A lawsuit accusing the Centralia School District of improperly isolating and restraining an autistic kindergartener and failing to inform the student’s mother about it in 2021 and 2022 is still active in Lewis County Superior Court following a judge’s decision earlier this month to reverse a summary judgment in the case.
The student’s mother, Ashlee Fitch, and attorneys Lara Kruska and Whitney Hill, of Cedar Law PLLC, filed the 29-page complaint in Lewis County Superior Court on Aug. 4, 2023, accusing the Centralia School District of negligence, violation of state education laws, discrimination, false imprisonment and assault.
“When (Finch’s son, referred to in the complaint by the initials G.F.) was just a 5-year-old kindergarten student, he was subjected to excessive and traumatic restraint and isolation while attending Oakview Elementary School and then Washington Elementary School within the Centralia School District … during the 2021-22 school year,” the complaint alleges.
The complaint cites information from reports obtained via public records requests and reports the district sent to Fitch, who alleges the reports were sent to an outdated address, so she did not find out about them until after the fact.
“At the start of his kindergarten year, district staff members started physically restraining and isolating G.F. in a locked room with padded walls,” the complaint alleges, adding that “the restraint and isolation became so frequent and routine that by December 2021, G.F. was locked in that room almost daily.”
The complaint further alleges that “G.F. was clearly in a state of significant distress” while isolated, and “would cry in the isolation room and scream for help.”
Fitch’s son, now 8, has since transferred to a school outside of the Centralia School District for students with behavioral or social and emotional difficulties. As of August 2023, G.F. “has not had any behavior difficulties there” and “has not been restrained or isolated a single time” since starting at his new school, according to the complaint.
G.F. has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder related to the restraint and isolation he experienced, according to the complaint.
Lewis County Superior Court Judge J. Andrew Toynbee approved the Centralia School District’s motion for a summary judgment, a decision in cases where there’s no dispute over material fact and thus no need for a trial, on July 31, 2024. In that initial summary judgment, Toynbee found that the plaintiff could not legally seek damages in Lewis County Superior Court because the plaintiff signed a separate settlement agreement with the Centralia School District on Dec. 26, 2022.
In that agreement, provided to the court by Superintendent Lisa Grant in May 2024, the district agreed to fund up to $10,000 in tutoring services for G.F., to provide one-on-one summer school support in 2023 if G.F. was still in the district, and to cover all of Finch’s attorney fees related to her special education due process hearing.
The agreement required both parties to withdraw their special education due process hearing requests and required Finch to release “any and all claims … alleging the denial of rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,” according to legal documents.
Finch’s signature on the agreement is dated Dec. 21, 2022.
The plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration on Aug. 2, claiming that under Washington state law, “parents may not settle or release a child’s claim without prior court approval,” which didn’t occur before the December 2022 settlement. “It was a manifest legal error for this court to decide that the 2022 settlement resolved future state law claims for G.F.,” the motion stated.
Toynbee granted the motion for reconsideration during a hearing on Sept. 6, reversing his previous summary judgment.
“(The) plaintiffs’ claims are not barred under the 2022 settlement agreement,” Toynbee ruled.
The next hearing in the case, which is intended to address a previous motion for releasing protected records, is scheduled for Sept. 27.
