Mom, attorney want CPS to take action to prevent future student assaults by employees

The mother of a Columbia Public Schools middle school student with disabilities assaulted in her middle school classroom from 2015 to 2017 appealed to the new Columbia Board of Education and Superintendent Brian Yearwood to make changes to prevent others from being assaulted in the future.

"We think the new school board should look into this," Amy Lake said.

Lake and attorney Julianne Germinder talked with reporters Tuesday in a news conference in Germinder's office.

The case relates to Thomas Edwards, hired by CPS in 2003 as a paraprofessional. He was sentenced to two years probation in 2020 for inappropriately touching a student with disabilities at Oakland Middle School from 2015 to 2017.

The school district fired Edwards in 2017 and he voluntarily surrendered his teaching certificate in exchange for his guilty plea to misdemeanor assault.

The student, now an adult, never returned to school after the incident.

"My daughter still focuses on the lingering effects of this sexual assault," Lake said.

Edwards was convicted of assault, but not sexual assault.

Lake on behalf of the daughter has sued the school district, the man who assaulted her and Helen Porter, who was principal of Oakland Middle School at the time. Porter is now an assistant superintendent.

Lake and Germinder say attorneys for the school district are preventing documents related to the case from becoming public.

"School districts should have an environment that prevents abuse," Germinder said.

School districts should have the training, better procedures and better response for families, she said.

"Mrs. Lake was never contacted by the school district," Germinder said. "There should be support for the child and family."

The school district had previous reports that Edwards had abused another child and took no action, Germinder said.

Transparency is needed with the lawsuit documents, she said. The district's attorneys have opposed efforts to make documents public.

"We believe the community should have a right to know about these situations, Germinder said.

Without transparency, the public can't examine the school district's actions, she said.

The student information is protected, wrote Columbia Public Schools spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark in an email. Court orders also are in place to protect the information.

"After six years of litigation, within weeks of a jury trial, plaintiff’s counsel wants to alter this agreement and remove those protections and Columbia Public Schools objects," Baumstark wrote. "Columbia Public Schools will continue to comply with the court’s protective orders."

Told of Baumstark's response Germinder said she doesn't expect protective orders to be lifted, but school district attorneys are keeping everything closed.

"It is the general pleadings and the legal arguments we want made available," Germinder said.

The information in the court documents likely will be brought out in trial anyway, she said.

The trial is scheduled to begin on July 25.

Roger McKinney is the Tribune's education reporter. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Attorney, mom want Columbia Board of Education to protect students