Judge delivers blow to Ann Arbor schools in bus assault of autistic boy

A federal judge has delivered a legal blow to the Ann Arbor Public Schools by refusing to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges the district tried to cover up the bus assault of a boy with autism — an incident that was captured on video, concealed from the child's mother for weeks and landed the abusive bus aide in jail.

Ann Arbor schools tried to get the lawsuit thrown out on multiple grounds, including governmental immunity. But U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh concluded this week that there's enough evidence to send the case to trial for alleged disability discrimination, citing the plaintiff's claim that this case "is about an assault motivated by animus to students with disabilities."

Steeh also noted in his ruling that a principal knew about the videotaped incident, yet instructed the mother to continue putting her child on the bus.

"The school principal advising a parent that their autistic child should continue to ride the bus with an aide that presents a known danger is an affirmative act for purposes of surviving a motion to dismiss," Steeh writes, adding the principal "potentially created or increased the risk of harm" to the boy by the bus aide" if for no other reason than that (the boy) became increasingly agitated at the end of the day when he had to ride the bus."

Steeh also writes: "(The bus aide) lacked proper training in how to calm (the boy), so it was foreseeable that her physical and verbal responses would increase proportionately with his behavior."

The case involves Jaime Nelson, a 45-year-old mother who is suing the Ann Arbor schools over a 2020 bus incident during which an aide pinned down, smacked and restrained her then 7-year-old son as he frantically yelled for help and flailed his arms. The boy was a second-grader at Carpenter Elementary during the incident, and no longer attends school there.

In a story first reported by the Free Press, Nelson said she was kept in the dark about the incident for five weeks and didn't know exactly what happened to her child until four months later, when a detective showed her a videotape of the incident at the Pittsfield Township police station.

'I can't forgive myself'

"It was like an out-of-body experience. … He's screaming 'Help! help! help!' — that sound will always be with me," Nelson said through tears in a Free Press interview. "The part that I can't forgive myself for is that I wasn't protecting him — because I didn't know what was going on."

The bus aide, 48-year-old Rochanda Jefferson, was convicted last year of fourth-degree child abuse and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

“I would like to apologize to Ms. Jaime or whatever… you know, the harm I did… whatever,” Jefferson said at sentencing, during which she asked for no jail time to avoid losing her job.

The judge wasn't having it: He gave her double the jail-time recommended by the probation department.

“You have no remorse, you have no understanding for what you’ve done,” Judge J. Cedric Simpson told Jefferson, adding: “I don’t really care if you lose your job. I really don’t. Because what you did to that child that day ... in my mind is inexcusable."

School district: We followed 'appropriate procedure'

In court documents and in a statement to the Free Press, the school district has defended its handling of the bus assault, arguing, among other things, that the plaintiffs failed to exhaust administrative remedies and that the school followed proper protocol.

In the motion-to-dismiss filing, attorneys for the school district argued that the boy's mother failed to describe how the principal and bus company "were deliberately indifferent" to her son's rights, and urged the judge not to adopt the mother's narrative as truth, specifically that the district's conduct was "egregious" and "outrageous."

"On a motion to dismiss," the school lawyers write, citing case law, “courts are not bound to accept as true a legal conclusion couched as factual allegation.”

"Staff at Carpenter Elementary and the transportation team followed appropriate procedures in responding to this unfortunate incident," the district Director of Communications Andrew Cluley said in a prior statement.

"AAPS and Durham Transportation team removed the offending individual from duty on the day the incident was observed on the video and contacted Child Protective Services immediately. There was no delay in removing the individual from duty, and AAPS and Durham teams dutifully followed through on this case up to and including a member of the Durham staff testifying at a hearing."

Durham Transportation, the school district's bus vendor, is also a defendant in the lawsuit.

"Safety is our priority, and we can confirm that we took prompt action by removing the former aide on the same day the incident was observed on the video," Durham has previously stated, adding the company "immediately" contacted Child Protective Services after reviewing the video and "fully cooperated" with authorities.

In allowing the lawsuit to proceed, the judge did dismiss various counts against the school district, including that it created a danger for the student, failed to report child abuse and intentionally inflicted emotional distress. All of those counts were dismissed, but the Americans with Disabilities Act claims were allowed to proceed.

'Teacher broke ranks to tell the truth'

Nelson's attorney, Megan Bonanni, has long argued the school district could have and should have looked at the bus video earlier and suspended the aide right away pending an investigation, but instead kept the aide on the bus and let a traumatized child ride it 17 times before the aide was finally removed.

“(The) decision to dismiss AAPS’s motion to dismiss and allow our case to proceed corroborates what we already know to be true: AAPS acted discriminatorily in their failure to protect a disabled student from repeated verbal and physical abuse from an AAPS employee," Bonanni said in a statement Friday. "We look forward to further litigating our client’s claim and holding AAPS accountable for their negligence and discrimination.“

The school bus video, obtained by the Free Press, shows that during the ride home, the boy had moved between different seats and crawled on the floor while the bus was in motion. At one point, he swiped his arm at the bus aide, who responded: "I'm gonna hit you back … I whoop kids."

The video also shows the bus aide throwing the boy into an illegal harness, partially buckle him in, and strike him with her right hand about four times as he screamed.

According to the lawsuit, "Nelson only learned of the physical abuse through a teacher who broke ranks to tell the truth." It was the boy's classroom teacher, who wrote this email confirming what Nelson and her lawyers maintain was a cover-up:

“I am concerned that I am going to lose all credibility with mom when she finds out that I knew about these allegations and didn’t tell her,” the teacher emailed the principal and others on Jan. 18, 2021 — more than a month after the assault. “I also don’t feel comfortable keeping this from mom.”

According to Nelson's attorney: "That's the smoking gun."

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ann Arbor schools headed to trial over bus assault of autistic boy