Mother of autistic 4-year-old sues CCSD, claims abuse by special ed teacher

A mother is suing the Clark County School District, claiming it failed to tell her about physical, verbal and emotional abuse her 4-year-old son with autism faced from his special education teacher.

Pamela Ross, represented by Phoong Law, filed a lawsuit in District Court on Thursday against the school district, former Thompson Elementary School special education teacher Melissa Olszewski and then-Thompson Elementary Principal Shawn Halland. Ross filed the complaint on behalf of her now 10-year-old functionally nonverbal son with autism, identified in court documents as C.T., who was a special education student at Thompson Elementary in the northwest valley.

A similar case against the district, Olszewski and Halland resulted in a $2 million settlement agreement approved by Clark County School Board trustees in August 2023. The case alleged that Olszewski acted aggressively toward students in an autism preschool classroom.

In February 2020, Olszewski was charged with six felony counts of child abuse or neglect and one disorderly conduct misdemeanor, according to Las Vegas Justice Court records. All six felony counts were dismissed after she completed impulse control counseling and 100 hours of community service, and Olszewski was sentenced for disorderly conduct.

Olszewski separated from the district in September 2020, according to a school district spokesperson. Halland currently serves as a school associate superintendent for school district Region 2. The school district did not comment on the lawsuit’s allegations.

Classroom aides claimed abuse

The abuse C.T. faced was part of a series of abusive behaviors Olszewski enacted on students in her pre-kindergarten self-contained autism classroom at Thompson Elementary, the lawsuit claimed.

Before C.T. was placed in Olszewski’s class for the 2019-2020 school year, parents of Thompson Elementary students claimed they witnessed Olszewski kick disabled students in the head and scream in a student’s face as he sat on the ground crying during the 2018-2019 school year, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint claimed Olszewski’s two classroom aides told school district police they saw Olszewski “hitting and ‘popping’ C.T. on his hands and head, spanking his butt, pulling his arms, hitting C.T. in the head with her hands and with objects like notebooks and frequently yelling in C.T.’s face” when he was her student during the 2019-2020 school year.

After the two aides reported this abuse to Halland and the school district, school officials were “deliberately indifferent” and failed to intervene or investigate the ongoing abuse or punish Olszewski, the lawsuit alleged.

“Olszewski reacted in frustration and anger to behaviors which manifested from Plaintiff’s disabilities by physically, emotionally and verbally abusing him,” the lawsuit claimed.

The lawsuit claimed district employees misled Ross during the police’s investigation by assuring her C.T. was not physically abused by Olszewski. It also claimed the school district hid from Ross that they recommended Olszewski be charged with battery and felony abuse and neglect for her treatment of C.T. and his classmates.

Alleged effects of abuse

Before Ross removed C.T. from Thompson Elementary and transferred him to another school, the lawsuit claimed the abuse he experienced “exacerbated and escalated behaviors which manifested from C.T.’s disabilities.”

These behaviors from C.T. included him becoming increasingly resistant toward going to school, having night terrors, throwing more violent tantrums and soiling himself despite being toilet trained, according to the lawsuit.

Olszewski would occasionally warn C.T.’s parents that their son would be coming home from school with a bruise or scratch, but would only offer vague explanations about how the injuries occurred, according to the lawsuit. As the school year progressed, the lawsuit alleged it became increasingly common for C.T. to return home with bruising on his arms.

The complaint, seeking a jury trial, alleged C.T. experiences extreme anxiety, stress and fear as a result of Olszewski’s actions and the school district and Halland’s failures to protect him.

Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.