DELAWARE-- An alleged assault on an 8-year-old girl with special needs in a Cape Henlopen District School bus raises concerns.
Ryan Pickett told WRDE News he is speaking out for his non-verbal daughter who has down syndrome and was allegedly punched by a Cape Henlopen bus aide on January 21.
"What we witnessed was her rearing back and punching two times," he said. "That's what we saw, and you know, I'm confident that when the tapes come out, I think they will come out at some point...(you will see) it was way worse than we thought it was."
Pickett said a human resource officer, who's employed by state police and works in conjunction with the Cape Henlopen District, alongside the bus transportation supervisor, were searching surveillance footage to begin with because they wanted to find out why multiple special needs students were reportedly crying when they arrived to school.
They later contacted the Picketts and showed them the video of the incident--footage taken from the back of the bus. Ryan Pickett told WRDE News there's another view from the front of the bus, but that video was not shown to him. WRDE News filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request Thursday morning with the school district to obtain the videos; pending a response.
Pickett was able to describe the video and explained that his daughter is notorious for taking her shoes and socks off and when the bus aide saw that, and bent down to pick them up, his daughter spit on her. That's when Pickett says the aide began to yell and violently attack his daughter.
Pickett said he and his wife were notified two weeks after the incident took place, which leads him to believe the school district attempted to hide it ever happened.
"And that's the concern because it took them so long to find out, because it took them so long to tell us, we couldn't take her to the doctor, we couldn't check and see if she had a concussion couldn't check...you know, there's just so many things, the poor little girl for two weeks, something traumatic happened to her and no one knew about it," he said.
According to Delaware State Police, a warrant was drafted for Clar Ellen Branca on March 18 and on March 21 she turned herself in.
Branca was charged with offensive touching and endangering the welfare of a child, both of which are misdemeanors, DSP said.
The Cape Henlopen Superintendent Bob Fulton issued a statement saying:
"We take the safety of all of our students very seriously and hold all of our employees to the highest of standards. The individual involved is no longer an employee of the District. Under Delaware law, even former employees have privacy rights, and thus we cannot provide further comment."
Pickett said his daughter has not been the same since the incident.
"She's become less compliant," he said. "She's become more vocal in terms of being loud. She's yelled at other students which obviously we don't condone. She even hit her peer professional, which is something...she's been with her peer professional since kindergarten and loves her. It's never happened before. At home we noticed that things that she used to love to do, she doesn't like to do anymore."
Officials said the case is currently pending at the Sussex County Family Court. Branca is scheduled to appear in court on July 1 at 9 am.