In front of a Superior Court judge on Monday, representatives of the Hartford Board of Education, a special education teacher from Hartford, and the City of Hartford contended that a former student’s allegations of harassment and bullying by school district employees, including her special education case manager, should be rejected.
Despite never having learned to read or write, Aleysha Ortiz, the student, graduated from Hartford Public Schools last year. She talked about her experience in the school district, which she joined at the age of six, in an interview with The Connecticut Mirror last summer.
[This graduate of Hartford Public High School is illiterate. This is how it took place.]
Ortiz filed her complaint shortly after her narrative was made public. However, the case doesn’t ask for compensation for her level of schooling. Instead, it centers on the alleged emotional abuse Ortiz endured while working for the Hartford school district, especially at the hands of case manager Tilda Santiago.
In front of other students and teachers, Santiago allegedly harassed, stalked, and denigrated Ortiz, according to the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, Ortiz denounced Santiago’s behavior to the principal and assistant principal, and as a result, Ortiz went to other teachers in tears and emotional anguish.
Whether the allegations in Ortiz’s complaint were serious enough to demonstrate negligent infliction of emotional distress and whether school employees’ actions were ministerial—that is, whether the parties were legally obligated to follow certain procedures but did not—were the main topics of Monday’s courtroom arguments before Superior Court Judge Matthew Gordon. The city, school board, and Santiago’s attorneys said that their choices were discretionary rather than ministerial, meaning they were acting on their own discretion rather than being legally obligated to take a particular course of action.
Anthony Spinella, Ortiz’s lawyer, contended that district staff were legally obligated to follow specific protocols, such as notifying a school administrator about bullying, but they did not.
If a school staff receives a report of bullying, they are required to immediately alert the administrator. No assessment, no judgment. They must submit a report in writing. According to Spinella, the policy must mandate that this safe school climate specialist look into or oversee the investigation of any bullying complaints. Since we claim ministerialities were violated, we don’t think immunity applies.
On Monday, Gordon did not rule on the motion. Spinella said he would file an appeal if Gordon’s ruling favored lawyers for Santiago, the school system, and Hartford.
Ortiz is requesting damages of $3 million. Spinella made a settlement offer to the city and school system last month for that sum.
