Posted on 04/27/2024 1:48:19 AM PDT by Morgana
An autistic Florida teen who knocked a school staffer unconscious for threatening to take away his Nintendo Switch has filed a lawsuit against the district, accusing them of failing to meet his needs.
Brendan Depa, 18, was just 17 when he was caught on video pummeling a teacher's aide, Joan Naydich, at Matanzas High School after she requested another teacher take away his gaming console.
Depa was arrested and charged as an adult with aggravated battery on a school employee, a first-degree felony carrying a potential sentence of 30 years behind bars.
The teen filed a request for due process hearing under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act on April 24.
It asks for a determination that Flagler County Public Schools’ actions before and after February 2023 led to the 'violent incident' to which Depa pleaded no contest.
In court documents reviewed by DailyMail.com, the teen's attorneys argue that school employees were aware of his 'disabilities, triggers and problem behaviors,' as well as other incidents where he was disciplined for spitting, shoving an aide, 'harassing and intimidating the school staff' and shouting at one of his teachers.
'It should be noted that the school and staff working with him and the district knew that the electronics, specifically the Nintendo and its use on a school campus was a trigger for escalating behaviors,' the filing reads.
It describes Depa, who stands at 6'6" and nearly 270 pounds, as 'a ticking time bomb' whose needs, despite 'concerns and warnings,' were 'completed disregarded' by the district.
The filing claims the attack on Naydich, a 59-year-old mother of two, was the result of a 'failure to address his needs or have staff around him with the proper training'.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
THERE RE MORE SUCH KIDS IN EVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT OUT THERE THAN YOU WOULD EVER GUESS.
THE SCHOOL DISTRICT BUDGETS MUCH MORE $$$$$ FOR EACH OF THESE KIDS.
MY LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS BUDGETS AROUND $7000 per regular kid.
THEY BUDGET 4 X that for the “Special Needs kids-—$28,000-—and they keep them in the system to age 22.
Guess who gets to determine the status of each of those kids??? The people running the schools.
“...My dear friend, a special ed teacher in a specific special ed school for “severely mentally disturbed/disabled” (SED) told me what he used to see in locked-up psychiatric wards (where he taught for a while, kids were basically in cages while he “taught”) - is now in his school, what was in his school is now mainstreamed in “regular” classrooms.”
Thank you! I knew something was very wrong and it had to do more with money.
When I was in Junior High I was in the “special class” only for math. I read numbers back wards or mix them up, can’t remember what they call that. Anyway when I was in that class? Most of the kids were either like me or had other problems learning math that they required extra help. Some of the kids were suffered from hyper activity or ability to focus how ever none of them were freaking crazy like this.
I also remember the teacher had a paddle over the black board in that class room and if any of the boys got out of line he would point to it. I never saw him once use it, all he had to do was point to it. Now either that teacher was a freaking genus at teaching special needs kids at the time or we were not in need of a mental ward to calm us down.
I’ll say it right now this young man belonged in a psych ward. We never had kids like him in class when I was in Junior High. I guess the best his parents could do is get him into a group home because that is all there is these days?
“The school system wants them mainstreamed b/c each special ed student costs the district approximately three times what a “regular” student costs - AND, there is a lot of litigation from special ed students and their families. I attended a number of IEP meetings with either a lawyer (pro bono, I’m sure) or an “advocate” in attendance to intimate school authorities”
I knew money was at the root of this and parents of these kids, who sometimes are worse than the kids in my opinion, are egging it on. I mean let’s get real like another FReeper said here “some kids need to be left behind” some of these kids can’t be taught. Ones like this guy? We would have a joke about him back in the day “strong as an ox and almost as smart” All this money spent is a waste of resources.
As for this teacher that was attacked? I feel she too is going after the wrong person. She should go after the group home that allowed him into the school after the parents warned them he was dangerous. Not to blame the victim here but maybe she was not the correct paraprofessional for the job? Considering he is violet, his size and weight perhaps the school is to blame for not hiring a paraprofessional the size of a NFL linebacker to deal with boys like him in that special needs class? Think about it! Why this small woman? That was freaking stupid by the school!
LOL, “intimate” should be intimidate.
His adoptive parents warned the group home he was violent. They homeschool him for years but were unable after he got too bad, so they placed him in a group home.
Honestly? The kid needed a psych ward we all know it so let’s quit denying it.
