Parents Sue Central Bucks In Federal Court Over Alleged "Cover-Up" Of Abuse

DOYLESTOWN, PA - A former school board member whose nonverbal 10-year-old autistic son was abused in a district classroom in 2023-24 has filed a lawsuit against the Central Bucks School District and a handful of former and current employees alleging a "calculated pattern of debasement" in the classroom that district and school leadership failed to report in a "concerted cover-up."

James Pepper and his wife, Lisa, filed the 91-page federal civil rights action this week with the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of their son, who they say was subjected to "abuses" and "horrors" inside a classroom at the Jamison Elementary School where he was enrolled as a student in the fall and winter of 2024-25.

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Those abuses, said the Peppers in their suit, included nearly 3,000 illegal restraints over a three-month period, water restriction, corporal punishment, forced exposure to nudity and sexual self-stimulation, screaming, mocking, belittling, and concealment of a head injury in a series of events "that were intended to, and indeed did, dehumanize him because he was different.

"These horrific abuses were not, however, schoolyard acts of bullying but a calculated pattern of debasement by a teacher and educational assistant, individuals entrusted with the care of J.P. and the subsequent endorsement of these horrors by a series of administrators who knew better, but chose rather to do their best to 'to keep [CBSD] out of the newspaper,'" says the lawsuit.

The suit, which accuses the defendants of violating their son's 14th Amendment rights, names the school district as a defendant along with two current employees and eight former employees, including Dr. Steven Yanni, former superintendent; Nadine Garvin, former assistant superintendent for elementary education; Alyssa Wright, former director of pupil services; David Heineman, former principal at Jamison; Robert Freiling, former director of human resources; Kathleen Veisz, former supervisor of special education; Christine Trawinski, former human resources manager; Gabrielle McDaniel, former teacher at Jamison Elementary; Rachel Aussprung, former educational assistant at Jamison; Cara Alderfer, president of the Central Bucks Education Association and a teacher at Central Bucks; and Kathy Moelter, a teacher who served as Jamison Elementary's union representative.

The Peppers accuse the defendants, including staff, employees, and agents of CBSD, of engaging in a
"concerted cover-up of abuse" that included:

• Establishing a policy illegally requiring mandated reporters, including teachers and staff, to obtain approval from school administrators prior to filing a ChildLine report concerning allegations of child abuse;
• Illegally failing to immediately file a ChildLine report once the allegations of child abuse were received;
• Illegally filing a ChildLine report that failed to truthfully disclose the full extent of the allegations of child abuse received;
• Continuing to allow students, including J.P., to be exposed to abusive staff members even after allegations of child abuse were received;
• Concealing the truth of the allegations of child abuse from parents, law enforcement, ChildLine authorities, children and youth authorities, and the community at large;
• Falsely claiming that the removal of a whistleblower from Classroom 119 was the result of a "personality conflict" between the whistleblower and the perpetrator staff members;
• Falsely reporting to parents, law enforcement, and the community at large that CBSD's own internal investigation "found no evidence of abuse;" and
• Spoliating critical evidence by choosing concealment instead of preservation, including video recorded evidence of the abuse central to the case.

The Peppers are asking for a jury trial and that the court enters a judgement in their favor and award compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

District's Response

In response to the lawsuit, district spokesperson Michael Petitti issued the following statement:

"Central Bucks School District has acknowledged what occurred in Classroom 119 at Jamison Elementary School during the fall of 2024. The district took the actions within its power to discipline both those employees who committed these offenses, and those employees who failed to report them.

"The district terminated the superintendent who was in charge of the district at the time, as well as the then-principal of Jamison, and the district's then-director of special education. The district also approved charges against the teacher and educational assistant, and fully litigated those terminations through the arbitration process, which is ongoing."

The statement continues, "The district implemented significant changes at Jamison Elementary to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. The Disability Rights Project returned to Jamison last year, reviewed these changes, and closed their investigation.

"The district understands that none of these actions can change what happened to the students in Classroom 119 at Jamison. Before the filing of the lawsuit, the district communicated to the attorneys for this family that the district was open to a resolution of their claims. The filing of the lawsuit does not change that position."