Jamison Elementary
PHILADELPHIA – A Bucks County school district is defending its self against allegations it made an official a scapegoat for a lack of response to troubling allegations of abuse of special-needs children.
Among the charges were teachers letting students masturbate, restraining them to tables, yelling at them, leaving them on toilets and letting them cry until they vomited. The claims shocked the community near Jamison Elementary and led to investigations by police and Disability Rights Pennsylvania and the termination of Alyssa Wright, the former head of special education in the district.
Central Bucks School District on Nov. 12 moved to dismiss Klein’s ensuing lawsuit, supporting that Klein deserved to be fired because she did not respond to abuse reports on Nov. 16, 2024, did not report the use of restraints to the child’s parents and did not obtain school board approval before participating in a speaking engagement.
“Plaintiff disregarded her duties to immediately report suspected child abuse latest on Nov. 16, 2024, when she received information that autistic non-verbal students were unlawfully restrained, verbally mistreated and mocked, prevented from drinking water and permitted to remain nude and masturbate in the classroom and the bathroom without any attempts to preserve dignity and privacy,” the motion says.
“The fact that a Childline report was later made by former Superintendent Yanni on Nov. 20, 2024, does not absolve Plaintiff of her culpability.”
One student was allowed to sit naked in class, as well as masturbate, Klein reported. Teachers yelled at him, limited his water, did not clean up his spit and forced him to walk barefoot on wood chips in the playground, she added.
Punishments for bad behavior included restraining students to tables while a teacher made personal phone calls. The teacher also forced a student to sit on the toilet for 45 minutes as part of toilet-training and allowed one to cry so long that they vomited, she said.
But teachers Gabby McDaniel and Rachel Aussprung were allowed to stay in their classroom during an investigation, with an April report by Disability Rights Pennsylvania noting a personal relationship between one of the teachers and the school’s principal.
Wright says she was not involved in this decision. Former superintendent Steven Yanni made a report to Childline on Nov. 20 that resulted in a police investigation and, after three weeks, CBSD’s human resources department issued a memorandum announcing new policies and additional training.
Meanwhile, Wright says she routinely asked why the two teachers were still working while a criminal investigation was happening. Until March of this year, she complained that the teachers were not suspended and about the length of CBSD’s investigation.
In March, she submitted a 13-page complaint to the board naming several individuals, including Yanni. She says it was the catalyst for the school board to finally take action, but she was placed on administrative leave on May 2 and then fired in late August.
The reasons for why said she should have been aware of potential child abuse before it was reported by the third teacher and failed to report it, though Yanni did that in the days after the complaint by Klein, a personal care assistant, and again in January.
The report by Disability Rights Pennsylvania said all who saw the initial email from Klein should’ve reported it to Childline, though Wright says others weren’t disciplined. Yanni is defending himself in termination proceedings.
“All of the… individuals knew of abuse allegations directly or before Plaintiff was to learn about anything,” Wright’s suit says. “Unlike Plaintiff, several of them actually failed to intervene, take any action, or call Childline. Yet none of them were subjected to termination.”
