Black and Deaf family sues school district alleging abuse and discrimination
A Black and Deaf family has filed a lawsuit against a school district near Seattle with serious allegations of abuse, discrimination, and retaliation. The family prefers to keep their names confidential but wanted the public to be aware of this lawsuit.
I will summarize the complaint.
The plaintiffs are a deaf mother and a deaf grandmother to a seven-year-old girl who is hearing and has developmental disabilities. The family uses ASL at home. The mother authorized the grandmother to act in the place of the child’s biological father regarding educational decisions.
The child attended Lockwood Elementary School within the Northshore School District in the fall of 2021 at the age of six. The majority of the students are white with only 1% of students identifying as Black. The child was placed in a classroom at Lockwood for students with disabilities.
The mother and grandmother wanted to observe the classroom, but the child’s teacher denied the request to observe. The attorney said the school is supposed to provide parents of special education students the opportunity to observe.
The child’s teacher wrote reports that she restrained and/or isolated the child about 25 times from October 2021 to January 2022. The child’s parents said they did not see serious behavior issues at home and what the teacher was doing — restraining her and isolating her — was unlike anything they had seen in the child’s previous educational settings.
Later on, the school district’s behaviorist observed the child in the classroom and raised concerns that the teacher did not follow the child’s behavior intervention plan.
The mother and grandmother then made another request to observe the classroom and requested the school to provide ASL interpreters that they preferred, but they were denied. The family felt that they were mistreated because they are one of the few Black families at the school and that white parents are not treated in the same way.
The mother and grandmother finally had a meeting with the school in January 2022 and expressed frustration at how the school was ignorant of parents’ rights or deaf people’s rights. A few days later the mother and grandmother informed a school staffer that they have retained counsel.
The complaint said the teacher and other school officials, including the principal, after finding out about the family’s attorney, discussed the idea of reporting the child’s mother to child protective services (CPS). The principal and the teacher then actually did fill out a CPS report. The mother and grandmother’s attorney said it was a “purposefully misleading” report by putting several events out of context. They felt the CPS report was retaliatory.
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The mother and grandmother’ attorney, Whitney Hill, said after her firm was retained in February, they requested that the child be transferred to another elementary school within the district and assigned a 1:1 paraeducator fluent in ASL. The district agreed to both and that after the student started at the new school, all the behavior concerns stopped. She has not been restrained at all since she left Lockwood Elementary and is doing so well that she is participating in general education for 70% of her school day. The attorney said the child now really loves school and that substitutes who saw her previously at Lockwood can’t believe that this is the same kid. The attorney said the previous classroom was “clearly hostile and abusive.”
An independent psychologist evaluated the child and found her to have autism, ADHD, and “trauma and stressor-related disorder,” explaining that the trauma was in part due to her experience with restraint and isolation at the school.
The attorney said the family is thrilled that their child is doing better, but they are heartbroken that it took so long for a change to happen. The attorney said they are figuring out the harm and the long-term impacts to the student and her family to determine what the family and the student is owed.
The complaint said the school district committed negligence by breaching numerous duties and discriminated against the child based on her race and disability and against the parents based on their race and disabilities. The complaint also said the school district violated a law by retaliating against the family by reporting them to CPS and causing emotional distress. Finally, the complaint accuses school staff members of false imprisonment and assault and battery. The mother and grandmother’s attorney are asking for a trial.
So that’s the lawsuit and clearly, there are very serious allegations of abuse, discrimination, and retaliation. I reached out to the Northshore School District for comment but did not get an immediate response.