
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 8, 1993                   TAG: 9312080119
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PUPIL-ABUSE RULING REVERSED, SUPERINTENDENT SAYS

A state hearing officer has overturned a welfare agency's ruling that preschoolers were abused by "bizarre discipline" in a special-education class at a Fincastle elementary school, according to the Botetourt County school superintendent.

Superintendent Clarence McClure said he was informed Monday that the hearing officer had ruled the evidence did not support the child-abuse finding.

This past spring, three families complained to school officials and to the county Department of Social Services that a teacher and teacher's aide at Breckinridge Elementary were using harsh discipline techniques against 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds, including children with autism, mental retardation and cerebral palsy.

The parents contend that McClure failed to do anything about their complaints. However, county welfare officials ruled that three children had been victimized by "Level III" abuse, the least severe form of child abuse.

After reviewing the case on appeal, the hearing officer overturned the county agency's ruling, McClure said.

McClure's revelation Tuesday about the hearing officer's decision was his first public comment on the case.

Asked how he had learned of the hearing officer's ruling, McClure said, "I'd rather not say. Someone told me in confidence. It's a reliable source."

McClure said the hearing officer's ruling "upholds my belief that there were no reasons for charging anybody with child abuse. Beyond that, I don't think I can say anything more."

Ann Austin, one of the parents who complained, said the new ruling would have no effect on the federal lawsuit she and her husband have filed against school officials.

Austin said the lawsuit, which is in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, will not turn on the state's child-abuse ruling. Instead, it charges that the constitutional rights of Katie Austin and other children were violated because they were treated differently from children without physical or mental disabilities.

The lawsuit claims that children were slapped in the mouth, pulled by the ear, threatened with a ruler and held down during nap time with a foot on the back.

McClure, the School Board, teacher Cindy Higgins and aide Margaret H. Garrison are named as defendants in the suit.

A School Board attorney has responded in court papers that the lawsuit fails to show that the children were deprived "of any right secured by the Constitution of the United States."

by CNB