,” Herndon said. “I just feel like people don’t have morals. It’s hard. I think a lot of people, in general, trust school districts, I mean, I did. … [But], you just have to keep your eyes and ears open. The thing is, our children don’t have a voice.”

Johnson County jail records indicated that Mangus and Monroe were booked into jail on Nov. 24. Monroe was released later that day, and Mangus was released on Thanksgiving. They were released after posting $5,400 bond each. They could not immediately be reached for comment.

When asked what they would tell the teachers, given the opportunity, Oakley said that she hopes they never have to feel the way she has.

“I am angry and I’m hurt, but I would still not wish this on those teachers themselves,” Oakley said. “They are parents to a bunch of kids, and I think even one has grandchildren. So, I just hope that they never have to go through and feel what I’m feeling because this is my worst nightmare.”

Herndon on the other hand, just wants to know why.

“You should know better. Would you want somebody to muffle your kid’s mouth? Would you want somebody to lay on top of your child? Would you want somebody to do that to your kid?” Herndon said. “I feel like it’s such a stupid conversation to have with them. Like, what were you thinking? … Were you tired of your job? … It’s a lot of work, but if you don’t have the patience to do it, why are you going to this extent to abuse children? It makes no sense to me.”