Why Puyallup schools agreed to $300K payout over claim 8-year-old was abused

Why Puyallup schools agreed to $300K payout over claim 8-year-old was abused

Shea Johnson

Wed, December 24, 2025 at 7:57 PM UTC

2 min read

The Puyallup School District has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged a second-grade teacher abused an 8-year-old student with autism, Pierce County Superior Court records show.

Filed by the student’s parents last year, the lawsuit claimed that a Pope Elementary instructor locked the plaintiffs’ son outside the classroom on multiple occasions, “leaving him alone in the hallway for large stretches of time,” jerked him around by his arm and repeatedly yelled at him during the 2022-23 school year. The teacher had been the subject of a prior complaint for allegedly being aggressive with another student who had behavioral needs, according to the suit.

The district, which was accused of improperly placing the plaintiffs’ son in a general education classroom despite his special needs, failed to take action to protect him after his mother had repeatedly pleaded with the school, the suit said.

Due to the alleged abuse, the boy’s home behavior deteriorated and he began to wet his bed, throw and break things and lash out at others, according to the suit. The student, who reportedly struggles with verbal communication, suffered headaches and stomach pains and expressed not wanting to go to school, the filing said.

The school district denied any wrongdoing in court-filed responses to the allegations and sought to dismiss the suit.

Ultimately, PSD and the plaintiffs reached a $300,000 settlement this summer that the court approved last month, according to case documents filed Dec. 18.

“The settlement is not an admission of fault or liability by the district. The decision to resolve the matter prior to trial was made, by the district’s insurer, to avoid the additional costs associated with litigation,” PSD spokesperson Sarah Gillispie said in an email Tuesday. “The district remains committed to providing a safe and positive educational experience for all students.”

Attorney Dalia Ibrahim, who represented the plaintiffs, told The News Tribune in October that the resolution would help provide the boy, identified as N.B. in legal filings, “the support he needs throughout his life.”

“This case was never about a payout,” Ibrahim said in a statement. “It was about accountability and change.”

Ibrahim noted that the student’s family hoped to see immediate action from the district.

“(W)e still urge the District to strengthen training, oversight, and reporting so that no other child experiences what N.B. did,” she said. “Our focus now is on N.B.’s healing and on meaningful, measurable steps to keep every student safe.”

N.B. was “terrified” to return to school in third grade and struggled that year with behavioral issues, but he has since enrolled in a different district and is faring much better, according to a Nov. 3 report compiled by the boy’s court-appointed representative, known as a guardian ad litem. The representative called the settlement “reasonable and in line with other resolutions in similar cases.”

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