Lori Davis - Pittsburgh, PA

The mother of an 11-year-old boy with autism -- who's seen being apparently slapped by a teacher in a YouTube video -- has filed a lawsuit against the Pittsburgh Public Schools.


The cell phone video that got Lori Davis fired from her job as an autistic support teacher at the Conroy school in Manchester shows her hitting a student named J.R. on the side of the head, Team 4 reported.


According to the lawsuit, after hitting J.R., the teacher then verbally assaulted him, telling him, "Stop moving your chair back. Move it! And you stay back there! I've had it with you!"

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/r/20531472/detail.html

Danielle E. Harmer - Camp Hill, PA

A former West Shore School District special-education teacher who was accused of mistreating students with disabilities has lost her right to teach in the state for two years.

Danielle E. Harmer gave up her right to a state Education Department hearing on the complaints in exchange for the suspension of her teacher certificate until June 2011 and dismissal of complaints, according to a department report issued Nov. 30.

According to documents supplied by the state Education Department, Harmer was accused of inflicting physical and psychological pain on autistic students in her class during the 2005-06 school year. She also was accused of verbally abusing aides and of willfully refusing to follow district orders.

A complaint that Harmer had engaged in professional misconduct was filed with the department in November 2006. The department, which did not reveal the source of the complaint, notified Harmer in November 2008.

Some complaints and Harmer’s responses include:
Complaint: "Allowing [a student] to run around the classroom in his underwear or nude."
Complaint: "Using students’ shirts to wipe up water and requiring the students to wear the shirts when the students spilled water."
Complaint: "Removing students’ shirts as punishment."
Complaint: "Force-feeding [a student] left-over food, causing [the student] to gag and cry."
Complaint: "Pushing [a student] into his chair and grabbing him by his hair and shirt collar."
Complaint: "Placing mints in [a student’s] mouth, which [he] did not like, to stop [him] from spitting," and "Shaking a container of mints at [him] when he was misbehaving."
Complaint: "Placing a student’s hand in his mouth to stop him from biting."

In another matter unrelated to the Harmer case, the school board in November approved a $31,506 settlement with parents of a special-education student to compensate them for legal expenses.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/12/west_shore_school_district_tea.html

Susan Comerford Wzorek - Clarks Summit, PA

Ms. Wzorek was suspended without pay from her job Tuesday, Dr. Rosetti said, and will be fired if found guilty. She turned herself in earlier in the day at the Lackawanna County Courthouse and was arraigned before District Justice George E. Clark Jr. Arrest papers allege that Ms. Wzorek, a 29-year teaching veteran, stomped on the students' insteps to get their attention, pulled hair, gave a 6-year-old a backhand slap - catching her ring on the girl's lip, bloodying it - and pinched and squeezed kids.


She is also accused of improperly restraining students with duct tape and bungee cords in a specially built chair. The chair, according to arrest papers, was to be used only to help students with spasms or other physical needs - and was not to be used for punishment or to deal with hard-to-control students. The affidavit says Pennsylvania law allows use of the chair only in very limited circumstances, and with the knowledge of the parent and school officials. None of those people knew of the chair's use in this case, the affidavit alleges.

The NEIU investigated Ms. Wzorek after a parent complained to Dr. Rosetti in August 2003 that her son, then 10 years old, suffered a broken arm, hair loss and other injuries while a student of Ms. Wzorek's, according to court papers. Ms. Wzorek was removed from Clarks Summit, Dr. Rosetti said, but continued working with kids - teaching a learning support class at West Scranton High School. Meanwhile, Dr. Rosetti said, supervisors kept an eye on Ms. Wzorek in her new assignment while questioning people who might know about the alleged mistreatment.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/1193860/posts

Dean Sine - Orafield, PA

The KidsPeace counselor who sat on and suffocated a 12-year-old boy who was acting up in May was charged yesterday with involuntary manslaughter in the child's death.


Dean Sine, 29, of Quakertown was released on recognizance bail after arraignment by District Justice Theodore Russiano.

http://articles.mcall.com/1993-11-17/news/2947324_1_sine-kidspeace-child-s-death

Stacey Strauss - Langhorne, PA

A Pennsylvania counselor was charged with manslaughter Tuesday in the heat death of a 20-year-old autistic man left for hours in a hot van, but her lawyer said many people share in the blame.


Stacey Strauss, 40, of Philadelphia was arraigned on a felony neglect charge and misdemeanor counts of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment. According to court papers, Strauss denied being assigned to care for Bryan Nevins on an outing the day of his death.
Nevins was found dead in the rear seat of a scorching hot van about five hours after a small group returned July 24 to Woods Services, a residential treatment program in suburban Philadelphia. The temperatures that day reached 97 degrees.


Strauss had called a supervisor from a nearby amusement park that morning to say Nevins was causing problems, biting himself and trying to bite another client, the police affidavit states. She was told the group should return home. They returned to the Langhorne campus from Sesame Place at about 12:30 p.m.

Strauss, who was driving the van, told authorities she was only responsible for one client while the other counselor on the trip was responsible for the other three. But her supervisor told police she had assigned Strauss to watch Nevins and a second client.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7590269