July 11, 2005
Randolph,
MA
- Allegations in a pending civil lawsuit against a school by
parents, who say they found bloody abrasions on their son's
back, say surveillance cameras photographed an instructor
pulling a student's hair, the lawsuit's complaint alleges in the
recently filed case.
Also, a former teacher with the
Boston Higashi School in Randolph, known for its unorthodox
methods of teaching autistic students, has been convicted of
causing serious bodily harm to a student. Two other teachers
also charged with assaulting the student have fled, possibly
back to Japan, the Norfolk District Attorney's office said.
The convicted teacher, Naoya
Nishimura, was found guilty in Quincy District Court of dragging
Scott Tedeman across the floor, bending his fingers back, and
assaulting him multiple times a week between January and July
2000, when Tedeman was 18. Nishimura was sentenced to 30 days in
the House of Correction. Tedeman's parents have now filed a
civil suit in response to the incident.
Arrest warrants have been issued
for the two other teachers charged with assaulting Tedeman,
Masakatsu Nagata and Masakata Kunihiro. "They were both charged,
and they both fled," said Kevin Bowe, spokesman for the Norfolk
district attorney.
The charges have revived
questions about the Japanese training method, in which severely
disabled students are weaned from medications that control
behavior and are taught self-control through vigorous exercise
and highly structured activities, such as art and music.
Complaints about the Boston Higashi School, began to surface
soon after its founding in 1987, said state officials. At one
point, the state Office of Child Care Services appointed a
monitor for a year, after investigators found that some students
had unexplained injuries.
However, the school and its
methods are not without supporters. School administrators stand
behind the Higashi method. The charges "are quite surprising to
us," said Mike Kelly, the school's chief operating officer. The
Boston Higashi School, a K-12 school with a residential program,
has also won the loyalty of many parents who say that they have
watched as their children who compulsively flapped their arms,
banged their heads, and scratched themselves have blossomed at
the 135-student campus. The school draws students from across
the country and several foreign countries. It is one of more
than 200 private special education schools in the state where
Massachusetts students can attend on state-financed tuition.
Jeannine MacKinnon of Reading,
who said her 12-year-old son has attended the school for six
years, said she is there almost daily to pick him up and has
never seen any instances of abuse. "For us, the school has been
the answer to our prayers," she said, adding that her son has
become more physically active and emotionally stable since he
began attending. She said she believes the abuse allegations
result from isolated teacher conduct. "Any school might have
someone bad in it," MacKinnon said as she picked her son up
yesterday.
But the school has also drawn
criticism over the years from parents who say teachers are
overly harsh in their use of discipline, allegedly leading to
bruises and trips to hospital emergency rooms. Many of those
complaints have been called in to the state Department of Social
Services, said Denise Monteiro, the department's spokeswoman.
The most recent case, filed on June 17, involved another teacher
and student, she said, but the allegation could not be proven.
State education officials said the school, whose license expires
in 2006, is up for review in the fall.
The case against convicted
teacher Nishimura rested on a key witness, who was employed at
the school in 2000 and who told police that he saw Tedeman being
abused by the three instructors and that the Japanese staff
would employ "improvised restraint," including bending students'
fingers, behind closed doors. "The difficult students would be
handled by the Japanese staff," the witness said in a police
report. "It appeared there was an expectation of success with
the Japanese staff."
Kelly disputes the witness's
assertions, pointing out that it took him four years to come
forward. The witness and the Tedeman family could not be reached
for comment. Kelly said a state investigation was launched after
the two teachers who fled were implicated in an incident that
occurred in July 2000. Scott Tedeman suffered a rug burn, though
Kelly said it is still not clear how serious it was or whether
it was self-inflicted or caused by an instructor.
The school fired Kunihiro in
September 2000 after the investigation concluded that he was
either involved or should have taken steps to prevent the
injury. According to Kelly, Kunihiro went back to Japan. The
school also concluded that the other teacher, Nagata, was not
involved in the incident, and he remained on staff, Kelly said.
He worked at the school for two to three more years and then
returned to Japan, Kelly said.
