http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-new ... sas-school
Agency says it's still investigating Kansas schoolBy ROXANA HEGEMAN Associated Press
Posted: 04/11/2012 03:24:07 PM PDT
Updated: 04/11/2012 03:24:22 PM PDT
WICHITA, Kan.—The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services says it's still investigating abuse allegations made by a 14-year-old boy who attended a military boarding school, and the agency disputes the school's claims that a department investigation "found no validity" to the former cadet's accusations.
The boy suffered two broken legs during the four days in August that he attended St. John's Military School in Salina.
"The investigation is still in progress and SRS has reached no conclusion," spokeswoman Angela de Rocha told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday.
Jesse Mactagone, of Auburn, Calif., is among seven students whose families sued St. John's Military School last month. They claim the school allowed and encouraged older students, called "Disciplinarians," to discipline younger ones by beating and otherwise abusing them, including in the presence of faculty members. The plaintiffs come from California, Florida, Tennessee, Colorado, Texas and Illinois.
St. John's has settled nine other abuse lawsuits since 2006.
The comment from SRS comes in the wake of a court filing last week in response to the lawsuit in which the school claimed that SRS and Salina Police Department "investigated and found no validity" to allegations that Jesse's injuries were the result of cadets beating and kicking him. The school told the court all investigations into the matter concluded the boy was not hurt by fellow cadets.
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Saline County Attorney Ellen Mitchell told AP that the Salina Police Department asked her office to review Jesse's alleged beatings for possible criminal prosecution. No arrests were made, and no charges filed.
"There was insufficient evidence to show that a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt," Mitchell said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Daniel Zmijewski, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said he had no knowledge of the SRS investigation. He wouldn't comment on de Rocha's statement about the probe.
The lawyer noted that the standard needed for criminal prosecutions is higher than that required for civil cases.
"St. John's stands behind its response as stated and will be making no additional comment beyond what is stated in the filing, at this time," the school's spokeswoman, Laurie Roberts, said in an email.
The Episcopal boarding school, which charges families nearly $30,000 per year for students enrolled in grades 6-12, draws students from across the nation.
The 14-year-old's injuries are among some of the most egregious alleged in the lawsuit. An X-ray of one of the boy's broken legs, included in the court filing, shows his right femur bone as being displaced several inches below the knee.
The boy alleges in the lawsuit that on his first day at the school, he was pushed from behind while running, which caused him to fall down several times and break his left leg. He went to the nurse's office multiple times about the pain, but the school demanded he continue participating in physical training, which included running on the broken leg, according to the suit.
By the third day, he was in so much pain he could hardly stand and was given crutches—only to have them taken away later in the day, the suit alleges. The boy later fell in the cafeteria, where the staff and students made him attempt to stand on what was now his broken right leg, according to the suit.
He then was carried outside and thrown on the ground, where staff and students decided to "play with" him, the suit claims.
"They dragged him by his ankles, shaking them wildly, kicked him in the knees, demanded he stand up on his broken legs and threatened to punch him in his mouth if he did not stop screaming," according to the complaint.
The staff and students then stuffed him into a shopping cart and returned him to his dorm room, where he was dumped on the floor. Different staff and students visited him there to tell him he was weak and others were tougher than him, the suit contends.
The next morning Jesse was found on his urine-covered floor. When he couldn't stand, he was then put in a chair and rolled to the nurse's office, where an ambulance was called, according to the claims. Hospital X-rays showed he had two broken legs. The boy underwent emergency surgery to repair his legs.
He spent a week in the Salina hospital before being flown by medical staff to California, where he spent two more days in a hospital.
