JCPS pays $1.75M after boy's legs broken

Jefferson County Public Schools has agreed to pay $1.75 million to the family of a 16-year-old disabled boy who suffered two fractured legs —a life-threatening injury — after he was physically restrained by a teaching assistant.

The boy, who has autism, suffered two fractured femurs, or thigh bones, in November 2014 at the Binet School, which educates children with disabilities. He spent a week in the intensive care unit at Kosair Children's Hospital, required a transfusion because of blood loss and spent several more weeks in the hospital and in rehabilitation, according to a state investigation the Courier-Journal obtained under open records law.

No lawsuit has been filed in the case, but the matter was resolved within the past two weeks, said JCPS spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin. She said school officials have no further comment.

The newspaper is not identifying the injured boy to protect his confidentiality. Lawyers Darryl Durham and R. Hite Nally, who represent him and his family, also declined to comment.

Several school board members contacted Thursday by the CJ declined to comment.

Meanwhile, 18 months later, the injuries to the otherwise healthy 6-foot, 198-pound teen remain unexplained.

While three separate investigations have not substantiated any evidence of abuse or mistreatment in the incident, members of an independent state panel that examines all child abuse deaths and injuries in Kentucky believe further investigation is warranted.

"These were very severe injuries, unlike anything I've ever seen,'' Dr. Melissa Currie, medical director of pediatric forensic medicine at the University of Louisville, said at a May 16 meeting of the Child Fatality and Near Fatality External Review Panel, which reviewed the case this month.

Currie, a member of the panel, said the boy could not possibly have arrived at school with the injuries.

"He could not have walked into school with those fractures," Currie said.

Moments before the restraint, the teen had been walking around his classroom, according to the investigation by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Afterward, a staff member described the boy's legs as "rubbery" as he lay on the floor, moaning in pain. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance, according to the records.

An investigator for the outside panel said accounts of the event by staff at the school simply do not explain the injuries. Records show one worker who said she witnessed the restraint described it as "a beautiful take-down."

"That cannot break your thigh bones," Cynthia Curtsinger, a nurse with the U of L pediatric forensic center, told the panel. "They were terrible fractures."

Femurs are the longest and strongest bones in the human body. The boy suffered a fracture and bone splinters at the midpoint of his right femur and a "spiral," or twisted, fracture at the midpoint of the left femur, according to records.

Seth Stillman, the teacher in the classroom of eight students, was doing paperwork and told investigators he did not witness the restraint until the boy was on the floor.

Joe Mullen Sr., president of JKM Training, which provides the Safe Crisis Management Training for JCPS, said he could not understand how such injuries could have occurred in the restraint described by witnesses.

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"That’s pretty much near impossible in terms of correct technique," he said. "It just doesn’t make any sense to me."

Currie's department reviewed the medical records for the cabinet, which investigated the case for possible child abuse, according to the records of the cabinet's investigation.

The report said forensic medical officials were unable to determine whether abuse was a factor based on the limited information available.

"We continue to be unable — with the information provided — to explain how these fractures occurred," it said.

The cabinet declined to substantiate abuse based on information it gathered.

School officials, in an internal investigation, found no evidence that Sherman Williams, the teacher's assistant who restrained the boy, "violated JCPS policy by using excessive force," according to JCPS records the CJ obtained under the open records law. Williams was initially suspended by the district without pay, then was temporarily reassigned, personnel records show. He returned to work at Binet on Aug. 1, 2015.

Louisville Metro Police conducted initial interviews in the case and presented findings to the Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, which declined to seek criminal charges, according to the cabinet's records. Williams obtained a lawyer and declined to speak with police or cabinet investigators, records show.

JCPS officials declined to make Williams or Binet Principal Rhonda Hedges available for comment.

Currie said at the meeting that her office unsuccessfully pressed Louisville police to investigate further.

Currie said the case raises questions about injuries to other children who are harmed in restraints at school and how effectively Jefferson County school officials investigate them.

"If a kid gets hurt in school, the school system investigates itself," she said.

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A gentle giant

The forensic medical report designated the case as a "near fatality," meaning the boy suffered injuries that could have led to his death. It said the boy was healthy, with no previous fractures or any medical history of bone disease that might explain the fractures.

At Binet, the boy was known as a "gentle giant," generally well-behaved and not aggressive, Curtsinger said.

He had attended the school since August 2014 and had never before been restrained because of behavior problems, according to the cabinet's investigation.

But on the day he was injured, he arrived at school unusually agitated, according to the records. He was pacing the room, bumping into others, biting himself, yelling and not following directions, the investigation said.

Williams, who also served as an aide on the boy's school bus, entered the classroom around 9:30 a.m. and saw him being disruptive, the investigation said. According to a typed statement from Williams to school officials, he observed the teen "biting himself, kicking and leaving his area and getting in other's personal space."

Williams' statement said the boy was sitting in a chair when he placed him in a "cradle assist" hold, wrapping his arms around the teen's arms from behind. He said he then lowered the boy to the floor.

"I removed the chair and transitioned him from a cradle assist/kneeled cradle assist to the floor," the statement said. It said the boy's feet were in front of him on the floor. After about "50 seconds" the boy began to cry, it said, and Williams and other staff in the room realized something was wrong.

The staff sought medical help and the school called EMS, according to the investigation.

At the hospital, an emergency room physician came to the waiting area to talk to the boy's parents, according to Principal Hedges, who was also in the waiting room.

"I don't know what they told you but they lied to you and we will be calling CPS (Child Protective Services)," the doctor told the parents, according to a statement from the principal included in the cabinet's investigation.

On May 18, 2015, state child protection officials closed the case without substantiating abuse.

But a year later, it came before the outside state panel, which reviews all cases in which children die or suffer life-threatening injuries from abuse or neglect.

Panel members want more information to make a determination about factors that may have caused the injuries or whether abuse was involved. The panel asked staff to gather more records, including the police investigation.

The panel hopes to take the case up again at its next meeting in July. Meanwhile, Currie said, "This remains a big unknown."

Contact reporters Deborah Yetter at 502-582-4228 or at dyetter@courier-journal.com and Allison Ross at 502-582-4241 or at aross@courier-journal.com.

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