How can I blame a sick kid when his parents did everything they could and the system failed? If the parents had done nothing then yes I would blast them but they did everything right.
what do I think should happen now?
In the future kids like him are NOT in public school but in a psych ward. This is for the everyone’s safety.
In the future if special needs kids are shown to be violent they are pulled from public school and their parents may suck it if they don’t like it.
In the future let’s build more nervous hospitals for kids like these (I will not hold my breath)
What’s worse is these parents would come down to the school - they have all the rights - and demand their child isn’t “drugged” while school - these “drugs,” mostly anti-psychotics, are the ones that allow the child to focus and keep control of himself so he is not a danger to himself or others - and are absolutely necessary in these instances. The school is then forced to keep these kid unmedicated - making them extremely dangerous. And yes, some of them should be locked up - and were in past generations.
Turns out the parents want the drugs for afterschool, weekends and school breaks - when they’d double or even triple dose the kids. Kids were met at the door at home with the meds and that is how the parents were able to cope with them.
My friend eventually got out, he was getting older and was afraid of being seriously hurt.
I ended up working next to an SED school for several years. I have never in my life seen such vicious fights, which happened almost every single day - it often took three or four adults on each student to break up these fights.
Later, it had gotten so difficult that it looked like a condition of attendance was taking whatever drug was needed - the kids had a zombie-like stare all day and walked slowly and flat-footed around their campus, not normal at all, but it was probably the only way they could attend school. I never saw any fights after that.
“What’s worse is these parents would come down to the school - they have all the rights - and demand their child isn’t “drugged” while school - these “drugs,” mostly anti-psychotics, are the ones that allow the child to focus and keep control of himself so he is not a danger to himself or others - and are absolutely necessary in these instances. The school is then forced to keep these kid unmedicated - making them extremely dangerous. And yes, some of them should be locked up - and were in past generations.”
I BELIEVE YOU.
I have read a lot of horror stories about these special needs kids and what they do in the class room. Then I read about their parents. From the teachers’ attitude the parents are far worse and teachers can’t stand them.
I think a lot here are really missing the point on what I am trying to say and that is that kid should never have been in public school to start with.
I also believe if this kid is what it takes to remove others like him from the public schools then we should go with it. I know this is not going to sit will with those parents but I don’t give a damn. Let’s you and I be honest okay? The only reason they have the kids in the school is free baby sitting. Plus they can leave the kids there in some states until the kid is up to age 21 or 22 by law. Then they say “oh he likes going to school” I’m like “he does not know what planet he’s on Lady”.
This child is not the only violent special needs child I’ve read about getting arrested and then finally booted from the school. I’ve read where some were violent over and over and over. Teachers complained, nothing was done then finally it would reach a head and the brat was arrested so it makes the news. It’s not just autistics it’s also Down syndrome kids as well.
Here is one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7VuC0wGCg4
“Turns out the parents want the drugs for afterschool, weekends and school breaks - when they’d double or even triple dose the kids. Kids were met at the door at home with the meds and that is how the parents were able to cope with them.”
See like I said...the school is just free baby sitting, sometimes up to age 22. Then what?
You know what? They complained that Willowbrook became a snake pit, which is why it closed even though toward the end in the 1980’s it improved. Now the public schools has become the snake pit what Willowbrook once was.
The ones who should be sued are the ones who turned him loose in the school knowing what he was like thereby endangering the teachers and students; not him suing because they did not meet his freaking educational needs.
“The ones who should be sued are the ones who turned him loose in the school knowing what he was like thereby endangering the teachers and students; not him suing because they did not meet his freaking educational needs.”
I more than agree with you and have said so in this thread!
However (you knew there was a “but” coming” why did the public school allow him to stay knowing darn well we was this dangerous? Read this and other articles. This kid showed a pattern of violence. Why was this allowed to continue?
You know in our day kids like that were
A. Paddled
B. D-Hall
C. Suspended
E. Expelled
not always in that order too.
So why was he still there? Oh you and I know why!
$$$$$$money talks and bull shit walks$$$$$$
So I say bring on the lawsuit. Let them lose some of that money. Maybe in the future they will start expelling these kids when they realize it costs too much in lawsuits to have them there and it’s not worth the federal money coming in. I could be wrong but that is the way I see it. It seems fucking with the schools money supply is the only thing they (or anyone else) understands.
“Then What?”
They are dumped in group homes, made wards of the state or institutionalized.
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