CHARLESTON – A third lawsuit has been filed related to alleged mistreatment of special needs students at Holz Elementary School.
Parents identified only as R.S. and K.S. filed the complaint on behalf of their son, identified only as A.S., December 13 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the Kanawha County Board of Education, Nancy Boggs, Lori Gibson and Lisa Perdue as well as National Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa. and The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania.
According to the complaint, A.S. is a disabled nonverbal child diagnosed with Down syndrome. Because of his disability, he has a shortened attention span and requires special education. He was a student in Boggs’ class at Holz Elementary this school year. Gibson was Boggs’ teacher’s aide, and Gibson was an aide assigned to another student in the classroom.
Boggs
The complaint says video footage from the classroom from September 22 shows Boggs subjecting the boy to physical and verbal abuse. That includes driving his head down with her hand and causing his forehead to hit his desk, pulling his chair out and causing him to fall to the ground, forcibly pushing him in the back with both hands and repeatedly engaging in verbal insults and threats toward the boy.
On November 18, Boggs was charged with 23 counts of battery and one count of verbal abuse of a non-communicative child. She was arraigned on the misdemeanor charges, and a trial date is set for April 4. The judge set a $100,000 bond.
Boggs, 66, has been under investigation since September when a student reported an incident to a school employee who reported it to administration. She resigned from her position November 1.
Additional video footage shows Boggs treated A.S. in similar ways on different school days. Some of those allegations include her forcing him to sit on the floor while keeping his nose against the wall, forcing him to eat lunch out of the classroom sink, threatening him if he gave the teacher’s aide “a hard time … POW!,” told him his “mommy doesn’t care … she taught you bad … nobody cares about you” and called him “a big fat baby.”
The complaint says the video footage showed Boggs treating other students in similar fashion and that other footage exists and could reveal more instances of abuse.
The parents accuse the school board and employees of negligence, violating the state Human Rights Act, a tort of outrage and a loss of filial consortium. They accuse the school board of negligent training, hiring and retention. They also seek a declaratory judgment against the school board and National Union Fire as well as the board and the Insurance Company of Pennsylvania.
They seek economic and noneconomic damages, pre- and post-judgement interest as well as a court order declaring the defendants’ liability for damages is not limited to a total of $1.25 million for all claims asserted in this action or in other actions. They also seek attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
The parents are being represented by Benjamin Bailey, Sharon Iskra and Samuel Hrko of Bailey Glasser in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit.
The allegations in this complaint are similar to the ones filed last month against the school board and Boggs.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 21-C-1120
