The mother of a 3-year-old nonverbal child was not notified by school staff until two weeks after her son was found tied to a chair with nylon straps and duct tape because of a “failure of communication,” Boston school Superintendent Mary Skipper said.
Skipper said the state Department of Children and Families moved “immediately” to notify the mother during the school vacation week. Skipper called the confusion “out of order,” adding, “I can imagine that for a parent, that’s extremely jarring to not hear from the educators and to hear from DCF.
“So again, I apologize to (the mother) for that,” Skipper said.
The parent of a special needs child in the BPS preschool, Anacelia Cuevas, 30, said she was only notified by DCF last week after a teacher at the school reported seeing her son being restrained in a chair using nylon straps and duct tape on Feb. 14.
Cuevas said the incident was punitive and traumatized her nonverbal child, who wasn’t able to communicate what had happened for weeks after the incident. The mother told the Herald on Monday she has pulled both of her sons from BPS schools and said she is planning to sue the district.
Three BPS educators have been suspended, the district confirmed on Sunday, and an investigation is ongoing.
Skipper was not clear on all the details of the communication failure, but said she was notified internally when the information reached the central office, not by DCF. The district’s investigation, which was launched “the minute we found out,” and she will look at the timeline of communication, she added.
The “important thing to know,” she said, is that a report was filed with DCF.
“That piece was complete,” Skipper said. “But the rest of the communication is an area that we’ll work on internally, because this is something that I would have immediately wanted to know about.”
DCF did not respond to an inquiry on the issue by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
“I’m just grateful for the immediate attention and care that our district and leadership have been leaning in,” Mayor Michelle Wu said Tuesday. “We want to make sure that families always feel supported, especially when it comes to young children, as young as those who might not be able to communicate fully when they get home.”
The superintendent and Cuevas both said they’ve been in contact since the notification.
Wu said the city wants to ensure a “clear connection between what’s happening and how we are bringing families into that process.”
“We don’t believe this is widespread,” Skipper said. “We believe this is very isolated, but nonetheless, any time you have a situation like this, you want to be thorough and have assurance. That’s the process.”
Skipper said she could not comment on the ongoing investigation, but noted the practices used were “totally unacceptable.”
“Restraint is always a last resort in any case, and there is training and there is a process with the Department of Education that we go through and our educators go through,” said Skipper. “This was not that.”