The parents of eight children allegedly abused by a school bus driver “through torture” have sued the driver, Lexington School District Two, its superintendent, and the S.C. Department of Education in federal court.
Seven of the students were children with special needs, and one was an older sibling. The ages of the children vary from 4 to 12 years.
The lawsuit alleges that District Two; The superintendent, Brenda Hafner, and the Department of Education had a duty to provide safe transportation for schoolchildren “made vulnerable by a disability” — as well as proper training for school bus drivers on how to discipline children — and failed to do so.
The lawsuit alleges the driver, Patricia Douglas, created a “dangerous condition” that harmed the children.
On May 7 last year, when temperatures were above 90 degrees, Douglas punished the children for making noise by turning off the air conditioning in the passenger compartment of the bus for more than 20 minutes, the lawsuit alleged.
“The resulting heat inside the bus caused seizures, overheating, heat exhaustion, nausea, mental trauma and other health problems for these minors,” the lawsuit said.
“While doing this, Douglas verbally harassed the children, saying, ‘I will turn off the air conditioning and burn you’ and ‘Please enjoy’ and ‘Don’t ask me to turn the air conditioning back on,’” the report said. court case. At the same time, Douglas left her air conditioner on, the lawsuit said.
The school bus had a recording system and the children can be heard shouting things like, “Don’t burn us,” the lawsuit said.
The children suffered from a range of disabilities, including epilepsy, ADHD, post-traumatic stress syndrome, intellectual disability, autism, speech and language disorders and anxiety, the lawsuit said. At the time of the incident, they were being transported from Wood Elementary School on a special needs public school bus, the lawsuit said.
“The heinous actions at issue in this case demonstrate that defendants systematically fail to adequately train, retain, and/or have policies and procedures in place to prevent school bus drivers like Patricia Douglas from deliberately enforcing punishment amount to torture and violate the constitutional rights of the most vulnerable children in the care of the defendants,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also quotes Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon, who warned in a blog post about the dangers of heat to children in enclosed vehicles: “In just 10 minutes, a car can heat up 20 degrees, enough to kill a child. ”
Douglas was arrested on 10 counts of cruelty to children by South Congaree police after the May 7 incident.
Charges against Douglas are still pending, but no trial date has been set, according to South Congaree Police Chief Steven Jonas. She is out on bail.
Douglas’ attorney, Dayne Phillips, declined comment.
Lexington District Two school officials said in an email Thursday: “The district administration has not yet seen a copy of the lawsuit. However, the district does not comment on matters involving pending litigation.” Officials did say that Douglas is no longer employed by the district.
The Department of Education declined comment “due to the ongoing litigation.”
Plaintiffs in the case are Akera Allen, the parent and natural guardian of three children; Melissa and Timothy Derosier as parent and natural guardian of two children; and Cassandra Alvarez as parent and natural guardian of three children. The children are not mentioned by their full names in the complaint.
Attorneys for the children’s parents are Will Lewis, Grace Babcock and Joseph Leventis.
Attorneys for the School District, Douglas and the Department of Education are not yet included in the federal court index.
Federal Judge Sherri Lydon will preside over the case.
