Formal charges have been filed in Parhump against four educators in the Floyd Elementary School abuse case.
From Parhump Valley Times: "Nye County District Attorney Brian Kunzi filed formal criminal charges against four Floyd Elementary School educators on Thursday.Principal Holly Lepisto, special education teacher Sarah Hopkins, special education aides Phyllis Dushane and Kathryn Cummings each face one count of child abuse or neglect, a Class B felony. The four women were originally arrested on five counts of child abuse and one count each of conspiracy to commit a crime.In a statement released by the district attorney, a criminal complaint against the women alleges that over the course of a year DuShane, Cummings and Hopkins “used physical forms of discipline” that included “grabbing a student’s arm and forcing him to punch himself in the face, repeatedly flicking a student behind the ear, swatting a student and striking or popping a student in the mouth.” Lepisto, meanwhile, allegedly received numerous complaints about the instructors and failed to intervene to protect the students.Kunzi said that his decision to combine the five charges of child abuse for which the women were originally arrested into one charge did not constitute any change in the severity of the case.“I combined them all into one as a charging style. There were multiple victims,” he said. “In my estimation, when you look at the abuse, there wasn’t one particular time, but it was the entire course of conduct.” http://pvtimes.com/news/charges-filed-records-reveal-case-against-educators/
If the charges are true, then the charges are warranted.
But there problems with the case. First, the cops interviewed a 6 year old mentally disabled child. Yeah, that's reliable. According to the detective’s sworn statement, he interviewed a 6-year-old who is in Hopkins’s class. The child told the detective that while other students participate in a disciplinary routine involving cards when they misbehave, another student is “spanked” or “snapped” when they misbehave.
Another troubling aspect: Boruchowitz also interviewed “a director of Special Education” at the school who revealed that he’d referred an occupational therapist to Lepisto when the therapist complained about the treatment of students in Hopkins’ class, according to the statement. Contacted later, Boruchowitz writes that the therapist reported incidents multiple times to the school district that went unheeded.
A director of special of education at the school? My guess that this director is either a department chair or the school's LEA (Local Education Agency) representative. They would not be considered to be a "director of special education" at the school Further, if the person was a director of special education and had supervisory powers, why didn't they get charged for not conducting an investigation?
The other part of the case I have a problem with is this: There were 6 students int he classroom and at least 5 staff members in the room, meaning that it was almost a 1:1 situation. If this is the case, how did the kids get so out of control that they deserved this kind of punishment? I work in a class with seven severely disabled kids with only one aide and if they don't show up to school, like today, I am by myself. Even with the 1 staff for every 3.5 students, my students don't me riled up that I need to hit them. So, either there was horrible classroom management or some one's lying.
Another problem I have: The educators are all suspended, along with a fifth aide, from their jobs at the school district pending an internal investigation. Lepisto and Hopkins are free on $100,000 bail. DuShane was released from jail for medical reasons shortly after her arrest, and Cummings was released on her own recognizance after spending almost a week in the Pahrump jail.
Umm, ok, how do you go from a $100,000 bail in the case of Cummings to being released on her own recognizance? Maybe the $100,000 bail was excessive in the first place? Of course it was.
So, again, I don't know what is true and what is not. The allegations of punishment seem bizarre to me. Having a student punch themselves in the mouth? That is a very strange corporal punishment, if true.
So, it comes down this: it's a she says, she says case and it will be up to a jury to see who is truthful and who is not.
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Perhaps the court was anticipating a relative of Cummings who could have bailed her out, but then realized they were just housing an inmate that was costing them money, and probably not a flight risk in the first place.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, perhaps the DA finally realized the charges against Cummings wouldn't bring a solid conviction at trial's end.