A judge has approved a $200,000 settlement on behalf of a 14-year-old boy who said he was picked up by a 220-pound aide at a Baldwin Village school 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 against Los Angeles Unified and Inclusive Education and Community Partnership Inc. The parties reached a complete settlement on Feb. 25.
On Thursday, Judge Gary Roberts gave his consent to a resolution of the part of the plaintiff’s case against IECP, an Oxnard-based entity that contracts with school districts to develop and implement individualized education programs for students with autism and other disabilities.
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 will receive a net settlement of about $131,600, according to the plaintiff’s attorneys’ court papers. No terms have been revealed concerning the resolution of the claims against the LAUSD. The boy needed a judge’s approval of the settlement because of the student’s age.
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 and did not act to prevent it, according to the suit, which further alleged that the boy was not given medical aid or comforted. The aide had been assigned to supervise another fifth-grade student with whom the plaintiff was playing football, the suit further stated.
The alleged slamming of the boy occurred after the two students began fighting, the suit stated. 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.