Lakeia Miller was working at a Dollar General two years ago when she stepped out of the store to take a call from her 6-year-old son’s elementary school.
The principal told her that a teacher had “popped” the boy in the face and that “the situation was being taken care of,” Miller recalled.
When the boy’s father, Duvel Brown, picked him up after school, he learned the teacher had slapped the child in the face with an open palm, prompting D.C. police to respond to the school. The boy’s face was still red from the impact, Miller, 31, said in a recent interview.
Now Brown, 40, is suing the District, alleging staff at Neval Thomas Elementary School downplayed the incident and obstructed his family’s involvement in its investigation. He alleges that his son, who was enrolled in D.C.’s special education program, has experienced “severe and ongoing” psychological harm.
The teacher, Vickey Nelson, and Principal Jaimee Trahan are also named as defendants.
The couple said they filed the suit due to the school district’s lack of acknowledgment of the incident’s negative impact on their son. They hope their suit will prevent similar incidents from happening at D.C. public schools.
Nelson was arrested May 15, 2024, according to a police incident report. Court records show she pleaded guilty that July to attempted second-degree cruelty to children and was sentenced to a year of probation, including anger management classes and a mental health evaluation.
Nelson did not respond to multiple texts requesting comment. Trahan referred questions to a D.C. Public Schools spokesperson, who declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. The District has not yet responded to Brown’s complaint.
The boy entered the school district’s special education program in kindergarten after falling behind in reading and writing, his parents said. According to the affidavit in Nelson’s criminal case, a detective who spoke with the boy said he had “difficulty with speech, language, and difficulty verbalizing.”
Brown’s lawsuit follows a string of allegations of misconduct in D.C. public schools, particularly for children with disabilities.
A teacher’s aide pleaded guilty in March to forcing a nonverbal autistic student to eat hot sauce as punishment. In May, a woman alleged she was not notified when her autistic daughter was sexually assaulted by another student. Another woman sued the District in 2024, alleging staff at her daughter’s after-school program were not trained to administer medicine for her severe allergies.
Yaida Ford, a trial lawyer representing five children with disabilities who allegedly experienced abuse at D.C. public schools, said it is uncommon for teachers to face prosecution.
“It’s so deeply entrenched in the culture,” Ford said. “There’s no accountability for teachers who abuse children.”
The Washington Post compiled the following account from the D.C. police department’s incident report, the affidavit in Nelson’s criminal case, the complaint in Brown’s lawsuit and an interview with the boy’s parents.
On April 26, 2024, the boy was tossing a football with a friend during the school’s before care program, which runs for about an hour before the school day begins.
Nelson asked him to put the ball away, she said in a written statement shared with police. When he did not, she grabbed his shoulder and he turned around, causing her “hand [to] hit him on the cheek.”
The boy told a detective Nelson slapped him on the left side of his face with an open palm. A fellow student and another teacher corroborated his account.
Nelson had faced two prior allegations of misconduct that school year, per the affidavit. A parent alleged that Nelson had grabbed a child’s hand “forcefully,” and another child in special education alleged Nelson had hit her arm.
Nelson continued to work at the school, including in before care, until her arrest, Brown’s complaint alleges.
Since the incident, the boy has expressed fear of adults and reluctance to go to school, his parents said. According to the complaint, he has repeatedly asked his father, “If I get in trouble, will the teacher hit me?”
Miller said her son has also struggled to sleep and has become more aggressive toward his siblings and classmates.
The lawsuit attributes his behavior to anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. His parents said that they can’t afford a psychologist, but that they have reassured him that he will be safe at school.
Brown’s lawsuit alleges the school district minimized the severity of the incident and limited the parents’ participation in its investigation.
The boy’s parents met with Trahan, the principal, in late April 2024 and asked to participate in a meeting with the DCPS investigator looking into the incident. Trahan denied their request, according to the lawsuit. Brown was later allowed to join by phone, but he said the principal called him without advance notice.
Miller also said that Trahan did not notify her of the incident until around 10 a.m., nearly two hours after the before care program ended.
Maria Blaeuer, director of programs and outreach at Advocates for Justice and Education, said the family’s allegations are “far more common than people realize.”
“In our experience, families find it difficult to obtain meaningful information, much less any actual relief, from DCPS when there is an incident of abuse at school by school staff,” she wrote in an email.
Frustrated by the school’s response, the couple contacted Christopher Brown, a lawyer and the half brother of Duvel Brown’s late father.
In October 2024, Christopher Brown filed a claim with the District’s Office of Risk Management, alleging the school had mishandled the incident. He later sent a settlement demand and said he never received a response.
Christopher Brown has also filed a suit in connection with another alleged incident of teacher misconduct at Neval Thomas involving a relative of Duvel Brown. The teacher identified in that complaint has denied the allegations and the District has said it intends to file a motion to dismiss the case.
As for Miller and Duvel Brown’s son, now 8, he continued attending Neval Thomas for two years after the incident. His parents recently sold their house in Northeast Washington and moved to Capitol Heights, Maryland, hoping to give him a fresh start. He now attends elementary school in Prince George’s County.
But the couple said their son still dreads going to school.
“If I could take this whole incident back, I would,” Duvel Brown said. “But it happened.”
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