DETROIT – The Detroit Public Schools Community District’s (DPSCD) Moses Field Center is a school for students with special needs.
Afrin Jahan’s son started attending in 2018, and by 2023, she noticed a change in her then 10-year-old’s behavior.
”He was much calmer on weekends, limping when he returned from school," said attorney Abe Barlaskar.
The mother also noticed her child was coming home double and triple-diapered.
Barlaskar said the mother, who speaks little English, went to the school on her son’s behalf, but got no answers.
Then, in February 2023, a whistleblower came forward, reporting the abuse of several students, and Jahan’s son was one of them.
The lawsuit alleges she was never notified by the school. When the mother was made aware of the complaint of abuse later that summer, the principal contacted her saying the report was “fake news.”
“The school deprived this child of food and water so they wouldn’t have to change him,” Barlaskar said. “He was taken away from his classmates, isolated, and he came home on at least on one occasion with a black eye.”
The lawsuit alleges he was strapped in place, in a Rifton chair, forced to sit for extended periods of time in urine and feces.
“This chair is for children or adults who have, for instance, cerebral palsy, or they have mobility issues, or if they can’t sit up and they would choke. This 10-year-old has none of those issues, has never had any of these issues, but was still put into the chair and strapped across his incision and across his chest.”
They say this cell phone video, taken by a whistleblower inside of the school, captures a glimpse of the child being pushed in that chair.
“By law, the staff, principal, anyone who witnesses this type of abuse- they’re mandatory reporters and should have been reporting, but instead they were not only covering it up, but they were punishing the whistleblowers,” said Barklaskar.
DPSCD released the following statement when Local 4 reached out for comment:
“Upon being served with the complaint, the District will timely respond and will defend itself and staff against the claims alleged in the lawsuit. The District is concerned with the welfare of all of its students including its most vulnerable students. And takes very seriously the trust parents and families place in the District to care for and educate children.”
DPSCD