HUNTINGTON – A mother says her child was punished by Cabell County Board of Education employees who held the 4-year-old in a bathroom while the child struck the door and screamed to be released.
The mother, identified only as S.C., filed her complaint February 5 in federal court against the Cabell County BOE, Pamela Bailey, Janessa Freeman and Cynthia Neil. Bailey was principal at Spring Hill Elementary School in Huntington at the time of the alleged incident. Freeman was a teacher at the school, and Neil was an early childhood classroom assistant.
According to the complaint, Freeman and Neil forced the child, identified only as R.C., to enter and stay in the bathroom unattended as a punishment in April 2018. R.C. was 4 years old at the time.
The child’s screams resulted in Hope Smith, a social worker at the school, informed the mother, who worked at the school, about what was happening.
When the mother arrived in Freeman’s classroom, she says Neil was holding the door to the bathroom shut with her foot and hand, preventing R.C. from exiting while he was kicking the door and screaming to be released.
She also says R.C. had been held in the bathroom by Freeman and Neil on previous occasions as a form of punishment, and she says other students previously had been held in the bathroom by Freeman and Neil against their will as a form of punishment.
The mother accuses the defendants of negligence, and she accuses the school board of negligent supervision and negligent retention.
She says the actions of the defendants caused R.C. to suffer injury, including bodily harm, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life.
S.C. seeks compensatory damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
She is being represented by Raj A. Shah and John K. Cecil of Hendrickson & Long in Charleston.
The Cabell County Board of Education has been involved in several lawsuits in recent years.
Last year, the board was sued after it voted to reduce excess levy funding to the Cabell County Public Library and the Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District. A circuit judge ruled in favor of the library and park boards, but the school board has appealed that case to the state Supreme Court.
In 2022, the board was sued after some Huntington High School students were allegedly forced to attend a religious revival at the school. That case was settled late last year.
In early 2023, the board was sued by the parents of a non-verbal Huntington High student after the student was allegedly verbally and physically abused by staff members. Later in 2023, it was sued again by a former special needs student who claimed he was sexually abused by a Cabell Midland teacher. Then, parents of another Huntington High special needs student sued the board after claiming he also was verbally and physically abused by staff members.
In addition, it was sued in 2021 over alleged inconsistencies in COVID-19 protocols.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 3:24-cv-0057
