CHARLESTON — The family of a third child has filed a lawsuit against Kanawha County Board of Education alleging a special needs child was abused at Horace Mann Middle School.
James and April Woods filed the lawsuit on behalf of their child, C.W., against Walter Pannell, Lillian Branham, Anthony Wilson and the county board, according to a complaint filed Sept. 3 in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Ben Salango of Salango Law and Michael Cary of Cary Law Office are representing the plaintiffs.
Salango
Salango said protecting children needs to be a top priority.
"The physical and emotional abuse endured by these special needs children is horrific," Salango said to The West Virginia Record. "It’s our job to make sure the defendants are held accountable and this never happens again."
Cary said the community is becoming skeptical of the school system.
"I honestly believe that people in our community are beginning to lose faith in our school system," Cary said to The Record. "I wish Kanawha County Schools would do the right thing and release the videos of their own employees beating special needs kids."
The plaintiffs claim their son is disabled, is non-verbal and suffers from autism. While he was a student at the school, he was enrolled in special education courses taught by Wilson, while Branham and Pannell were school aides. They claim there is video footage of dozens of instances where the defedants abused C.W. and other special needs children or were seen mocking, taunting or ridiculing C.W. and other students because of their disabilitie.
The defendatns allegedly pushed C.W. down on a bean bag chair, screamed at him, forcefully threw him down on the bean bag, forcefully grabbed and held C.W.'s hands and wrists and dragged him by his arms, according to the suit.
Pannell, Branham and Wilson were charged with battery in connection with alleged abuse in May.
Bikers Against Abuse are planning a rally at noon on Sept. 7 at the Kanawha County Board of Education to demand release of the videos.
The Woodses are seeking compensatory and punitive damages with pre- and post-judgent interest.
Two lawsuits were filed earlier this year by Rosetta Ramsey and Vankisha Hill alleging abuse by the trio of school employees. They claimed their children, N.H. and T.R., were struck in the face, grabbed and dragged across the room and puhed down.
Last year, another lawsuit was filed against the middle school alleging a former teacher, Sara Sullivan, had an inappropriate relationship with a student. In that suit, the parents claim their son was emotionally, mentally and psychologically harmed. They say it caused severe and permanent emotional damage to them as well.
The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Louis Bloom.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 21-C-778