A Philadelphia-based law firm has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Central Bucks School District, alleging a 10-year-old nonverbal autistic boy was restrained, stripped of his communication device, and denied access to water and the bathroom while attending an autistic support classroom at Jamison Elementary School in 2024. The child was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following the alleged treatment, and his family says he had no way to tell them what was happening to him each day.
The lawsuit, filed by attorneys including M. Stewart Ryan, alleges the child was restrained an estimated 2,933 times between September 3 and December 20, 2024, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. Ryan said the case involves “an extraordinary betrayal of a child who depended entirely on adults for safety, education, and care,” and argued that district officials were repeatedly given opportunities to protect the child and failed to do so. According to the attorneys, school employees also removed the boy's speech device — described elsewhere as his primary means of communication — and humiliated him over behaviors connected to his disability.
The complaint accuses the district of delaying reports of the allegations to ChildLine, Pennsylvania's child abuse hotline, and of providing incomplete or misleading information to authorities. Lawyers further allege that district officials were aware of reports of misconduct yet allowed the employees accused of mistreating the child to remain in the classroom. The family says the boy was treated abusively by people trusted to care for and protect him, and that he could not tell them he was being traumatized daily. The lawsuit also accuses the district of falsely telling the child's parents that an internal investigation had found no evidence of abuse — an account that echoes a broader pattern documented well before this case was filed.
A Pattern Documented Since Last Year
That pattern first surfaced publicly in spring 2025, when Disability Rights Pennsylvania released a report finding that students in the Jamison autistic-support classroom experienced abuse, neglect, illegal restraints, aversive techniques and disability discrimination. The organization said the allegations were credible and corroborated by several staff members who worked in the classroom, and it recommended staff and administrator discipline, additional training, new policy development and further safeguards. Disability Rights Pennsylvania also said the district's own internal fact-finding investigation had revealed significant corroboration of the abuse — even as the Central Bucks School District maintained, per CBS Philadelphia, that its investigation found no evidence of abuse.
A personal care assistant who worked in the classroom told WHYY that the teacher and educational assistant restrained students, restricted water, physically punished students and left one student naked for an extended period. A separate account reported by phillyburbs.com described staff pinning a student, naked, into his desk with their body weight after his speech device had been confiscated. Disability Rights Pennsylvania has said district administrators filed ChildLine reports days and then weeks after receiving information about suspected abuse, and that a culture of distrust and fear of retaliation likely contributed to the failures in reporting.
Firings and a District-Wide Audit
The fallout has reshaped district leadership. The Central Bucks School Board voted 5-1-1 in October to terminate Superintendent Steven Yanni and 6-1 to terminate Jamison Elementary Principal David Heineman, according to PennLive. Three teachers and Alyssa Wright, the district's director of special education and pupil services, had already been fired earlier in 2025 as a result of the accusations, the outlet reported.
Criminal authorities took a different path. Warwick Township Police presented their investigation to the Bucks County District Attorney's Office, which said it did not find anything criminal in nature, per CBS Philadelphia. By January, staff reported no new abuse or neglect allegations to Disability Rights Pennsylvania during a follow-up visit, and several staff members described a change in classroom culture toward greater understanding and support for students, phillyburbs.com reported. The district is now undergoing an audit of its entire student-services program by researchers from the University of Minnesota's Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, according to the same report.
A Statewide Restraint Problem
The Jamison case has also fed a broader reckoning over how Pennsylvania schools use physical restraints on students with disabilities. NBC10 Philadelphia investigators reported in October that Central Bucks reported more than 6,400 restraints during the 2024-25 school year, representing nearly a quarter of restraints reported statewide in 2024. The station found that reported restraint use across Southeastern Pennsylvania has nearly tripled over four years, and that the Pennsylvania Department of Education found the district restrained two children — including the son of a school board member — by using desks to wedge them into their chairs against a wall.
Under state guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, local education agencies are required to report restraint use within 30 days through the state's Restraint Information System of Collection. NBC10 Philadelphia said it contacted the Central Bucks School District for comment on the new federal lawsuit but had not received a response as of publication.
