California Business Litigation Blog

In Boston, a settlement has been reached having to do with a former student who allegedly received electric shocks at the school he attended. The special needs school, agreed to pay $65,000 to settle the lawsuit. The lawsuit claimed that the shock therapy was inhumane and violated the student’s civil rights.

The school known as The Judge Rotenberg Center uses a controversial form of aversive therapy. In order to control aggressive behavior, and to prevent self injury in autistic students, the device administers a shock.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Antwone Nicholson. At the time of the filing, in 2006, he was 17 years old and was enrolled at the school for the last four years. The student’s mother agreed to settle to simply move on. The school agreed to the settlement because it was minimal and far less than what it would cost to fight the case in court. The suit originally was for millions of dollars in damages.

The school is thought to be the only one in the United States that uses the therapy. Some parents of the school believe the therapy is successful and is used only as a last resort in preventing severely autistics children from injuring themselves. The settlement allows for the school to be absolved of all claims by the family. The school also says that the parents of the student were made aware of the treatment used at the time of enrolling the son.

Nicholson acknowledges that she knew of the treatment but said she thought it would be used only in situations where the boy was a threat to himself or to others. She says that was not the case. She claims that if her son simply said no to a directive or did not pay attention, the center’s administrators would shock him.

Nicholson says her son pleaded with her to remove him from the school. He still lives at home with her but has flashbacks to the treatment, she says.

Earlier, an appellate division of the New York Supreme court dismissed a claim that a Freeport, NY school district helped place the student in the school. Another lawsuit, brought against the state itself was also dismissed.

According to the school, less than 20 percent of students experience the shock therapy and only if positive reinforcement does not control behavior. The US Justice Department has begun an investigation to determine if shock therapy is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Approximately 30 advocacy groups presented a letter to the Justice Department asking for the shocks to end.

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A player on the football team at Simpson County (Mississippi) School District has filed a lawsuit after being kicked off the football team for wearing pink cleats. The lawsuit was filed after an agreement was made previously with the team and the player. The player agreed not to pursue damages against the team if, in return, he was reinstated to the football team out of Mendenhall High School.

However, after that agreement was reached, the student was told he was not allowed to dress out with the team for the next game. He was expecting to join and play with the team and was crushed when he was not allowed to, his attorney stated. According to the attorney, the coach reneged on the agreement made in front of the entire hometown game. This, the attorney states, is a bad faith breach of the settlement agreement. He noted that the coach was not only illegally stopping the player but also costing the district a good amount of money in damages as a result.

The school’s attorney was not able to comment. The student was originally kicked off the team when he wore a pair of brightly colored pink shoes. The shoes were a gift from his great grandmother. The cleats were worn as a way of honoring two of his family members, both of whom were cancer survivors.

The attorneys for the student and for the district did not agree on why the boy was kicked off the team. The deputy superintendent said the student was removed from the team because he did not take orders from the coach and the assistant coaches, which included taking off the cleats. They claim the booting from the team was due to failure to listen to the coaches, not about his support for the cause.

The student and the district came to an agreement prior to the most recent game which allowed the student back on the team. This was the first time in a month he was able to play and he had planned to play in the regular cleats.

Should the current lawsuit go forward, the boy states that any proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure programs.

The parents of an eight year old special needs child have filed a lawsuit against the township of Voorhees’s school, in New Jersey. The parents allege that their eight year old girl was sexually harassed by a boy on the bus and at school. The suit was filed in federal court in Camden.

The lawsuit against the school states that the school district did not protect the child from the repeated occurrences, which occurred at Signal Hill School by an eleven year old student.

According to the lawsuit, the employees at the school showed deliberate indifference to the alleged harassment. The parent’s concerns, the lawsuit states, which they voiced to the teacher, received a response from the teacher indicating that the eight year old should wear a bra.

The harassment started in the spring of 2010 when the boy encouraged the girl to expose herself on the bus. The parent’s allege that the boy continued the harassment by asking to see “private parts and touching her butt.” The mother contacted the teacher and the teacher said that the boy was “such a nice boy” and stated that the girl’s statements could be a form of attention getting.

The harassment continued into the next school year. In another incident, the boy “touched breasts while asking to see them” and continued to do so on the bus ride home that day. The girl stated that because she was pressured, she pulled down her shirt to and showed him.

The lawsuit requests that adult monitors be placed on all school buses in the township, among other things. It would also require the school district to put in place methods to investigate the complaints of sexual harassment within the district.

The lawsuit alleges that the girl’s education suffered because she was continually monitoring where the student was. In response to the claims, the school moved the student to the back of the class, even though her individual education program requires her to be near the front of the class. The girl has auditory processing disorders.

The school district was unable to comment and has not responded to the lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks damages to cover medical and legal costs as well as funding for home instruction for the girl until an alternative school can be obtained, at the district’s expense.

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