CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – A Clarksville woman has filed a lawsuit against a former Clarksville-Montgomery County School System teacher and the Clarksville-Montgomery County Board of Education, alleging physical abuse against her six-year-old son with autism.
The lawsuit was filed in the United District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on August 1, 2017.
According to the document, the plaintiff is listed as T.S., represented by his mother, Feltona Wells. The defendants are listed as Bonnie Conn, a former kindergarten classroom teacher at St. Bethlehem Elementary School, as well as the Board of Education.
The lawsuit says Wells is bringing this action for violation of Constitutional rights, violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, violation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, arising out of the defendants’ physical abuse of the child.
According to the timeline in the lawsuit, Feltona Wells enrolled her six-year old autistic son in kindergarten at St. Bethlehem Elementary School in Clarksville in the fall of 2016. The boy was assigned to Bonnie Conn’s classroom.
A month into the school year, Wells became concerned that her son was consistently receiving “sad faces” on his daily chart allegedly due to poor behavior in class. She scheduled a conference with Conn to discuss the behavior and met with her in September of 2016. Wells pointed out that she was not having any behavioral problems with her son at home or at daycare, and Conn suggested the boy might have Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and recommended that she have her son tested.
Wells discussed the matter with the classroom resource teacher, who assured Wells her son was no different from his peers and said she found him to always be receptive.
The lawsuit said Wells was concerned after an IEP meeting that Conn was frustrated and overwhelmed, but the team assured her Conn was capable of handling the class and her son without additional assistance.
On February 2, 2017, Wells went to the school to drop off her younger son. During this visit, she checked in at the front desk and was told that her six-year-old son was in the classroom across the hallway from the school
office because of his bad behavior. She found him lying on a cot isolated in the back of the classroom, facing away from the teacher and the other students. Wells removed him from the classroom and took him home.
The following day the child pleaded with his mother not to make him return to school because he “didn’t want to be bad anymore.” Wells decided to let him stay home that day.
The elementary school principal called Wells to ask why her son wasn’t in school and Wells shared her concerns. The principal asked her to bring the boy to school and said he would be assigned to a different classroom for the day, then reassigned to a new teacher’s classroom the following Monday.
On February 9, 2017 Wells received a call from the principal, who sounded upset and seemed to be crying as she told
Wells she has witnessed video footage of Conn pushing her son. She said she reported the alleged abuse to the Department of Children’s Services.
Wells was later able to view the footage herself, which according to the lawsuit showed Conn violently dragging the child out of the classroom by one arm and then pushing him with her foot to get him out of the doorway. She then shut the door, causing it to strike him on his head. Conn left the boy alone in the hallway and returned to her classroom. The child was shown holding his head and crying following the incident.
Wells asked the principal why her son had again been placed in Conn’s class, and the principal said Conn had been undergoing anger management counseling and had a reduced class size.
Wells requested a copy of the footage, which she obtained on February 13, 2017. She asked for copies of all tapes from the cameras outside Conn’s classroom and was told the cameras run on a 60-day loop, so only a certain time frame would be available.
That same day, Wells enrolled her son in another school. Following the alleged abuse, the child’s new teacher at his new school told Wells he was having “melt downs” in class. Wells suggested that her son’s counselor and case manager come to the school and help analyze these concerns, but the teacher declined the offer. The Director of Elementary Education called Wells to tell her that she would not be allowed to have an outside social worker observe her son in class.
On March 15, 2017, Wells removed her son from CMCSS and began homeschooling him instead.
In the lawsuit, Wells alleges that the physical abuse of her son was “intentional, deliberate and malicious” and has caused him to suffer “severe mental anguish and emotional distress with manifestations that impact his daily life and routines and have caused him humiliation, embarrassment fear and other non-economic damages.”
Elise Shelton, spokesperson for CMCSS, said the school has not yet been served with the lawsuit.
“Once we receive service, it will be turned over to our attorney who will work within the litigation process. We will be unable to discuss details of the suit during that process,” Shelton said. “CMCSS is committed to providing a safe environment conducive to learning for all of our students.”
She said Conn was hired in 2005. She was placed on alternative worksite on Feb. 10, 2017. She submitted her resignation on Feb. 16, 2017.