EAST ST. LOUIS - Flora’s school board and local parent James Pennington settled a claim that his twin sons suffered years of abuse that teachers and principals failed to stop.
Mediator James Mendillo of Belleville reported their agreement to U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Beatty on July 30.
Beatty gave the parties 30 days to finalize documents.
Attorneys Christopher Cueto, Lloyd M. Cueto, and James Radcliffe of Belleville represent Pennington along with Michael Gras of St. Louis.
They sued the school district for Pennington as guardian of sons James and Jacob in 2020 under national disability law and Illinois human rights law.
Professionals have diagnosed the twins with autism, traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and obsessive and compulsive behavior.
Their classmates began abusing them in fourth grade and in fifth grade boys hit James with dodgeballs that bruised his face.
Pennington and his sons testified that bullying happened every day.
“I can’t tell you what that’s like as a parent to watch your kids try and murder themselves over this and watching them curl up in a little ball every day begging for death,” Pennington said.
The school district moved for summary judgment, claiming the conduct of classmates wasn’t severe or pervasive.
To protect its immunity as a government entity, the district claimed its actions didn’t show deliberate indifference.
Beatty denied summary judgment in March, stating a reasonable jury could find severe and pervasive harassment created an abusive environment.
He found Jacob has an intelligence quotient of 49 and James has an IQ of 50. He also found that:
They are very low functioning, have obsessive thoughts, repeat themselves often and don’t socialize well.
Jacob testified that he’d go to the office and report it to the secretary.
Jacob said he’d tell a teacher if he saw one but did not often do so because they insulted him and put him down.
James said he grew afraid to report anything to teachers because he thought they’d yell at him and he did not trust them.
James said he talked to principal Amy Leonard about being bullied but most of the time she didn’t believe what he said.
A student spit juice all over Jacob at a lunch table in seventh grade.
Jacob’s mother asked Leonard if he could eat in the office like his sixth grade principal allowed him to and Leonard said no because she had other kids to deal with there.
A student stabbed James with a pencil that stuck in his hand.
The school didn’t take James to a hospital across the street but called his parents and said they needed to pick him up.
Leonard sent James’s parents a letter stating she didn’t uncover any ongoing harassment and the incident was isolated.
A student in physical education lifted him, squeezed him and wouldn’t let go.
Two students held the locker room door shut and basically trapped James.
Their father testified that boys would smack the locker room doors really hard, yell at them, slap them, nudge them with their elbows, spit on them, and kick the stall doors.
James and Jacob grew so terrified of the locker room that they quit dressing for physical education and were then punished with detentions.
Boys who hit James and threw shoes at him were caught on camera.
Leonard suspended four boys for three days and one for a day.
In the first week of high school Jacob asked for a nearby metal chair instead of wood and the teacher said, “You’re not going to use your autism as an excuse in here.”
The Penningtons withdrew the boys the next day and the district agreed to transfer them to a special school.
James and Jacob were terrified to use a restroom and often needed someone to stand guard for them even at home and in the middle of the night.
Their father testified they are permanently damaged from what happened to them.
As for deliberate indifference, Beatty found the district could have conducted individual and group interviews with classmates and teachers after each incident.
He found the district could have arranged for a speaker to educate classmates or the whole school on the impact of name calling or bullying.
“The District did not, however, provide any evidence of such efforts or offer any explanation as to why it felt that such efforts were unnecessary,” Beatty wrote.
Mendillo mediated in June without success, but he advised Beatty that they requested further mediation and a series of calls produced an agreement.
Attorneys David Braun, Brandon Wright, and Christine Christensen of Monticello represent the district.