Tacoma mom raised alarm over teacher’s behavior. District OK’s $2.6M payout
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- A mother sued Tacoma Public Schools (TPS) on behalf of her son who has autism.
- The lawsuit alleged the boy was abused by his special education teacher.
- TPS agreed to settle the claims for $2.6M. The teacher, now fired, denied wrongdoing.
Tacoma Public Schools has agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging the district failed to act after being told of a long-time special education teacher’s abusive behavior, court records show.
The case was filed by Tiffany Haskins, the mother of a boy identified in the complaint as O.W., who has autism and is functionally non-verbal. A school district investigation determined that the child’s teacher at Skyline Elementary mistreated him and violated district policies during his kindergarten year in 2022 and 2023, according to documents obtained by The News Tribune in a public records request.
Citing “sufficient evidence from reliable witnesses,” the district found it credible that the teacher, Kathleen Skaar, targeted and yelled at O.W.; flipped a table over in front of him; threw a chair that hit him; grabbed and pulled him by the wrist or forearm; and used her body and hands to push him, according to a November 2023 district letter outlining findings to O.W.’s parents.
Skaar denied physically or emotionally abusing O.W. and other students but was fired in November 2023 after about six months on administrative leave, public records show. Skaar, who was not charged with any crime, could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and two attorneys representing her in the lawsuit didn’t respond to an inquiry by Tuesday evening.
Haskins sued the district, Skaar and former Skyline Elementary principal Regina Rainbolt in October 2024, claiming no one intervened to stop Skaar’s behavior involving O.W. and other students despite classroom aides reporting her alleged physical and verbal aggression for years.
On July 7, U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle approved a $2.65 million settlement in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington, resolving the lawsuit, court records show.
Attorney Jackson Pahlke, who represented Haskins, credited the district for resolving the case fairly.
“The settlement will help this child deal with the harm and help to put this chapter behind him,” Pahlke said in an interview Tuesday.
Messages left for the district and a lawyer representing Rainbolt were not returned by Tuesday evening. Both defendants denied allegations in a court-filed response to the lawsuit.
Classroom behavior under scrutiny
Skaar, hired by the district in 2005, worked as a K-2 teacher in Skyline Elementary’s SUCCESS classroom designed for students with moderate to severe disabilities, public records show. She was placed on leave in May 2023 after two aides assigned to the classroom reported her alleged “inappropriate actions toward students,” including aggressive and verbal abuse, according to the district’s investigative summary report obtained by The News Tribune.
Fifteen staff members were subsequently interviewed by a district investigator. Most interviewees said Skaar regularly yelled at students and escalated student behavior, while seven staff members said they witnessed her grabbing or pulling students and that she disregarded students’ special needs or developmental levels, according to the report.
Ten staff members, and one of four parents interviewed, told the investigator that Skaar’s behavior was not new to them.
“There’s been 15 years of very gruff behavior that people just tolerate,” one said.
“With Kathy, something should have happened a long time ago,” another said. “This has been going on for years.”
At least some staff members expressed support for the embattled teacher. Under a subheading in the district’s report for “additional information,” 13 bullet points from an unknown number of interviewees offered a positive portrayal of Skaar, including as a good and knowledgeable teacher who cares about her students and works hard in a difficult environment.
“She is the only special needs teacher I’ve seen make growth for those kids,” one person said.
In two interviews, Skaar denied yelling at or being physically aggressive toward students, according to the investigative report.
“If they are on the way to hit someone, I stop it. I take their hand ... I touch kids to protect the other kids,” Skaar said, according to the report. “My intent is to keep safe, not to restrain.”
When she flipped over a table in May 2023, students were repeatedly putting their feet on it so she “removed the problem,” she reportedly told the district investigator. The table was heavier than expected and “kind of dropped,” she claimed.
Skaar said she didn’t recall throwing a chair, but two classroom aides told the district that Skaar flipped the chair a couple of feet and blamed someone else for tossing it. The chair hit someone on the wrist, according to the report, which redacted student names.
Ultimately, Skaar suggested that she was on the defensive all day trying to protect children, citing eight of her 11 students having behavioral problems and claiming the district provided no requested help.
From a parental perspective, “I would be thankful the teacher is trying to stop the other children from being abused,” she said, according to the report.
‘Knee-jerk reaction’ for compliance
O.W.’s behavior changed immediately after beginning Skaar’s class, including a newfound aggression, according to a May court filing from the boy’s court-appointed representative, Joshua Brothers. O.W. had been evaluated by a team responsible for his special-needs education prior to starting kindergarten and was described as a happy child with a kind demeanor and no tantrum behavior, the filing said.
“O.W. has experienced and will continue to experience significant general damages, including emotional distress as a result of this incident,” according to Brothers’ filing.
The lawsuit said that four different Skyline Elementary principals had been made aware of claims by classroom aides that Skaar screamed in students’ faces, slammed her hands on their desks, forced them to stand in the hallway with their face to the wall, and grabbed and yanked them by their arms.
In 2017, aides reported that Skaar allegedly asked students, “Are you stupid?” and raised her hand to their faces as if to slap them, making them flinch, according to the lawsuit. During the 2021-22 school year, a parent reported Skaar at least five times to Rainbolt over alleged physical and verbal abuse, the suit claimed.
“These cases are really sad,” Pahlke told The News Tribune. “There’s kind of a knee-jerk reaction to try to get compliance from a child, and they often need a lot more.”
In the few months leading up to when Skaar was placed on leave, a contract nurse reported the teacher screamed in students’ faces and the district asked Skaar to complete an anger-management class, according to the suit, adding there were other warning signs.
The lawsuit alleged Tacoma Public Schools was negligent and violated O.W.’s Fourth and Fourteenth amendment rights by using unjustified and unreasonable force against him, discriminated against him in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and ran afoul of other laws.
After attorney fees and other legal costs, $1.45 million will be placed in a special needs trust for O.W. for mental health services, private school and life-long care, court documents show.
