Hearing on aide's fate postponed

      School district officials likely will wait at least another two weeks before deciding whether to fire a teacher's aide who publicly accused a teacher of harshly disciplining students without parental consent.
      Ruth Mowrer, 37, said the evidentiary hearing Thursday before Assistant Superintendent Charlene Green lasted less than 10 minutes and included no testimony from either herself or the principal moving to dismiss her. Instead, an attorney for the Clark County School District asked to schedule another hearing in about two weeks, and Mowrer and her union representative agreed.
      Green can rule on Mowrer's fate during the next week or wait until after the second hearing, Mowrer said.
      Green, who oversees special student services, declined comment because the case is a personnel matter.
      Mowrer, a teacher's aide for two years at the Variety School for special education, has accused teacher Mila Kitt of ordering her and another aide to force autistic children to eat their vomit and to place pupils in restrictive holds for failing to recite the days of the week.
      Variety Principal Beverly Minnear has moved to fire Mowrer on grounds the aide placed anonymous calls in August to parents warning of possible physical abuse in the class.
      Mowrer admitted to school district police that she made the calls and then wrote a five-page police report detailing allegations of abuse against Kitt.
      The teacher's aide also conceded she wrote the police report while angry about being transferred from Variety to Robison Middle School because of limitations caused by a shoulder injury.
      School police spokesman Ken Young said Thursday that a three-week investigation found no evidence of Mowrer's accusations. Kitt, through her husband, declined comment Thursday.
      Minnear said the charges against Kitt were unfounded and called Mowrer's comments the act of a disgruntled employee.
      Minnear said physical discipline such as special holds or forcing children to walk on treadmills, known as aversive behavior therapy, is used rarely at the school and only with written consent of the parents.
      Mothers of two students Mowrer said were being abused supported Kitt on Wednesday and praised the teacher's work with their severely disabled children.
      Neither mother had seen evidence of abuse. And they said that sometimes physical restraints may be necessary because their sons can be difficult and dangerous.
      On Thursday, the mother of a child removed from Kitt's class came forward to support Mowrer's allegations. Stephanie Richter said she forced the district to move her 9-year-old son in 1996 because she thought that he had been subjected to excessive physical punishment at school. She said she agreed to allow Kitt to spray water in her son's face or place him in a hold if necessary: "(Kitt) explained the restraints in such a mild way, but it wasn't being used like that."
      Richter said she began to suspect harsher treatment than expected because the boy often came home upset or crying.
      "As far as I'm concerned, Mila Kitt did harm to my son," Richter said of the year the boy was in Kitt's class. "He was a calmer little guy. He wasn't so high-strung, always screaming and yelling. That's Mila Kitt, always screaming and yelling."
      The child's grandfather, Ed Richter, said one time he saw Kitt grab the boy by the collar and slap his hands as she forced him back into a single-file line.
      School district spokesman Ray Willis issued a statement Thursday that said the district makes all of its decisions based on the best interest of its students.
      Willis also chastised Mowrer's decision to go to the media.
      "It is unfortunate that an employee decided to take her case to the public rather than to resolve it in the prescribed manner internally," he said.