© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
(April 29) – The parents of three schoolchildren have filed suit against the City of Abilene and its school district for allowing an Abilene Police Department peace officer to use excessive force against the students – including one in kindergarten at the time of the attacks.
The violent methods of force that former Officer Barry Bond is accused of using include the arm bar “pain compliance” technique against a six-year-old; multiple chokeholds against a 12-year-old that made him black out; and the slamming of a 15-year-old on top of a trashcan, to the ground, and “face-first” into a hallway’s concrete wall, which left a scar on his face, the 55-page lawsuit alleges. The two older students also allege Officer Bond handcuffed and detained them without probable cause.
The parents allege that the city (by way of the police department) and school district committed “deliberate indifference” to Bond’s use of excessive force and that they are “liable for conspiring to violate the Fourth Amendment rights” of the children.
All three victims of the assaults, which occurred in the previous two school years, are diagnosed with ADHD, and as a result of the attacks, suffered “substantial emotional injury” that included either talking about or engaging in self-harm, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs allege that the City of Abilene and the Abilene Independent School District are responsible for Bond’s actions because they adopted and enforced policies that allow school peace officers to intervene and use force and restraint in minor school discipline incidents that do not involve criminal matters and where there is no threat of imminent physical harm or serious property destruction.
These policies contradict a recent Department of Justice ruling that says peace officers should not enforce school code or conduct because disciplinary authority belongs to school administrators, the complaint says.
The City of Abilene and Abilene Independent School District did not return requests for comment.
A group of lawyers primarily from Akin Gump’s San Antonio office and the University of Texas School of Law Civil Rights Clinic are representing the children on a pro bono basis.
Neel Lane, who is leading Akin Gump’s team, said the lawyers got involved after a long-time pro bono partner, advocacy group Texas Appleseed, asked Akin Gump and UT for help.
“When Texas Appleseed asked us to become involved, we noticed that incidents like these were occurring frequently,” said Lane, who regularly practices insurance litigation. “In just the past few days, one incident involving use of force against a San Antonio schoolgirl received widespread attention. We felt we could contribute to improving conditions for schoolchildren across the state of Texas.”
All of the Abilene incidents occurred at the Jefferson Center, a reassignment and alternative school in AISD where APD had stationed Bond to serve.
The parents of the students, only identified in the lawsuit by their initials, claim that none of their children posed any danger to themselves or others or committed any crimes to justify Officer Bond’s violent attacks.
In eight-year-old E.G.’s case, who was six at the time of the incident, Officer Bond used force against him after E.G. grabbed the door of the school entrance to try to prevent his mother from bringing him inside his classroom. E.G., “like many six-year-olds… did not like separating from his mother in the mornings when it was time to attend school,” the lawsuit says.
Officer Bond held 13-year-old N.M. into a chokehold after N.M., at the time in the sixth grade, passed Bond in the hallway, who “did not acknowledge N.M., talk to him, or otherwise give him any instructions.” N.M. was returning to his classroom after visiting the assistant principal because his substitute teacher had made a comment that upset him, according to the complaint.
A concerned parent who witnessed part of the assault tried to videotape the incident, but “a school staff member tried to stop her from doing so,” the lawsuit said.
Sixteen-year-old M.D. had a similar experience with Officer Bond, who “rushed at M.D. without warning” after he pushed open the door to the breezeway that Bond was standing in. M.D. had been attempting to leave the Jefferson Center after his teacher yelled at him, “upsetting and embarrassing M.D,” the lawsuit says.
M.D. asked what he had done wrong after Officer Bond brought him to the ground and handcuffed him.
“Officer Bond responded that M.D. was destroying school property by forcefully opening the door into the breezeway,” the lawsuit says.
Bond retired from the APD earlier this year.
In addition to Lane, the Akin Gump team includes counsel Katharine Southard Fraser and Clayton Matheson and associate Andrew Casillas from Akin Gump’s San Antonio office and Molly Whitman, an associate in the firm’s Dallas office.
Ranjana Nataran, the director of UT’s Civil Rights Clinic, leads UT Law’s legal team.
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