CHARLESTON – Another lawsuit has been filed against a former Kanawha County special needs teacher over her treatment of students.
Parents identified only as R.B. and B.M., as parents of D.B., filed their complaint April 23 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Nancy Boggs and the Kanawha County Board of Education.
That brings the total number of civil lawsuits against Boggs to seven. 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 was set for this month, but Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers postponed it until this summer. 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.
In the latest complaint, the parents say D.B. was enrolled in the special education class taught by Boggs at Holz Elementary School. The girl is disabled and non-verbal, and she suffers from Phelan-McDermid Syndrome. She requires assistance with education and daily living activities.
The parents say video footage shows instances of physical and verbal abuse by Boggs on the special needs children in her classroom. They say it shows Boggs threatening, ridiculing and taunting the students. They say D.B. witnessed this physical and verbal abuse by Boggs.
The parents say they have been able to view a few isolated hours of the video footage despite repeated requests of the school board since learning of the incidents in September.
But in the footage they have seen, they say they’ve seen D.B. being barricaded in the bathroom for the entire lunch period of 20 to 25 minutes, being dragged under a table by Boggs when the girl tried to escape the bathroom barricade and being told “I’m gonna give you a big smack” by Boggs, who also told her to “put your clothes on or they’ll get mad at me.”
“All of the instances of physical abuse and verbal abuse by defendant Boggs to D.B. and her special needs classmates were unprovoked,” the complaint states. “The instances of physical and verbal abuse to D.B. and to the other special needs students in the classroom caused D.B. to be in constant fear while in defendant Boggs’ classroom.”
The complaint says D.B. has regressed in many ways as a consequence of Boggs’ actions, including no longer using some basic phrases she used before.
“D.B. no longer makes any attempt to cooperate in dressing herself,” the complaint states. “D.B. eats repeatedly out of the sink. D.B. no longer reliably uses utensils at meals. D.B. no longer cooperates in attempting to progress in toilet training, etc.”
It says the girl also has started using self-injurious behavior, such as repeatedly smacking herself on the hand and saying, “No.”
In addition to these incidents, the parents say they submitted an application for D.B. to attend a summer camp operating by a division of the school board. But the camp director told them the girl would not be permitted to attend the camp because it could not accommodate her.
The parents accuse the defendants of unlawful disability harassment and discrimination in violation of the West Virginia Human Rights Act, respondeat superior negligent hiring, training, supervision and retention, negligence, civil assault and filial loss of consortium.
They seek past and future compensatory damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, attorney fees, court costs and other relief. They are being represented by L. Lee Javin II and Taylor M. Norman of Bailey Javins & Carter in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard.
The allegations in these complaints are similar to the other lawsuits filed in November and December of last year and others in April against the school board and Boggs.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 22-C-350
