When students got an answer wrong in class, their 3rd-grade teacher at Clemente Leadership Academy would curse, throw books and “yell and scream” that the kids “did not know how to read,” according to a lawsuit filed by four students’ families.
The suit was filed in state Superior Court on Aug. 26 against a former 3rd-grade teacher at Clemente Leadership Academy, a public K‑8 neighborhood school at 360 Columbus Ave. in the Hill. Attorney Patty Cofrancesco filed the suit on behalf of four students and their moms and grandmas.
The suit alleges that Principal Pam Franco, the City of New Haven, and the Board of Education allowed “an unrelenting pattern of verbal and physical abuse” in the teacher’s 3rd-grade classroom at Clemente last school year.
The teacher was placed on paid administrative leave “as soon as the allegation came to light,” according to school district spokeswoman Abbe Smith. He resigned effective June 30, 2013 according to personnel records. He taught for seven years.
Franco, the school district, and Renaissance School Services, the private company that manages the public school, all declined to comment on the suit, citing pending litigation.
The alleged behavior lasted from October 2012 until Feb. 6, 2013, according to the suit.
Whenever the students failed to answer a question, got the answer wrong, or didn’t complete their homework, the teacher would: “get in the face” of the students and “yell and scream” that the students “did not know how to read.”
The teacher also “tore up folders and threw them” at the kids; kicked desks, and threw other objects, such as “books, pens, markers, rulers and a small white board,” the suit alleges.
The teacher also “slammed books on his desk,” cursed under his breath, and “threw a desk at the back of the classroom” narrowly missing a student.
The behavior constituted “assault,” the suit concludes, because the teacher “intended to cause harmful or offensive contact” with the students, and put the students at risk of such contact.
As a result, the four students “suffered anxiety, emotional distress, depression, sleeplessness, reduced interest in school, and aggression towards family members and third parties,” the suit claims. The abuse drove students to seek prescription medications and medical care, and left them needing such treatment in the future.
One student also suffered suicidal thoughts, causing him to need inpatient and outpatient hospitalization, according to the suit. (The Independent is withholding the kids’ names to protect their privacy.)
The teacher should have known that berating the students would cause “harassment, intimidation and fear,” the suit alleges.
The suit claims abuse and “negligent infliction of emotional distress.”
It accuses the teacher of violating the Connecticut State Department of Education Code of Responsibility for Educators, Sec. 10 – 145d-400a of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, which prohibits teachers from harassing, abusing and mistreating students.
The suit also claims Principal Franco “knew, or should have known” of the abuse and neglected to do anything. And it places blame on the city and school board for allowing the behavior to continue.
In the suit, the students’ moms and grandmothers seek over $15,000 in compensation for money spent on their students’ medical care.