Central Bucks is denying alleged abuse of special education students, including board member’s son

Central Bucks administrators and a school board member are clashing over allegations of mistreatment of students in a special education classroom, including the board member’s son.

District officials said they investigated the allegations and didn’t find that any abuse occurred. Police, who also investigated, said they had referred findings to the Bucks County district attorney, who declined to prosecute.

But according to statements read by community members during a school board meeting Thursday, there were eyewitnesses who corroborated a whistleblower’s complaint.

That complaint, filed with administrators in November, alleged that children at Jamison Elementary School were “improperly restrained, physically punished, left undressed for extended periods, and prevented from drinking water and communicating using speech devices,” according to the Bucks County Courier Times, which obtained a copy of the complaint.

In a message to the Central Bucks community Friday, Superintendent Steven Yanni said the district “has made multiple ChildLine reports and has consulted extensively with the Warwick Township Police Department” regarding the allegations. As mandated reporters, educators are required upon learning of abuse allegations to notify the state hotline for child protective services.

The police “completed an exhaustive investigation, and there are no findings of any abuse or crimes committed,” Yanni said. He said the district had interviewed “staff involved in or supporting the affected classroom; the school’s principal; and the supervisor of special education,” but said he could not discuss any details about “the accusation, or the investigation due to student and staff confidentiality.”

Yanni also noted in his message that district employees have been instructed for years that they are required to contact ChildLine about suspected abuse, and that “no CBSD employee should ever wait for permission or a directive from district administration” to report.

Community members who addressed the board, however, said that Yanni left out allegations in a report with ChildLine. They said that board member Jim Pepper, whose son was the subject of the alleged abuse, was not provided with details by the district, but after he obtained the whistleblower complaint, he called the police and asked them to reopen their investigation.

Leigh Vlasblom, a former school board member, told the board Thursday that “the following incidents were confirmed by multiple witnesses.” She said that Pepper’s son was left “nude on the bathroom floor, with a trashcan placed in front of the door,” and “was walked across hot woodchips and asphalt to punish him for taking off his shoes.” She also said that “students, including Pepper’s son, were restrained for long periods of time in the classroom.”

A Warwick Township police lieutenant, Aaron Richwine, said Friday that he could not comment on the incident. “The incident was twice screened with the District Attorney’s Office,” which declined to prosecute, Richwine said. The police department denied a Right-to-Know request from The Inquirer for a police report, saying the matter was a “criminal investigation.”

Manuel Gamiz, a spokesperson for the Bucks County district attorney, said Friday that “after a thorough screening, which is a review of the evidence presented by police, our office found that the allegations did not meet the elements necessary to establish criminal conduct.”

Pepper, who declined to comment for this article, said during Thursday’s meeting that “I am beyond angry about what happened to my son,” who is nonverbal. He accused District Attorney Jennifer Schorn of “declaring open season on all nonverbal children in Bucks County.”

Pepper said he was told by district officials that there was a “personality conflict” between staff in his son’s classroom, and “nothing more than instructional concerns — the euphemism of euphemisms.”

“That, as we all heard, was a lie. A calculated, stupid lie, but a lie nevertheless,” said Pepper, who also read a statement from his wife, who said she was “beyond betrayed.”

Accusing Yanni of lying to him, Pepper said the superintendent, as well as Human Resources Director Robert Freiling and Assistant Superintendent Nadine Garvin “need to go. ...You can never again be trusted again with anything, let alone protecting our children.”

Pepper, who is an attorney, is the lone Republican on the Central Bucks board. Among the community members who addressed the board Thursday were numerous members of the board’s former Republican majority, before Democrats took control of the board in November 2023.

The board’s current president, Susan Gibson, said Friday the district planned to hire a third party to conduct an independent review of how the matter was handled.

“We as a board will continue to honor our obligations to oversee the district to ensure the safety of all children,” she said.

The board’s vice president, Heather Reynolds, said at the end of Thursday’s meeting that while the board couldn’t comment on personnel matters, “we take this very seriously.”

Another board member, Rick Haring, said that he had “a pit in my stomach ... We need to be better than this.”