OCEAN TOWNSHIP, N.J. (1010 WINS) — The parents of a child with disabilities sued a school district in Monmouth County, alleging that their son was forced to eat lunch and recess alone, videotaped while using the restroom and walked down a hallway naked in front of other students.
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According to a lawsuit filed on Sept. 9 in Superior Court of Monmouth County, the boy attended Ocean Township Elementary School starting in 2018 and was enrolled in a special education class that taught strategies for coping with daily activities, along with providing them with a meaningful education for students with learning disabilities.
The child has Down syndrome, epilepsy, asthma, post-traumatic stress disorder, hearing loss and numerous other conditions, according to court documents obtained by NJ.com.
The suit alleges that just after the 2018–2019 school year began, the child’s mother allegedly noticed that her son developed additional problems.
A school assistant did not have the credentials to help the child and failed to motivate the student to reach his educational goals, use the restroom or safely move him around the school.
"Additionally, [plaintiffs] were made aware that [the assistant] did not have a background in special education, but rather, only possessed a background in theatrical makeup, acting, comedy and amateur wrestling," the suit added.
When their son ate glue, for example, the assistant failed to send him to a nurse or seek medical treatment.
He also created the child's artwork for him rather than helping him, and allegedly once filmed the boy on the toilet. When his mother was called after he wet his pants in 2019, she was alerted that the assistant had been video recording her son.
The suit alleges the school's principal, in the company of a security guard, took away the assistant’s phone and told the mother, "We are looking [at the camera roll] and don't see anything."
The mother then filed a police report with the Ocean Township Police Department. The department said that they were unable to determine if a crime had been committed because the images had been deleted, according to the suit.
The report did note that a substitute teacher witnessed the assistant filming the child in the restroom.
Eventually, the assistant's resignation was accepted by the school district in August 2019 following the incident. It's unclear whether the incident led to his departure.
The lawsuit claims that district authorities once more neglected to take the necessary actions "to ensure a healthy learning environment" for the child the following year.
The boy's mother alleges she found out in September 2019 that he was forced to use a second-floor bathroom with the door propped open. The child was thus exposed to third- and fourth-graders in adjacent classrooms, as well as anyone walking by the restroom.
In a February 2020 incident, the boy allegedly became irritated while in the bathroom, took off his clothes and threw them in the toilet. Two staffers are accused of dragging the child through the school hallway "while he was still naked" after taking him from the restroom.
When the boy's mother learned, she called police again, and they sent two officers to her home to take a report. Officers told her they intended to file a report about the incident with the state Department of Child and Family Services and recommended her to do the same.
Now at another school in Ocean County, the child is "thriving [as] a direct result of the constant care and attention given" though he has also "suffered emotional distress so severe that no reasonable person could be expected to endure same."
The parents allege the Ocean Township Elementary School violated the state's anti-discrimination laws, created a hostile classroom environment due to his disabilities, negligently trained and supervised staffers and retaliated against the boy when his parents complained.
Requests for comment by the outlet on the lawsuit's allegations were not immediately answered by district officials on Friday.
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