CCSD speech pathologist accused of sitting on, taunting autistic child

A speech pathologist is accused of taunting and sitting on top of a 7-year-old autistic child at a North Las Vegas school, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.

Rachel Chapman filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of her child, listed as B.H., against the Clark County School District and Adrian Krosnick, her son’s former speech language pathologist. It makes 11 claims, including assault, battery, abuse of a vulnerable person and violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The school district said that it does not comment on pending litigation. Efforts to reach Krosnick on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

The lawsuit lays out allegations of abuse by Krosnick as witnessed by B.H.’s teacher on Jan. 31, 2023.

At the time, B.H. was a 7-year-old Elizondo Elementary School student with autism and a convulsive disorder, according to the complaint. CCSD assigned Krosnick to hold weekly speech therapy sessions in his classroom.

B.H.’s teacher, listed in the lawsuit as “HN,” described the student as able to follow rules independently with verbal cues, and said he “does not require relaxation techniques as he remains calm throughout the speech sessions,” the complaint said.

B.H. rolled on the ground in the classroom, and then Krosnick bent over the student and asked him if he was a “little baby” and whether he would make Krosnick make B.H. cry, according to the lawsuit.

B.H. then began to slide farther away from Krosnick, and his classroom teacher asked him to come closer to her, the lawsuit said.

The teacher said that B.H. was not doing as she asked, but also that B.H. was “not combative in any way,” the complaint said.

Krosnick then stood over B.H. and asked him why he was not listening to his teacher, the complaint said. He then “yank[ed]” the student from under the table, according to the lawsuit.

He sat on top of B.H. and crossed the students’ arms, placing his legs on top of B.H.’s legs in order to “forcefully and painfully punish B.H. and pin him to the floor,” the lawsuit said.

Krosnick also repeatedly told B.H. that “he needed to calm down and that he would not let go until he calmed down,” the complaint said. He stayed on top of the student for one to two minutes, the complaint said.

Afterward, the classroom teacher reported that she felt “uncomfortable” with Krosnick working with her students because of his use of force and “improper and overzealous application of an unlawful aversive intervention against B.H.,” the lawsuit said.

The child began to be scared of going to school and had more seizures in the aftermath of the incident, the complaint said.

CCSD issued a report of the use of physical restraint and informed the student’s mother on Feb. 3, 2023, which took three days as opposed to the typical 24 hours that the law requires for such a report, according to the lawsuit.

Krosnick was not punished and continues to be employed by the school district, according to the complaint.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X.