By Shannon Lukens. (File photo)
A Complaint and Demand for Jury has been filed in U.S. District Court against the Steamboat Springs School District, Superintendent Celine Wicks, and five current and former staff members. It has to do with special needs students at the high school, saying there was an environment there that “allows its staff to discriminate against, verbally abuse, and inflict physical harm upon the most defenseless members of our society – disabled and non-verbal children.”
It’s a 56-page document. The attorney for the plaintiff is Jessica Breuer of BurgSimpson out of Denver. The first two pages of the document are below.
The next steps are written discovery and depositions.
Steamboat Springs School District sent the following statement Wednesday morning:
“The Steamboat Springs School District is committed to providing equal opportunities for all individuals in District programs and to providing a safe learning environment for all students. We are aware of the allegations contained in a complaint filed. While we do not agree with many of the allegations and characterizations it contains, we cannot discuss those in detail at this time due to the active litigation.
For more than 70 years, we have served the children of Steamboat Springs, a responsibility we take very seriously. We are proud of our accomplishments and remain dedicated to continuous learning and improvement, always seeking opportunities to do better. That is our ongoing commitment to our students and their families.”
Specifics are given for each student. One specific incident involved Sylvia Rawlings, who pled guilty to an incident Jan. 31, 2023, at the high school, where she was working as a paraprofessional. The Arrest Warrant said that Rawlings repeatedly spun a disabled and nonverbal student out of control, when the student was in their wheelchair. Then it said that Rawlings pushed the student in the wheelchair across the gym floor until the student fell out of the chair and hit their head. The student was taken to the hospital. All of it was on video surveillance in the high school gym.
In documents obtained by Steamboat Radio News, it says co-workers had reported racial comments made by Rawlings and they then reported other incidents of concern.
Rawlings resigned from the district.
At the sentencing, Rawlings was given 18 months of supervised probation, and 20 hours of community service, and no jail time.
This story will be updated.
May 22, 2023 — Rawlings sentenced to incident when she was a paraprofessional at SSHS
Here are the first two pages of the 56-page document that was filed in U.S. District Court.
