North Fulton County

Abuse lawsuit against Fulton County Schools moves forward

NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A federal judge has ruled Fulton County Schools and nearly two dozen current and former employees will remain part of a lawsuit over alleged abuses of special needs students.
 
In a blistering, 125-page order issued March 31, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg declined to dismiss cases stemming from incidents at Hopewell Middle School in Milton from nearly a decade ago.
 
The ruling found plaintiffs Alex Williams and Garrett Lee have sufficiently argued the likelihood the school's former principal and others conspired to cover up the civil rights violations from law enforcement and others.
 
The lawsuit, and testimony from multiple witnesses, alleges former special education teacher Melanie Pickens subjected her students to repeated and horrific abuses over several years.

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Pickens was arrested and charged with child abuse, but Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk granted her immunity from prosecution in 2014 after her attorney argued she was merely disciplining students in her capacity as a teacher.
 
"It involved screaming at him within an inch of his ear at full decibel range," said Mark Lee, whose son Garrett was one of Pickens' students. "Isolating them, restrained in closets for hours on end unsupervised, withholding food from them."
 
Lisa Williams said witnesses testified to Pickens throwing her son, who has cerebral palsy, into lockers because he didn't walk quickly enough.
 
"He's gonna need a lot of intervention, for a long time," Williams told Channel 2's Mike Petchenik.  "We have to get beyond the anxiety and the fear of people and of life."
 
Attorney Chris Vance represents the families in their suit and said the school system needs to be held accountable.
 
"We know the principal was aware," said Vance.  "She stated she was aware and she has stated that her supervisors told her not to reprimand the teacher who was abusing the children."
 
Vance said the parents want to know exactly what happened to their children and why.
 
"How can one woman be allowed to abuse disabled children at three schools over five years and over 50 educators and administrators know it, and it not stop?" she said.
 
Vance, Lee and Williams said they also want to know why the school system continues to dig in its heels to fight the lawsuit.
 
"It needs to stand up and do the right thing. It needs to say 'we're sorry, this happened, what can we do to work together and so far that's not happened,'" she said. "The first phase was to allow it and sanction it. The second phase was to hide it and cover it up and the third phase was to hide it and cover it up and fight over it."
 
Mark Lee said he wants the school district to stop spending taxpayer dollars to fight the lawsuit and to implement more changes.
 
"All of us would like resolution to this.  We'd like to get help for our children and move on," he said. "Do the right thing.  Put an end to this and make sure it doesn't happen again."
 
A spokeswoman for Fulton County Schools told Petchenik the system could not comment on the ruling because of the pending litigation.