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LYNN BONNER - Staff Writer
The director of the N.C. School for the Deaf in Morganton has been suspended after reports that staff members slapped a student, shoved another and held one girl face-down on the floor with a force that left bruises.
Raleigh-based Disability Rights N.C., an independent advocacy group that persuaded state officials to investigate, also said that girls at the residential school reported that a dorm director made a habit of dropping in when they were scheduled for showers and watched them on a security camera while they were in their pajamas.
On Friday, the state Department of Health and Human Services suspended the director of the school, Janet McDaniel, as it responded to allegations that she failed to act on the reports of physical abuse and let months go by before she did anything about the dorm director.
McDaniel, who will continue to receive her $97,115 annual salary during her suspension, could not be reached for comment.
Disability Rights N.C. gave health and human services administrators a written report of its own investigation of student complaints Monday, but had been talking to officials about problems at the school since early June. The report was about a handful of cases, but they show a pattern of staff and administrators failing to report and investigate, executive director Vicki Smith said.
"The appearance is that they were trying to cover it up," Smith said.
The school, which is on summer break, enrolled 93 day and residential students last year. The ages of the students who reported the abuse were not disclosed, but the school accepts students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Most students with disabilities attend their local district schools.
Deaf students who attend the state schools in Morganton and Wilson usually have behavioral or health problems.
Maria Spaulding, deputy secretary of Department of Health and Human Services, will lead the investigation. The team, which will include some community members, will investigate cases detailed in the Disability Rights report, Spaulding said.
"In the process, we'll always be on the lookout for similar kinds of situations," she said.
The Disability Rights report says McDaniel didn't investigate in December 2008 when a student told at least two staff members that the dorm director repeatedly entered the girls' dorm unannounced during their scheduled shower time. A group of students repeated the allegations to staff members four months later and added that the dorm director, who was not named in the report, watched a video feed from the dorm while the girls were in their pajamas. The school has cameras in public areas, Smith said.
The thrust of the DHHS investigation will be to check the report's allegations, Spaulding said. She said she had not yet looked into any of the claims.
Disability Rights has worked on abuse cases involving psychiatric hospital patients and on cases of improper restraint of disabled students in public schools. The group may be best known for suing the state to delay the transfer of patients from the state psychiatric hospital in Raleigh to Butner because of safety concerns.
Accused of standing by
McDaniel, who was acting director at the school from April 2008 until she was named the permanent director in February, did not report the allegations to the local Department of Social Services or the students' parents, according to the Disability Rights report.
Not until the second set of allegations did McDaniel start an investigation, the report said.
While Disability Rights was checking into the girls' reports, the agency was told the dorm director was no longer employed at the school, Smith said.
By not acting sooner, "the school director provided an opportunity for the Dorm Director to continue exploiting the students for more than four months before acting on the students' reports," the advocacy group concluded.
The report details instances in which students were slapped, pushed or held face-down on the floor. Staff who reported the incident where the girl was held on the floor with her arms pinned said administrators threatened and harassed them, according to the report. McDaniel "failed to take a single action to protect the student," the report said, and confronted staff who told the girl's mother what happened.
Neither Spaulding nor Smith knew of law enforcement investigations into any of the allegations.
Support for the school
The Morganton school, for years in danger of being closed or combined with the state's other residential specialty schools, has a group of vocal parents and loyal former employees ready to fight for it.
Dee Counter-Griffis whose son and daughter attend the school as day students, said she was surprised by McDaniel's suspension and never heard a whisper of anything about student mistreatment.
"I have a lot of faith in the staff at the school," said Counter-Griffis, who was vice president of the campus parent-staff organization. "I've always felt that the staff at the school took really good care of the kids. They've not had any issues where they felt they were neglected."
The state this year will begin transferring oversight of the state's school for deaf and its two schools for the blind from the state health department to the Department of Public Instruction. Legislators made the move to improve academic achievement at the schools.
