In what is now a source of legal contention, reports have been made which suggest that a 10-year-old boy with Autism was repeatedly bullied and physically abused by his instructional aide for a total of 6 weeks. At the end of the 6-week-long mistreatment, the child – a student of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) – was left suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, among other physical and emotional scars.
More than three years after the abuse began, the guilty party is only now being held accountable under legal jurisdiction in the state of California. Since the beatings were brought to an end it has been revealed that the culmination of the mistreatment took the form of multiple hits to the boy, whose one hand was repeatedly bashed by the aide using the lid of a pencil box in February 2010. It is now strongly suggested that the child was abused by an individual who should never have been allowed near him in the first place.
Additional information provided to the case suggests that the child – a fourth grade student at Valley View Elementary School – was repeatedly subjected to yelling and being hit on the back and head. One report even states that the child was thrown against a wall. According to other accounts, the boy was also repeatedly told that he was worthless by his aide. After six weeks of suffering from such treatment, the child was officially diagnosed with PTSD by a local psychologist.
Investigations into the matter reveal that the LAUSD and the Inclusive Education and Community Partnership (the actual company that hired the aide and assigned him to his post at Valley View Elementary School), failed in their obligation to properly supervise the 28-year-old in the fulfillment of his employment. However, defendants of the aide stand by the claim that a thorough background check was performed before the young man was permitted to work in the Los Angeles school district.
The truth behind this case has yet to be discovered, but given the eyewitness reports and physical evidence of abuse that have already been disclosed, it’s unlikely that the mistreatment could be denied. At The SenatorsRet Firm®, we are all-too-familiar with cases of this nature. In fact, we have devoted a large part of our practice solely to the representation of children who have been abused in the public system. We encourage you to speak with a California abuse attorney from our firm if you suspect that your child was in any way mistreated at school, church, camp, or another place under which his or her well-being should have been properly cared for by a profsesional.