Lawsuit: 2nd teaching aide accused of abusing student in Beaufort Co. schools
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The parents of a student with a pending lawsuit alleging abuse of their child at school in 2024 are now accusing a different teacher’s aide of similar abuse, according to documents recently filed in civil court. The student described in the victim as a “young non-verbal, autistic child.”
Despite another teacher claiming she witnessed the alleged assault, the aide in question since denied hitting the child during an interview with law enforcement.
The family requested that the teacher who they claim most recently assaulted the child would be added to the original lawsuit. They also seek to add the third-party staffing agency that hired the aide.
In early April, attorneys filed additional documents to try and add two new defendants to the lawsuit: Christopher Lecount, a Bluffton High School teaching aide who allegedly abused the same student two years after the initial incident, and the agency, Soliant. According to the district’s spokesperson, Candace Bruder, the district employs 14 individuals through Soliant.
The documents allege that Lecount struck the student, violated the student’s constitutional rights and caused additional harm to an already vulnerable child.
When asked about Lecount’s employment status, Bruder said he is no longer working in BCSD schools.
Efforts to reach Lecount through Facebook were unsuccessful.
Last year, the Beaufort County School District and two school administrators were named in a federal lawsuit for allegedly employing a teacher with a history of abusing disabled students. The school district also is accused of covering up the abuse after the teacher, Shandequa Jenkins, physically punished the student in 2023.
What does the police report say?
According to police reports, Lecount, a 46-year-old from Pooler, Georgia, was arrested and charged with third-degree assault and battery on March 10 after surrendering after the issuance of an arrest warrant.
He was a teaching aide that specifically worked with students with disabilities at Bluffton High School. The arrest and charge came after Bluffton High School’s principal, Matt Hall, contacted the Bluffton Police Department in reference to one of their teachers allegedly hitting a student in class on March 3.
The deputy who interviewed Lecount wrote a synopsis of the interview, which is attached in the police report. According to the synopsis, Lecount did not admit to hitting the child.
Lecount told police that the number of recorded outbursts on the day of the incident were actually much lower than usual.
However, he detailed several behavioral issues from the child in question, such as scratching Lecount’s scalp, running away and yelling. Lecount said he would redirect the child’s hands when there were any outbursts. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary occurred, Lecount said.
When questioned further about how the child could have been injured, the synopsis details, Lecount did not admit to any physical contact between his hand and the student’s face. He said that the injury could have come from Velcro letters that the child was using earlier in the day.
Images of Lecount’s alleged scalp injuries from the student were submitted into evidence. Lecount alleged that the student often shows physical aggression during school activities.
Another teaching aide witnessed the incident, according to the police report.
A synopsis of the interview between the witness and a deputy revealed that they observed the student trying to rub Lecount’s head, and shortly after, she heard a loud smack. She believed that Lecount hit the student on the left side of their face. When the witness asked Lecount why he hit the student, he apologized, according to the synopsis. Additional documents state that in a second interview and written statement, the witness reiterated the same details of the event.
Details of federal complaint
Last April, Bluffton’s H.E. McCracken Middle School Principal Ryan Milling and Vice Principal Joseph Hollington were named in a federal complaint, which alleged the school leaders did not tell the school district about the incident of abuse until they were confronted by law enforcement.
The lawsuit also named Jenkins, the aide who allegedly assaulted the student. It describes how Jenkins reportedly grabbed and hit the autistic child with a wooden ruler during school in 2023 when the student was less than 14 years old. Their parents reported the child was extremely bruised and has developmentally regressed since. In the lawsuit, they said the child flinches when touched by an adult, expecting to be hit.
Jenkins resigned Feb. 6, 2024, four days after the Bluffton Police Department arrested her for third-degree misdemeanor assault and battery, according to previous reporting.
Milling and Hollington are still employees of the school district, Bruder confirmed. The district’s directory says Milling serves as the Coordinator for the dual enrollment program with Technical College of the Lowcountry. Holling is still listed as McCracken Middle School’s vice principal.
On April 3, attorneys representing the family filed to request that the original and new claims be considered by the court as one lawsuit.
Rob Metro, the attorney representing the student, believes that all of the claims should be tried and resolved in one singular lawsuit. Trying them separately would be wasteful and unnecessary, he said.
On April 16 and 17, lawyers representing the school district, the two school administrators and the teacher originally named in the lawsuit, filed a motion asking the judge to deny the request. They believe that the incidents should not be addressed in separate lawsuits since, they claim in court documents, the facts of the incident are unrelated to each other and that they occurred at different schools.
