Midland ISD school board members on Tuesday voted to launch an independent audit of the district's Special Services Department after recent allegations that students with disabilities were physically and emotionally abused in their elementary school classroom.
The move comes after several families sued the district in September, alleging their children were restrained for hours and subject to verbal abuse in a life skills classroom at the district's South Elementary School.
In addition to ordering the audit, the board voted to pursue short and long-term strategic plans for the department and to approve a resolution "reaffirming" their legal and ethical obligations to disabled students.
"By adopting this resolution, we demonstrate that we are aligned, proactive and fully committed to ensuring that MISD remains a district that serves all children well," board member Matt Friez said while introducing the resolution.
The allegations have prompted investigations by Child Protective Services and the Texas Education Agency, both of which are ongoing.
According to the families' lawsuit, students in the life skills class were repeatedly exposed to a variety of physical and emotional abuse for a period of 19 days this fall before a whistleblower finally came forward. In addition to the claims about students being denied food and water, the lawsuit says the children were denied bathroom access and endured "humiliation and mockery" causing lasting emotional trauma.
While Midland ISD is a large district with thousands of students in its special services program, the children involved range from four to seven years old and all are nonverbal, according to Kent Buckingham, the attorney representing the families in the lawsuit.
Midland ISD Superintendent Stephanie Howard said at Tuesday's board meeting the district had secured an auditor — Lesa Shocklee — whose work to conduct a "comprehensive audit and make recommendations for improvement in all areas" of the department began on November 1. She said Shocklee will be with the district for a year and the audit is not to exceed $50,000.
The school district declined to provide additional information about Shocklee's affiliation, credentials or when exactly the board approved a contract for her services and instead required that Marfa Public Radio file a public records request for the information, which could take up to 10 days to receive. Shocklee has apparently stepped in to help other Texas districts with special education program improvement and compliance.
Buckingham told Marfa Public Radio that while he appreciates board members' service to the district, he was "disappointed" in their recent actions because they didn't address any of the real issues at hand.
"[I] thank the board for stepping in and starting to take some action, but it seems to be more of what I see a corporate response, kind of all hat and no cattle," Buckingham said.
He questioned the validity of an audit that is being paid for by the district, and said the board's recent actions failed to recognize what he sees as a central problem: a lack of qualified staff trained to work with students with severe developmental disabilities. The issue is also one of the legal bases for the lawsuit.
"They are truly the most vulnerable of our society, and those are the ones that we have to provide the most protection for," Buckingham said. "It seems like there should have been a more focused and concrete decision made to hire in trained individuals that know how to work with these children without abusing them, that know how to work with these children without neglecting them."
Since the news broke about the lawsuit, Buckingham said his office has heard from several former MISD employees and parents that their complaints about the special services department date back years but were never acted upon, making the board's acknowledgements "a little too late."
"That's what's very bothersome to me," Buckingham said. "It seems like the only reason that actions are now being taken is because the parents have risen up and asserted their rights and brought this lawsuit."
School districts and their employees have been subject to stricter child abuse reporting requirements since Senate Bill 571 went into effect on September 1. While the district cannot be sued for the abuse itself, Buckingham said, under the new law it can be sued for failing to report.
Central to the legal case is the fact that cameras were installed in the life skills classroom with the purpose of protecting students' safety. MISD parents were called to a meeting this fall in which they were told by the district that they needed to first sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in order to view the footage of their children being abused.
Buckingham said he doesn't see the NDAs holding up in court because parents did not have legal representation present, Spanish speakers were only provided documents in English and, given their position, parents were left with no choice but to sign.
"Just the sheer coercion of 'I want to show your child being abused on these tapes, but you got to sign this piece of paper before I do that, and it's going to prevent you from saying a word to anybody.' I don't see these things being held up as proper," Buckingham said.
A wave of terminations and resignations among staff and administrators have followed the news of the lawsuit.
The principal and vice principal of South Elementary at the campus' helm when the alleged abuse occurred have since been fired and retired, subsequently. The district also has a new interim special services director, Michele Harmon, a longtime MISD administrator who has held the role in the past. It is unclear if previous director Lynda Rhodes resigned or was terminated. MISD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that issue.
In addition to Midland ISD, six previous life skills staffers are listed as defendants in the case, but that number could grow as the discovery process gets underway soon, Buckingham said.
"We can require MISD to produce folks for deposition, and we can then start learning the true identities of everyone and their involvement," Buckingham said. "If we have to add some more people, we'll add more people."
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