A complaint filed against Bridgeport Public Schools alleges the district failed to keep children with autism safe.
The complaint, filed by the Center for Children’s Advocacy (CCA), lists “a child who hit their head on the wall hundreds of times, a child who was hurt in school repeatedly until they were afraid to go, a child who couldn't communicate his need to go to the bathroom and so soiled himself and came home like that,” said Sarah Eagan, CCA’s CEO and the former state child advocate.
The complaint says Bridgeport Public Schools violated students’ rights by failing to provide free and appropriate education and failing to implement individualized education programs for students due to staffing shortages.
State officials said they are investigating the complaint. Bridgeport Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Parents testify to state education officials
In a testimony to the State Board of Education earlier this year, Jacqueline Oliver, parent of a child with autism in the Bridgeport school system, said “my baby was allowed to bang her head on one day 178 times, and on another day 188 times. This was back to back.”
Caroline Lindsay, another mother of children with autism in Bridgeport, told the state board that she had “seen the special education department fail to provide special ed certified teachers and speech therapists to my children.”
She said when her child was in kindergarten, she did not have a certified special education teacher “for over 90% of her school year,” which led to her child “exhibiting behaviors such as fighting and hitting. She was reluctant to attend school.”
Lindsay’s third grader, who also has autism, “went several years with, at best, intermittent intervention from a speech therapist,” she said. “She is nonverbal and continues to struggle with communication of any kind, stunting her ability to connect socially and emotionally with her peers.”
The complaint also alleges Bridgeport failed to take corrective action to remedy staffing shortages in the district. And says school officials violated parents' rights by “causing a chilling effect on staff participation” in planning and placement team meetings with parents.
“I think about the parents taking this enormous leap of faith to send their vulnerable child into the school system, to be cared for, to be watched, to be supported, and to have that happen,” Eagan said. “To not only not learn, but to be harmed.”
