By Susan Snyder
Inquirer Staff Writer
A clinical therapist and an associate counselor have sued the Philadelphia School District and their private employers, saying they were unfairly fired after reporting abuse of special-education students at a Philadelphia elementary school.
Perlyn Severe-Clarke and Tracy Brice, former employees of Community Council for Mental Health and Mental Retardation, say they saw a teacher at Martha Washington School force students to stand with their hands in the air for up to two hours. The teacher also withheld lunch from the students, the suit alleges.
The suit also says the teacher orally abused the dozen students in her special-education classroom, calling one student "black, crispy and ashy" and another, who is mentally and physically slow, a turtle. The children ranged in age from 9 to 13.
It says the teacher also forced students to engage in classroom fistfights, one of which Brice photographed on her cell phone. The teacher can be seen in the video encouraging students to fight, the suit says.
Severe-Clarke and Brice say in the lawsuit that they were fired by Community Council - with which the district contracts - for reporting the abuse. The firing came after Brice photographed the fistfights, according to the suit. The abuse, the suit says, occurred during the fall semester, and the employees were fired in December.
The suit was filed against the School District and Community Council. The teacher in question was an employee of Community Council.
Both the district and Community Council declined to comment on the allegations yesterday, saying it was a pending legal matter.
"The outcome will be determined by the courts," said Earle Bradford, chief executive officer of Community Council.
According to the lawsuit, the company said it fired Severe-Clarke for tardiness and "substandard work" and Brice for tardiness. But both Brice and Severe-Clarke were told that Martha Washington principal Carolyn Jackson sent a letter to the agency saying neither employee was wanted in the school any longer, it says. The letter came after the photographing of the fight.
Community Council supervisors told the employees they did not want their contract with the district jeopardized, the suit says. "We have a major funding source that does not want you in the school," Community Council human resources representative Aulcie Perry allegedly told Severe-Clarke.
The lawsuit also says Brice tried to stop students from fighting after the teacher initiated the brawl, but was ordered by the teacher to stop.
Brice and Severe-Clarke say in the suit that they also saw the teacher pick up a student by the neck on one occasion, shove him against a wall, and tell him: "Shut up. I've had enough of you."
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