Ousted McCracken Middle principal named in student abuse lawsuit. What’s been happening?

Mary Dimitrov

The Beaufort County School District and two school administrators knowingly employed a teacher with a yearslong history of abusing disabled students, according to a lawsuit recently filed by a parent in federal court. Court documents also detail the school district’s alleged cover-up after the teacher physically punished a nonverbal autistic student in 2023.

Bluffton’s H.E. McCracken Middle School Principal Ryan Milling and Vice Principal Joseph Hollington are named as defendants in the case, filed on April 23, 2024 in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina. The school district announced in May that Milling won’t return as principal next year, but didn’t say why. District spokesperson Candace Bruder wouldn’t say if he is leaving the district or being reassigned to a different Hilton Head area school. Bruder wouldn’t say whether Hollington is leaving the district or being reassigned. She wrote that “the district will release administrative assignments for the upcoming school year during the summer,” in an email. Both are still employed at the district as of May 23, 2024, according to Bruder.

The lawsuit also names Shandequa Moria Jenkins, the aide who allegedly abused the students. It describes how Jenkins reportedly grabbed and hit the autistic child with a wooden ruler during school in 2023 when the student was less than 14 years old. Their parents reported the child was extremely bruised and has developmentally regressed since. In the lawsuit, they said the child flinches when touched by an adult, expecting to be hit.

The incident alleged in the lawsuit happened Jan. 10, 2023. The Bluffton Police Department arrested Jenkins for third-degree misdemeanor assault and battery Feb. 2, 2023 following a Jan. 10, 2023 incident, according to Sgt. Bonifacio Perez. Jenkins pleaded guilty, and the Bluffton municipal court fined her $1,120, according to the public index.

File: Parents wait in line to pick up their children at H.E. McCracken Middle School in Bluffton on March 17, 2016.
File: Parents wait in line to pick up their children at H.E. McCracken Middle School in Bluffton on March 17, 2016.

Public filings include documented reports of the alleged incident and emails from another teacher in the classroom to Milling and Hollingsworth the day after it happened. Milling and Hollingworth allegedly didn’t tell the school district about the incident until they were confronted by law enforcement 21 days later. The teacher also told a Bluffton police detective that students had previously complained about Jenkins pinching them.

Here is a timeline of what happened, as alleged in the lawsuit. The child isn’t named in the lawsuit because they’re a minor. The parents are named in the lawsuit but aren’t being identified because it would identify the child:

  • 2019: An M.C. Riley Elementary School parent reports to the principal that Jenkins used corporal punishment on her autistic daughter. Jenkins allegedly “forcibly removed finger-nail polish as punishment for misbehavior.”

  • Before Jan. 10, 2023: A teacher reports Jenkins to Milling and Hollington after another student alleged physical abuse by Jenkins. Nothing was done.

  • Jan. 10, 2023: Jenkins threatens an autistic student at school “with a wooden ruler, physically seized and struck him, such that he suffered severe physical and emotional damages, including but not limited to excessive bruising, extreme fear and significant developmental regression.”

  • Jan. 11, 2023: A schoolteacher from the same classroom as Jenkins, who witnessed the abuse, reports the incident to Milling and Hollington.

In this written note, dated Jan. 11, 2023 and submitted to H.E. McCracken Middle School Principal Ryan Milling and Vice Principal Joseph Hollington, a teacher details the child abuse she saw the day before. The teacher told a Bluffton police detective that Shandequa Jenkins sometimes goes by the nickname “Dedee.”
In this written note, dated Jan. 11, 2023 and submitted to H.E. McCracken Middle School Principal Ryan Milling and Vice Principal Joseph Hollington, a teacher details the child abuse she saw the day before. The teacher told a Bluffton police detective that Shandequa Jenkins sometimes goes by the nickname “Dedee.”

  • Jan. 12, 2023 morning: The school teacher emails Milling and Hollington, to say the student’s parents have messaged her with photos of the student’s injuries.

In this email to H.E. McCracken Middle School Principal Ryan Milling and Vice Principal Joseph Hollington dated Jan. 12, 2023, included in a recent lawsuit, a teacher reports parents complaining about “scratches and bruises” on their child’s hands. The child’s name is blacked out to protect their identity.
In this email to H.E. McCracken Middle School Principal Ryan Milling and Vice Principal Joseph Hollington dated Jan. 12, 2023, included in a recent lawsuit, a teacher reports parents complaining about “scratches and bruises” on their child’s hands. The child’s name is blacked out to protect their identity.

  • Jan. 12, 2023 afternoon: The students’ parents met with Milling and Hollington but the administrators don’t mention that a teacher had seen Jenkins attack the student and reported it. Instead, “Milling and Hollington pretended as if they were completely unaware of the attack.” When the parents said they were going to file a police report, the administrators said they would handle it at a personnel level and the teacher “gestured to the parents that they should ‘zipper’ their mouths.”

  • Jan. 12, 2023 afternoon: The student’s parents file a report with the Bluffton Police Department

  • Jan. 17, 2023: The student’s parents met with Milling and Hollington again. The administrators again “conceal their knowledge that Jenkins had attacked the student and that there had been previous reports of abuse.” Instead, they told the parents that it was being handled internally.

  • Jan. 31, 2023: Milling and Hollington are confronted by law enforcement about the incident. Milling tells the district about what happened.

The federal lawsuit is separate from one that the same parents filed in state court in February 2023. The first lawsuit alleges negligent hiring, retention and training, naming only BCSD and Jenkins as defendants. The federal court claim alleges 14th Amendment violations and names BCSD, Jenkins, Milling and Hollington.

Bauer & Metro law firm is representing the parents in both cases.

“This isn’t the first lawsuit we’ve filed in recent years related to the abuse of disabled students, mainly nonverbal autistic children, in Beaufort County,” Rob Metro wrote in an emailed statement. “For some reason, the school district seems unable or unwilling to solve this problem.”

The firm is also representing a different parent who alleged Jenkins abused a different autistic child while they attended Michael C. Riley Elementary School during the 2018-19 school year.

According to Bruder, the district spokesperson, BCSD hired Jenkins in September 2015 as a special education assistant at Michael C. Riley Elementary School. It reassigned her to H.E. McCracken Middle School in August 2021. Jenkins resigned Feb. 6, 2024, four days after the Bluffton Police Department arrested her for third-degree misdemeanor assault and battery.

Bruder said BCSD hired Milling in July 2021. Milling was assistant principal at H.E. McCracken before becoming principal in the 2021-22 school year. The district hired Hollington in July 2022.

When The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette reached the H.E. McCracken Middle School office by phone on Thursday and requested to speak with the administrators, a reporter was told all calls should be directed to the school district. Bruder, the district spokesperson, wrote the district is unable to comment on pending litigation in an email.

Efforts to reach Jenkins’ attorney went unanswered.

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