A judge is being asked to approve a $200,000 settlement on behalf of a 14-year-old boy who said he was picked up by a 220-pound school aide and slammed to the blacktop in 2022.
The plaintiff was 10 years old at the time and weighed 75 pounds, according to the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed on his behalf by his father in March 2024. On March 6, his attorneys filed court papers with Judge Gary Roberts seeking his consent to the accord.
The proposed settlement is with defendant Inclusive Education and Community Partnership Inc., an Oxnard-based entity that contracts with school districts to develop and implement individualized education programs for students with autism and other disabilities. The suit also named Los Angeles Unified as a defendant.
In their previous court papers, IECP attorneys denied the boy’s allegations and said they were barred by the statute of limitations.
After deductions for attorneys’ fees and other expenses, the boy would receive a net settlement of about $131,600, according to a petition set for hearing on April 2. The complete settlement reached in the case on Feb. 25 also involves the part of the case against the LAUSD, but no terms were divulged.
According to the suit, the boy was in the school yard at Hillcrest Drive Elementary School on Nov. 14, 2022, when the aide violently grabbed the plaintiff by the sweatshirt and slammed his head and body to the blacktop, leaving the child with a concussion.
School officials witnessed the alleged assault, but failed to prevent it and the boy also was not given medical aid or comforted, the suit stated. The aide had been assigned to supervise another fifth-grade student with whom the plaintiff was playing football, the suit further states.
The alleged slamming of the boy occurred after the two students began fighting, the suit states. When the boy’s father arrived at the school to pick up his son, the child was slumped over in a chair holding his head and crying, according to the complaint, which further stated that no one at the school gave the plaintiff an ice pack for the pain.