After four years of being abused by a school nurse assigned to care for him, a severely disabled boy and his family recently agreed to a settlement over a lawsuit they had filed against the Easton Area School District and Colonial Intermediate Unit 20. According to the lawsuit, the nurse often came to “work drunk and abused him for four years before teachers reported their concerns to child welfare officials.” As part of the settlement, the school district and IU “were ordered to pay a total of $150,000, as well as pay for the student’s tuition at the Royer-Greaves School for Blind in Paoli, Chester County.”
After four years of being abused by a school nurse assigned to care for him, a severely disabled boy and his family recently agreed to a settlement over a lawsuit they had filed against the Easton Area School District and Colonial Intermediate Unit 20. According to the lawsuit, the nurse often came to “work drunk and abused him for four years before teachers reported their concerns to child welfare officials.” As part of the settlement, the school district and IU “were ordered to pay a total of $150,000, as well as pay for the student’s tuition at the Royer-Greaves School for Blind in Paoli, Chester County.”
The cost of the settlement will be paid for by a variety of different people. For starter, contributions will come from “nurse and her former employer, Maryland-based Maxim Healthcare Services,” as well as the school and insurance companies.
The lawsuit itself was filed in January of 2017 amid allegations that the disabled boy’s nurse, Crystal Luckenbach, “physically and psychologically abused the boy over five years while he was enrolled in the IU’s Multiple Disabilities Support program.” According to the lawsuit, “the boy has cerebral palsy, is legally blind, nonverbal and uses a wheelchair.”
What happened, though? For starters, the lawsuit alleges that the student endured physical and psychological abuse from his nurse for many years “before teachers reported their concerns, even though the abuse was open and notorious.” Eventually, an investigation was launched by the Children, Youth and Family Division which concluded: “the allegations against Luckenbach were founded.” Additionally, witnesses mentioned in the lawsuit reported that Luckenbach would “force feed, pinch and aggressively handle the boy, who is identified in the lawsuit only by his initials.” As a result of the treatment, the lawsuit stated, “The perpetrator’s actions resulted in the child gagging on food and thrashing his head from side to side in order to avoid the force-feeding.”
Despite the allegations, the nurse has yet to be charged for a child abuse-related crime, though she “surrendered her nursing license in June 2017.” It’s important to note, however, that the settlement agreement came about when a state Office of Dispute Resolution hearing found that the school district “did not provide adequate services for the boy and ordered the district to send him to private school, and not the abuse allegations related to the nurse.” In its decision, the office argued that the district “denied the student a free appropriate public education (FAPE) and discriminated against the student on the basis of his disabilities.”
Sources:
Easton schools settle suit over alleged abuse of special needs student
Easton school district to settle case over abuse of special-needs child
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