After some intense and emotional school board meetings in recent months, several parents of non-speaking autistic students allegedly abused by a bus paraprofessional said in a board meeting Wednesday night that they “finally feel heard” by Littleton Public Schools.
They say the district recently engaged them in its efforts to improve special transportation and surveillance-video reviewing procedures amid the allegations that several students were abused on district bus L76.
Brittany Yarbrough, who said her son Hunter Yarbrough was a victim of abuse, told the Littleton Independent that the district’s latest efforts are a “first step.”
“We’re finally discussing it,” Yarbrough said. “For the first time we all feel like we’re being heard. We all know there’s things that need to go on behind the scene, but there’s been no communication or transparency from the start and so this was productive and we can’t forget everything that’s led up to this … but we’re cautiously hopeful.”
Many of the other commenters were also parents of students who rode bus L76, where Kiarra Jones, a paraprofessional formerly employed by the school district, allegedly harmed autistic students for months and is now facing 11 child assault and abuse charges.
In their meeting, school board members discussed a plan that involves the launch of a Special Transportation Task Force where people including parents, members of the Special Services Advisory Committee (SSAC), staff members, additional parents beyond the SSAC, transportation staff, disability experts, district leaders and students have been invited to discuss and improve special transportation policies, practices and training. The district has invited parents including Yarbrough to be a part of the 20-person task force.
While parents feel some hope about the district’s recent engagement, many expressed residual frustration with the board over what they feel were poor efforts to address and handle the situation sooner.
Many referenced the board’s last meeting on May 9, which resulted in attempts to limit public comment after a dispute between the board and parents.
“I have been here every two weeks since I found out that my child had been assaulted on the bus,” said Jessica Vestal, mother of Dax Vestal, a former L76 rider and named victim in the criminal case against Jones. “I will continue to come here and take up my three minutes every single time until we see the right changes. I appreciate the invitation to your special task force. I will absolutely participate but I encourage you to continue to listen.”
Yarbrough is also frustrated with how long it’s taken to get to this point and the limited time the district now has to make changes for the next school year.
“I hope they’re not just trying to placate us because we screamed too loud,” Yarbrough said. “It’s also hard because from the beginning, I think the first board meeting that I spoke at, I said: ‘Just because we’re victims of your failure doesn’t mean it’s our job to solve it,’ and the task force seems like another job for us to have to do but it’s one that we’re willing do because they do need to hear from us.”
She said she’s glad to be involved but hopes the school district will engage experts in all areas of the issue.
At the meeting, the board discussed the need to pause any policy decisions so there’s time for the task force and other resources to look into the best avenues for improving transportation safety, training and video reviewing procedures.
Melissa Cooper, assistant superintendent of learning services, and other staff members led a presentation laying out the plan and timeline for the task force and policy changes.
There are about 350 students in the district who need and utilize special transportation, according to the staff, which equates to approximately 25 routes, plus contracted ride services.
In the meeting, the staff defined special transportation as something “provided for students who require specialized equipment, a route to a specialized program, supervision” and more.
The staff said the purpose of the task force is “to study, review and recommend improvements to transportation policies and practices and to serve as a conduit for input on behalf of families of students who need special transportation.”
Cooper said while they’re still finalizing structural elements, the task force will have its first two meetings June 3 and June 10. She said the meetings will be open and held monthly. Additionally, she said the district plans to make policy recommendations to the board in August so the policies can be implemented in the fall. They will re-evaluate the need for ongoing meetings in April 2025.
Along with the task force, the district plans to continue addressing policies by gathering input from other stakeholders, looking at surveillance-video storage capacity and retention, determining audit schedules, utilizing pilot technology enhancements during the summer and reviewing other relevant policies for necessary updates.
Additionally, staff will look at ways to improve and expand paraprofessional and staff training as well as modify paraprofessional compensation.
Following the presentation, many board members asked questions pertaining to policy, technology, the task force and more.
School board member Lindley McCrary, who will act as the board liaison on the task force, said she’s thankful there is a pause on policy changes as the discussions from the task force will help set policy “the right way.”
“I think that we have a really great opportunity here to have some really meaningful conversations that will help move things forward,” McCrary said. “I know that the perspectives of parents who have to navigate situations that are different than what other parents have to navigate, and I say this from experience, that perspective is really important.”
McCrary went on to say that with the help of parents and others she hopes that everyone “can be experts in all of it.”
“(I hope) that we can bring the right voices to the table to talk about all the different parts and pieces and have a collective understanding of what the challenges are, because there are a lot of challenges when it comes to looking at all of this,” she said.
At the meeting, board members and parents both spoke about the necessity to address legislators at the state level to make an impact on this issue, which they say isn’t exclusive to LPS. McCrary said she would help parents connect with legislators, and parents plan to address the Colorado Department of Education in its meeting next month.
In the neighboring Douglas County School District, the board changed its policies on April 23 in response to what happened in Littleton Public Schools. The Douglas district said it will implement random checks of video feeds from transportation for special education students. Littleton recently proposed similar changes and will continue to discuss this idea and others in the task force.