Case against teacher decried

A lawyer representing a teacher accused of abusing five autistic students said Friday that the Clark County District Attorney's office is overreaching in its charges against his client.

Mamie Hubbard-Washington, 64, a special education teacher at Reed Elementary School, faces five counts of felony child abuse and neglect in connection with allegations she abused the five autistic students between April 1, 2006, and March 31, 2007.

The students were ages 6 to 8.

The suspect's lawyer, Vince Consul, said the criminal complaint is vague regarding the times and places the alleged abuse occurred.

"This is clear overcharging by the District Attorney's office," Consul said. "There's vagueness of whether this happened at recess, on the bus ... or places outside of control of this teacher."

Hubbard-Washington denies all the allegations, he said.

According to the criminal complaint, Hubbard-Washington hit, pinched, scratched, grabbed and used other means of physical force and verbal abuse against the five autistic students. The students have problems communicating verbally.

Hubbard-Washington began working at Reed in January 2006. Five teachers' aides witnessed student abuse, according to a Clark County School District Police Department arrest report. The witnesses told police on several occasions that Hubbard-Washington used a wooden stick to hit the children.

Police located a 36-inch-long stick "with no educational value" in her classroom and booked it as evidence, the arrest report said.

Consul denies his client hit students with the stick. He said the stick is a yard stick.

"We're not talking about an unmarked piece of wood," Consul said. "It was standard school equipment."

The teachers' aides reported the abuse to school administrators on several occasions, according to the arrest report.

Three parents expressed concern Friday that administrators at Reed didn't promptly inform law enforcement officials of the abuse against their children.

"It's a crime what this teacher did," said a father of one of the children Hubbard-Washington is accused of abusing. The father asked not to be named. "But it's as much of a crime that people were telling the school administration what was going on and they hid it, and refused to do what was necessary to protect our children."

"There are eyewitness accounts of abuse that go back a year," said Marleen Ritchie, mother of Scotty Ritchie, who was 7 when the abuse is alleged to have occurred. "The aides or eyewitness accounts were being ignored, or sat on or not communicated to police."

The Ritchies reported that their son came home holding his hand against his stomach in pain. They found three bruises across his hand, according to the report.

Attempts to reach Reed Principal Karen Bennett and Assistant Principal Randy Cheung were unsuccessful Friday.

The arrest report said Cheung conducted an administrative investigation on two occasions, but the report didn't specify when.

Lt. Ken Young, a spokesman with district police, said his agency is trying to determine when "credible" allegations against Hubbard-Washington were first made and who knew about them.

Young said the district began the investigation on May 2 and turned over their findings to the District Attorney's office in the second or third week of June.

Hubbard-Washington was placed on paid administrative leave by the school system on May 4.

Young said Friday he knew of no evidence that administrators at Reed were slow to relay the allegations to his agency, but that matter is still under investigation.

"We're still researching when things first started happening," Young said. "There are a lot of reports that things may have happened earlier than May, but we're still looking at those reports."

According to state law, school officials or employees must report within 24 hours to law enforcement or child protective services if they suspect a student was physically abused. If an official or employee of the school fails to report an allegation in a timely manner, they could be charged with of a misdemeanor. Misdemeanors are punishable in Nevada by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.