A Brownsburg elementary school teacher received a sentence of 90 days probation after pleading guilty to a charge of failure to report. Julie Taylor, of North Salem, Indiana, was accused of not reporting an incident in which a boy with special needs was made to eat his vomit by another teacher. Taylor, a former Life Skills instructor at Brownsburg Community Schools, avoided jail time through her plea deal.
According to WISH-TV, Taylor was one of five educators who were criminally charged following the February 2023 incident. Security footage at Brown Elementary School captured the event, where Life Skills teacher Sara Seymour reportedly told a 7-year-old student that he would be made to eat his vomit after being advised to do so. Instructional aide Debra Kanipe is said to have provided the spoon for the act, while Taylor supplied a tray for the child to vomit onto. Both life skills instructional aide Kristen Mitchell and Kids Count Therapy registered behavioral technician Meghan King witnessed the episode but also did not report it.
Taylor's plea agreement, detailed in FOX59, involved her sentence being suspended to probation. Upon completion of the probation period, Taylor can request to have her case expunged. Meghan King, who was also implicated in the incident, pled guilty to failure to report and received a probation sentence earlier in September 2024.
Additional context to the incident was provided by WTHR, which reported that Kanipe had worked in special needs/life skills for 27 years. During the incident, Seymour, a Life Skills teacher, was allegedly trying to prove a point with the student when she told him he would be made to eat his vomit. Seymour also reportedly "advised if a child spits out food and it still looks like formed food, she would encourage them to still eat it, but not vomit." When asked why she appeared to be smiling during the episode, Seymour described it as her "behavioral response when nervous."
As of now, the trial dates for the remaining three staffers, Seymour, Kanipe, and Mitchell, have faced delays, leaving the issue unresolved well into the next calendar year. Bench trials for Seymour and Kanipe are scheduled for 8 a.m. on February 26, 2025, and Mitchell's for 9:30 a.m. on December 2, with Judge Rhett M. Stuard presiding over the cases.