Abuse claims at N.C. School for the Deaf - Crime/Safety - NewsObserver.com
The director of the N.C. School for the Deaf in Morganton has been suspended after reports that staff members slapped a student, shoved another and held one girl face-down on the floor with a force that left bruises.
Raleigh-based Disability Rights N.C., an independent advocacy group that persuaded state officials to investigate, also said that girls at the residential school reported that a dorm director made a habit of dropping in when they were scheduled for showers and watched them on a security camera while they were in their pajamas.
On Friday, the state Department of Health and Human Services suspended the director of the school, Janet McDaniel, as it responded to allegations that she failed to act on the reports of physical abuse and let months go by before she did anything about the dorm director.
McDaniel, who will continue to receive her $97,115 annual salary during her suspension, could not be reached for comment.
Disability Rights N.C. gave health and human services administrators a written report of its own investigation of student complaints Monday, but had been talking to officials about problems at the school since early June. The report was about a handful of cases, but they show a pattern of staff and administrators failing to report and investigate, executive director Vicki Smith said.
"The appearance is that they were trying to cover it up," Smith said.
The school, which is on summer break, enrolled 93 day and residential students last year. The ages of the students who reported the abuse were not disclosed, but the school accepts students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Most students with disabilities attend their local district schools.
Deaf students who attend the state schools in Morganton and Wilson usually have behavioral or health problems.
Maria Spaulding, deputy secretary of Department of Health and Human Services, will lead the investigation. The team, which will include some community members, will investigate cases detailed in the Disability Rights report, Spaulding said.
"In the process, we'll always be on the lookout for similar kinds of situations," she said.
The Disability Rights report says McDaniel didn't investigate in December 2008 when a student told at least two staff members that the dorm director repeatedly entered the girls' dorm unannounced during their scheduled shower time. A group of students repeated the allegations to staff members four months later and added that the dorm director, who was not named in the report, watched a video feed from the dorm while the girls were in their pajamas. The school has cameras in public areas, Smith said.
The thrust of the DHHS investigation will be to check the report's allegations, Spaulding said. She said she had not yet looked into any of the claims.
Disability Rights has worked on abuse cases involving psychiatric hospital patients and on cases of improper restraint of disabled students in public schools. The group may be best known for suing the state to delay the transfer of patients from the state psychiatric hospital in Raleigh to Butner because of safety concerns.
Accused of standing by
McDaniel, who was acting director at the school from April 2008 until she was named the permanent director in February, did not report the allegations to the local Department of Social Services or the students' parents, according to the Disability Rights report.
Not until the second set of allegations did McDaniel start an investigation, the report said.
While Disability Rights was checking into the girls' reports, the agency was told the dorm director was no longer employed at the school, Smith said.
By not acting sooner, "the school director provided an opportunity for the Dorm Director to continue exploiting the students for more than four months before acting on the students' reports," the advocacy group concluded.
The report details instances in which students were slapped, pushed or held face-down on the floor. Staff who reported the incident where the girl was held on the floor with her arms pinned said administrators threatened and harassed them, according to the report. McDaniel "failed to take a single action to protect the student," the report said, and confronted staff who told the girl's mother what happened.
Neither Spaulding nor Smith knew of law enforcement investigations into any of the allegations.
Support for the school
The Morganton school, for years in danger of being closed or combined with the state's other residential specialty schools, has a group of vocal parents and loyal former employees ready to fight for it.
Dee Counter-Griffis whose son and daughter attend the school as day students, said she was surprised by McDaniel's suspension and never heard a whisper of anything about student mistreatment.
"I have a lot of faith in the staff at the school," said Counter-Griffis, who was vice president of the campus parent-staff organization. "I've always felt that the staff at the school took really good care of the kids. They've not had any issues where they felt they were neglected."
The state this year will begin transferring oversight of the state's school for deaf and its two schools for the blind from the state health department to the Department of Public Instruction. Legislators made the move to improve academic achievement at the schools.
Abuse claims at N.C. School for the Deaf - Crime/Safety - NewsObserver.com
