Black 8-year-old with special needs locked inside ‘cage’ at Seattle school, lawsuit says
A Black mother has sued Seattle Public Schools on behalf of her son, saying he was locked inside a “cage” at his elementary school at the direction of the principal.
Janelle Williams, who is going by her middle name for privacy, filed a lawsuit in April in King County Superior Court for general damages, including emotional distress.
“If this happened to my son, this could happen to everyone,” Williams said, according to KUOW. “A lot of people have gone through this. They’re either too scared to speak up and say something because of the repercussions, and trust me, I’ve seen plenty of those. But, I mean, it’s not right. Like Martin Luther King said, injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere, right?”
According to the lawsuit, Williams’ son, who was 8 years old at the time, was a student with special needs at View Ridge Elementary School. The boy was locked inside a “cage” at the direction of the school’s principal, Edward Roos, who has “substantial history of violations of student rights of which the District was aware, including multiple complaints of racial discrimination and failure to protect vulnerable students,” the lawsuit states.
Seattle Public Schools spokesperson Tim Robinson told McClatchy News that the district doesn’t comment on litigation.
Williams said that Roos instructed staff not to walk their classes by “the cage” where her son was being held and that the enclosure had a padlock, according to the lawsuit. The cage was also in view of other students and Williams’ son was being held “like an animal in the zoo,” the suit states.
The boy “suffered extraordinary emotional harm as a result of occurrences impacting his self-confidence, caused him to feel isolated and marginalized,” according to the lawsuit.
Kindergarten teacher Jacquelyn Flaherty said she intervened June 2019 when she saw the boy in a “fenced play court” and told him to come out, KUOW reported.
A October 2020 investigation found that Roos violated the district’s policies by not reporting the incidents and having at least one door to the enclosure unlocked, according to the publication. Roos reportedly told an investigator that the enclosure was “an excellent place” for the boy and “a safe place for him to use inappropriate language.”
Roos was fired after the investigation was completed, according to the lawsuit.
Flaherty also faced “retaliatory actions” by Roos after she complained about how Williams’ son was being treated, including “being placed on a strict compliance plan,” the lawsuit states.
This story was originally published May 11, 2021 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Black 8-year-old with special needs locked inside ‘cage’ at Seattle school, lawsuit says."