Dive Brief:
- Two families have filed a federal lawsuit against a special education day school run by the Crotched Mountain Foundation, alleging that staff members verbally and physically abused their children.
- According to the lawsuit, one 12-year-old girl was slapped on the face and buttocks, and a classroom aide photographed a 7-year-old boy while he was naked on the toilet.
- The families argue that the school didn't inform them about the incidents soon enough to get therapy for the children, and they are seeking financial restitution for medical costs that any therapy would require.
Dive Insight:
Three classroom aides also face criminal charges based on the alleged physical and verbal abuse of the 7-year-old boy, who, along with being photographed naked on the toilet, was allegedly pinched on his genitals.
Crocheted Mountain Foundation is defending the action they took, and the Boston Globe reports that the organization contends the alleged incident involving the boy was reported to his parents, the police, and the state Division for Children, Youth and Families, and that they also fired the three aides.
The families' lawyers, Peter Alfert and Todd Boley, are pushing back, saying that this case illustrated a very real and national issue of special needs students being victimized at school. Alfert and Boley also recently settled a series of special ed abuse cases in two California districts.