MARBLEHEAD — Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court on June 12 on behalf of a 9-year-old Black METCO student and his mother against the town, Marblehead Public Schools, and several employees in the school district.
The student was allegedly restrained on approximately 11 occasions over the span of four months.
Aja Adams, the mother of the child, represented by Lawyers for Civil Rights, accused school employees of unlawfully restraining the child and violating the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act.
The child and Adams live in Boston.
As of Aug. 16, former Glover School Associate Director of Student Services Emily Dean had denied all allegations set forth in the introduction of the plaintiff’s complaint, according to court documents.
Dean and 10 other defendants, who are current and former employees of the district, have been individually charged with assault and battery.
The same 11 educators are facing counts of loss of consortium, meaning their actions have allegedly affected the mother’s relationship with her son, and violation of the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act.
The case is currently in the discovery phase, according to Erika Richmond Walton, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs.
Because the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act protects schools from liability for failing to prevent harm, the district had six months to conduct an investigation into the claims made by the plaintiffs.
The town and district are facing counts of negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and negligent supervision.
The defendants have denied all of the charges.
Richmond Walton said as far as the town and district are concerned, the case is at the presentment phase.
“We are moving forward right now with the lawsuit against the individual defendants that we are going to be entering into the discovery phase,” Richmond Walton said.
As of Aug. 22, a stipulation and proposed order had been filed in Superior Court.
“Plaintiffs and the municipal defendants hereby stipulate that plaintiffs shall not file any motions, nor serve any discovery, against or upon municipal defendants prior to Nov. 22, 2024; and defendants shall not file the motion to dismiss that has been served on plaintiffs,” court documents state.
The district will have until Nov. 21 to either settle or deny the case, which would cause the lawsuit to move forward. The town and district are responsible for conducting their own investigation during that period.
Educators at Glover Elementary School allegedly trapped the child in a gym mat and caused asthma attacks that, in one instance, resulted in emergency medical treatment.
The lawsuit claims that Glover employees unlawfully restrained the student on multiple occasions. The suit also alleges that the student was placed in a confined room and that staff denied the child medication. Additionally, it alleges that in one instance, the student hit his head against a wall when he was “violently shoved” into the space.
An outside reviewer by Comprehensive Investigations found that staff at Glover Elementary School did violate the restraint policies.
The lawsuit states that only 1.6 percent of students at Glover identify as Black.
The suit has since been impounded by the Suffolk Superior Court.
Richmond Walton said her clients are “still today, very much affected by what has happened.”
“They are still trying to put the pieces together,” she said.
