A D.C. teacher’s aide pleaded guilty this week to forcing a nonverbal autistic student to eat hot sauce as punishment in a case that highlighted scrutiny of how the city’s schools treat students with disabilities.
Imani K. Davis, 30, agreed Monday to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault in a deal that could leave her with a clean record. Under the agreement, a D.C. Superior Court judge could dismiss the charge if Davis stays out of trouble and completes community service before her July 22 sentencing hearing, court records show.
Shanice Griggs, the mother of the 9-year-old victim, said Davis — who worked as a teacher’s aide at J.C. Nalle Elementary School in Southeast Washington — should serve “real time” for force-feeding hot sauce to her son. She also criticized school and district officials for not taking her son’s previous injuries seriously.
“I don’t feel justice was served,” Griggs, 31, told The Washington Post on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, a D.C. Public Schools spokesman declined to say whether Davis had been disciplined or remained employed; the district had previously said an aide was put on administrative leave pending an investigation. The spokesman also did not answer questions about whether the incident prompted any policy changes.
The plea comes as the school district faces heightened scrutiny over its treatment of students with disabilities. The U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation last year into whether the district was giving those students equal access to education without forcing families to fight for special education services their children are entitled to. The federal probe followed a report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that found the District had one of the nation’s highest rates of due process complaints in the country.
“This case is important because children with disabilities, particularly autistic students and nonverbal students, need our special protection and special care. They cannot speak for themselves,” said Malik Shabazz, the Griggs’s attorney. Last month, Shabazz filed notice with the D.C. government of Griggs’s intent to sue if the two sides can’t negotiate a settlement to the family’s civil battery claim.
The incident occurred Sept. 11 when a teacher saw Davis reach into a bag, put a liquid on her finger and place the finger into the mouth of David Griggs, police Detective Jiebo Zhang wrote in an affidavit, although he didn’t name the boy. The teacher asked Davis what she had put in the child’s mouth and why.
Hot sauce, Davis replied. “He deserved it.”
The teacher notified the principal, who alerted police and David’s mother.
At first, Griggs said she was shocked. Then she became angry. Two days earlier, she said, she had met with David’s teacher and principal to discuss scratches and bruises he had been coming home with over the previous week. A school staff member had suggested the injuries might have happened on his bus ride to and from school.
“I’m not saying my son is perfect, but he don’t deserve this,” Griggs, who works as a classroom paraprofessional at St. Coletta of Greater Washington, told The Post in the fall. “I’m furious because this is my nonverbal child.”
Nalle Principal Laena Lee informed families of an “allegation of corporal punishment” against a staff member, a notification required by district rules. Lee also said administrators had contacted D.C. police, referred the incident to the city’s Child and Family Services Agency, and notified a school system team that handles discrimination and other unfair-treatment complaints and provides resources to affected students.
The school also offered support to the affected family, Lee wrote.
On Tuesday, Griggs said it hasn’t been enough.
Six months later, her son is still afraid to go to Nalle. She plans to transfer him to a different school next year.
“My son still cries,” she said. “He don’t want to go there.”
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