In Lexington, Kentucky, Valerie Honeycutt Spears reports at The Herald-Leader:
A few days after school started in August, Ashley Horton said a state child protective service worker knocked on her door with some unsettling news about how Horton’s 6-year-old autistic son had been injured at Lexington’s Picadome Elementary School.
The details are similar to another recent dragging incident of a Fayette autistic student that drew national attention. A description was included in a Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services investigative report that state officials finished Oct. 19. Horton and her attorney shared the report with the Herald-Leader.
Picadome school staff identified as witnesses told state investigators that a teacher’s aide — found not to have completed re-certification in safe crisis management — dragged the boy by the ankles into a classroom “when he would not cooperate with her,” the report said.
She put him in a room by himself while standing outside and holding the door closed, the report stated. She also picked him up from behind and sat down with him in a rocking chair, causing him to bump his head. The techniques were not appropriate or approved, the report said, and the boy could have hurt himself when placed in isolation.
State officials found enough evidence to support the allegations, which the teacher’s aide denied, the report said.
