The state has agreed to settle three lawsuits filed by parents who alleged "cruel and unusual punishment" and abuse of their daughters, special education students, at the hands of Kipapa Elementary School employees.
The parents last year sued the school’s principal, Corinne Yogi, who they say failed to intervene, report the abuse, or inform the students’ parents. A special education teacher and an educational aide are also named in the three suits, along with Department of Education Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi.
The federal lawsuits say the girls — who were between 7 and 8 years old at the time of the alleged abuse — were denied proper special education services and that the abuse caused physical injuries constituting assault and battery, and severe emotional distress.
Parties in the three cases informed the court Tuesday that they reached a settlement, but details were not stated on the record, and attorneys on both sides would not comment Wednesday.
The complaints describe alleged disturbing acts during the 2010-11 school year against the girls, who all suffer from developmental disorders, including limited speech skills. (The Honolulu Star-Advertiser is withholding the victims’ names because they are minors.)
One of the girls, for example, was allegedly regularly force-fed in her classroom, often causing her to throw up. Once she was forced to eat food from the trash.
The girl, who was 8 at the time, sometimes was forced to vomit into her shirt so that the teacher and aide wouldn’t have to clean it up, according to one of the complaints.
The girl’s mother was told by witnesses that her daughter was regularly disciplined "in a manner in which her body was forcibly held down on a table and was held there while defendants force fed her and held her mouth closed so she could not vomit," the complaint says.
The girl, who was diagnosed with moderate to mild autism, "would cry at night and in the morning and say that she did not want to go to school, but due to her limited language abilities (she) was not able to tell her family why she did not want to attend school," the lawsuit says.
Another girl, also 8 years old at the time of her alleged abuse, was disciplined by the same teacher and aide by having her head "forcibly pushed down on a table and held there for five to six minutes by her neck while (she) was yelling and screaming," according to another lawsuit.
A classroom observation around the time of the alleged abuse concluded the autistic girl "was somewhat attentive, but required constant supervision, did not interact with peers, clapped often, cried and screamed, and in general was functioning very low cognitively."
Her family’s lawsuit argues that the school failed to implement an autism-specific program for her and that the DOE never assigned an autism expert to help develop a program.
A third girl, who was 7 at the time and diagnosed with a pervasive developmental disorder, allegedly was repeatedly tied "down to a chair as a means of restraining her and dealing with her potentially disruptive behaviors."
In all of the cases, Yogi, the school’s principal, is accused of being aware of the alleged abuse and failing to notify the girls’ parents or report the abuse to appropriate agencies. Some of the parents were shown photos or cellphone videos of the alleged abuse by other employees, who initially reported the abuse to Yogi.
In two of the lawsuits, Yogi is accused of conducting her own informal investigation of the allegations and asking employees to pray with her in her office about the matter. She also, according to the lawsuits, had members from her church pray in the special education classroom.
Yogi, who is listed as principal of the school on the DOE’s website, could not be reached for comment. A DOE spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request about Yogi’s employment status and those of other Kipapa Elementary employees named in the lawsuit.
In court statements, Yogi said she interviewed adults involved with the alleged incidents after being told about the events. She said she concluded that the girls had not been harmed or abused and that the person who told her of the abuse had an ulterior motive and was not credible, according to court documents.
Yogi said she believed she had no duty to report complaints of abuse or mistreatment that she determined to be unfounded to the girls’ parents or any other agency outside of the DOE.
Upon learning of the alleged abuse, the parents of the three girls pulled them from Kipapa Elementary and placed them in private schools at the DOE’s expense, according to the lawsuits. (Special needs children are entitled to a free appropriate public education under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.)
Honolulu attorney Eric Seitz, who represents the three plaintiffs, declined to comment Wednesday on the settlement, saying the agreement hasn’t been sent to or approved by lawmakers.
Anne Lopez, spokeswoman for the state Attorney General’s Office, also declined comment, saying the agreements have not been signed.
Identical court filings for the three cases said "legislative action is required before a stipulation to dismiss can be filed, and the parties represented that this may take some time."
