Jefferson Parish taxpayers deserve to know how their school board members are spending their money. And it’s not pretty.
Chris Edmunds Law Office represents S.B., a nonverbal 11-year-old girl with autism who was hit by not one, but two of her teachers. These teachers, Janine Rowell and Lesley Nick, were not fired by the Jefferson Parish School Board. Instead, the JPSB quietly transferred them to another school in the district, without telling parents (either at the old school or the new school) the reason for their transfer.
We filed suit in 2021 in federal court. Even though the JPSB has admitted that these two teachers slapped an autistic child (on at least three occasions), it spent nearly $200,000 on attorney’s fees—paying three different law firms—simply to have the suit moved from federal court to state court. To avoid dragging out the case, we attempted settlement discussions numerous times (including at the very beginning), but the JPSB has never offered a dime to settle the matter.
The school board members apparently prefer to use taxpayer funds paying exorbitant legal fees to defense attorneys, rather than compensate victims of child abuse at the hands of its own employees. With the case now in state court, the JPSB is still paying huge legal fees to defense attorneys and still refusing to engage in any settlement talks. So this case appears headed for a jury trial in state court, where we will certainly prevail. That means that on top of the $200,000 already spent on defense lawyers in federal court, the JPSB will be on the hook for a large damages award and attorney’s fees.
The dismissal of the federal claims was wrong, and we continue to challenge that decision. We alleged that these teachers violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because they hit S.B., at least in part, because of her autism. But the federal court refused to allow us to take any evidence. Instead, it dismissed the federal claims because we could not specifically identify other children without disabilities who were treated more favorably. This ruling never made any sense. To this day, no court has ever explained how a nonverbal child could be expected to provide identifying information about her classmates, or how her lawyers could obtain the information without being allowed to take evidence.
But a major development in the case took place earlier this year, one that should send the case back to federal court. In April 2023, Janine Rowell—one of the teachers that hit S.B.—was arrested for hitting other autistic children in a different school system. That’s right: the JBSB’s failure to terminate Rowell’s employment—or take any meaningful action against her—helped Rowell obtain employment in St. Tammany Parish, where, predictably, she continued hitting disabled children. Chris Edmunds Law Office represents these parents in a separate lawsuit against St. Tammany Parish. Most relevant here, we learned that Rowell had made highly offensive and discriminatory comments, including that autistic children “all belong in institutions” and calling our clients “feral children.” In light of this new information from the St. Tammany case, we filed a motion with the federal court to reconsider its decision in the case against Jefferson Parish, because these comments are direct evidence of discriminatory intent—evidence that was impossible to uncover due to the court’s refusal to allow us to take any evidence. Our motion is still pending.
Whether or not the federal claims are revived, the state-law claims (including battery and state-law discrimination claims) are moving forward. On September 19, 2023, Janine Rowell pleaded guilty in St. Tammany Parish court to battery of autistic children. Yet the JPSB is still fighting tooth and nail against the state-court suit, without engaging in any settlement discussions. When it’s all said and done, this case will be a boondoggle for defense attorneys and a massive drain on taxpayer funds—likely in the millions—when the case could have been settled for a small fraction of that years ago.
This all begs the question of whether anyone at the Jefferson Parish School Board is minding the store. All the money wasted on this case—a case with undisputed facts—could have been used to improve services for students across the parish. Indeed, the JPSB recently uprooted the lives of thousands of families by abruptly closing 6 schools, purportedly for financial reasons. In this case, the JPSB could have recognized its employees’ wrongdoing from the beginning and ripped off the bandaid quickly, saving taxpayers hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. But it has instead decided that paying defense lawyers exorbitant sums and avoiding any accountability for its hiring practices or abusive employees is more important. Even worse, it has been approving these legal fees in secret backdoor meetings, without any input from its constituents.
Chris Edmunds will never stop fighting for children with disabilities. And we will hold the Jefferson Parish School Board accountable in court. In the meantime, perhaps the voters of Jefferson Parish should consider whether another kind of accountability is in order—accountability at the ballot box.
