Lawsuit claims Multnomah Education Service Dist. employee threw third grader with disabilities across room

MULTNOMAH COUNTY, Ore. (KPTV) - A mother is suing the Multnomah Education Service District after she says a staff member physically abused her son who has autism. Court documents state the incident was caught on camera.

A complaint filed by the Oregon Law Center on March 14 details the incident that happened on Sept. 2021 at Four Creeks School in southeast Portland involving a third grade student with disabilities.

Court documents state Four Creeks, which works specifically with students with behavioral challenges, informed the mother of the student, Tiria Jones, that her son had to be restrained during school.

Four Creeks has surveillance videos around its campus and Jones requested to see footage of the restraint, but the video she saw did not match what she was told by school officials, according to court documents.

Court documents state the video showed a staff member pushing Jones’ son toward a room used for restraint and seclusion. Once he was in the room, he stuck his foot out to prevent the door from closing. That’s when, according to court documents, the staff member picked him up and threw him across the room, causing him to hit his head on the floor.

Jones’ son had transferred to Four Creeks from another Multnomah Education Service District school, Knott Creek, where he also had to be restrained by staff multiple times, court documents state. When Jones askes to see footage each time her son was restrained, the school reportedly stopped sending her notices of such incidents.

FOX 12 reached out to officials with the Multnomah Education Service District. They said they do not comment on pending litigation, but calls the allegations in the complaint “deeply concerning.”

The family of the student is seeking $700,000 in damages from the district.

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