On April 4, you may recall that the Contra Costa Times broke a story about three parents of autistic kindergarten children file federal civil rights lawsuit claiming teacher abuse within the Antioch Unified School District. The lawyer and parents claim the District tried its best to cover up the incident until they couldn’t any longer. This morning, Matthias Gafni of the Times broke the story on more details about the allegations.
Allegations against Theresa Allen-Caulboy, an autism instructor at Mno Grant Elementary School, include backhand-slapping a nonverbal autistic boy more than once, picking that boy’s nose and forcing him to eat it, driving her knee into his back as she restrained him on the ground, pinching another child’s nipples and verbally abusing her students, according to the lawsuit and internal district documents provided by the parents’ attorneys to this newspaper.
Clearly, if this was true, the teacher should have been fired–she instead resigned Feb. 13 not giving the District a chance to fire her.
The lawsuit lays blame on the district, Allen-Caulboy, Principal Michael Green, special education Director David Wax, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Keith Rogenski and special education Coordinator Kai Montgomery. The parents also have filed state claims with the district.
While I encourage you to read the stories printed in the Contra Costa Times, its still too early to come to conclusions regarding this case as no police charges have been filed. More facts need to be made available which will come in time but the timeline isn’t adding up to me. My gut is telling me that after watching the Brentwood fiasco play out, Antioch would take a different route, and it appears they did.
The fact that the Times stated the following highlights Antioch did make an attempt to resolve this and do so quickly unlike Brentwoods handling of a similar situation:
Documents show the Antioch district’s own investigation of the concerns about teacher Theresa Allen-Caulboy ramped up only after the Contra Costa Times newspaper first reported on a similar abuse situation in Brentwood, where a convicted child abuser was allowed to continue teaching special needs students. A classroom aide to Allen-Caulboy cited the newspaper report as her impetus for reporting the abuse allegations.
While that statement may be true, looking at the timeline, the allocation of a bruise came on Jan. 9 whereas the Times story ran Jan. 15. It appears to me the Times wants to take unnecessary credit for moving the District forward with its own investigation, maybe even to sell a few extra newspapers.
In response to the Antioch Unified School District abuse allegations claimed in a federal lawsuit and state claims, district Superintendent Donald Gill released a statement on the district’s website yesterday.
Superintendents Message
On Thursday, April 4, 2013, the Contra Costa Times printed a story about a federal lawsuit that was filed against the District alleging abuse and mistreatment of students by a former employee.
I, as Superintendent, and the Board of Education of the Antioch Unified School District have no tolerance for any harm coming to our students by any individual employed in our District. Therefore, we were stunned and distressed by these allegations.
Please know that our District is fully cooperating with the Antioch Police Department as they continue to investigate these allegations. We will continue to monitor this situation and will provide periodic updates as appropriate.
While I cannot comment about specific details regarding the allegations contained in the lawsuit, I will be personally heartbroken, horrified and angry if these allegations are substantiated.
While I can appreciate the comments, however, Superintendent Gill needs to still get out in front of this before the media and others control the message and create a negative tone. If I am Gill, I would further elaborate on how they are working with the police and provide weekly updates.
Below I’ve included a timeline produced by Gafni. In reviewing it, keep in mind that when the mother threatened to go to police, it was Dec. 10 which was right around the Holiday break. Upon returning from the break, within a month and a half, Allen-Caulboy was placed on leave and eventually resigned on Feb. 13. The lawsuit was then filed April 3. The truth is, in this situation you are not going to get instant results as investigations have to occur, proper documentation filed, and then the police also need to be involved.
These things takes time to work out, so I am not sure why the District is being blamed for trying to cover something up. In reviewing the timeline, the District moved at lightening speed considering the seriousness of the situation.
Here is a look at the timeline produced by Gafni:
- August 2011: Theresa Allen-Caulboy starts teaching autistic kindergarten and first grade students at Mno Grant Elementary in Antioch.
- Sept. 13, 2012: A speech-language pathologist voices concerns over Allen-Caulboy’s classroom management interventions.
- Nov. 1-2: The speech instructor sees Allen-Caulboy yelling at nonverbal students.
- Dec. 7: The speech instructor sees Allen-Caulboy yell at a child, while holding the student between her legs.
- Dec. 10: An unidentified mother complains to the district about Allen-Caulboy, saying she will go to police and the media. The special education district official says he “de-escalated” her and recommends an internal investigation.
- Jan. 9: A classroom aide visits the principal’s office after seeing a bruise on a student in Allen-Caulboy’s class. A Child Protective Services report is made that morning and the worker says she will visit the parent.
- Jan. 15: The Times runs front-page article on Brentwood special education teacher who kicked an autistic student leading to $950,000 settlement with the child’s family.
- Jan. 16: Mno Grant Principal Michael Green says he was made aware that mother Heather Carranza believes Allen-Caulboy harmed her child.
- Jan. 17: Green completes a separate investigation into another unidentified mother’s accusation that Allen-Caulboy shoved her son’s head into a table, causing a bruise. Aides could not verify that abuse, but they bring up to the principal other examples of the teacher hitting students.
- Jan 17: A parent says she was told by a school employee that her child’s nipple was pinched by Allen-Caulboy. She writes district officials the next day detailing the allegations.
- Jan. 18: District places Allen-Caulboy on leave as they investigate abuse allegations.
- Jan. 21: A parent reports abuse to police.
- Jan. 22: Green writes head of human resources about possible intimidation by Allen-Caulboy toward her aides.
- Jan. 30: Carranza emails the principal about abuse allegations.
- Feb. 13: Allen-Caulboy resigns.
- March 18: Parents of three students file claims against four current and former district employees.
- March 26: Antioch police present case to the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office involving abuse allegations against Allen-Caulboy involving a student. No charges have been filed at this point.
- April 3: The parents file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the district and five current and former district employees.
One thing is clear, this will sure stir up a lot of debate, I however, am not yet sold on how the District could have better reacted to the situation.
4 comments
Well this is a flip from your stance on Brentwood where you said fire them all. I think you are focused on the timeline a bit much instead of the abuse facts.
Abuse is abuse, the District needs to be held accountable.
Interesting perspective Mr. Burkholder
Antioch School District has been sued so much and lost large amounts of money one would think they have learned. I hope with all my heart they have learned. If not….clean house everywhere.
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