Settlement reached in lawsuit alleging Kansas school employees battered disabled student 

A settlement has been reached in a 2019 case where a former Wellington student, who is blind and has cerebral palsy, was reportedly battered by district employees, the law firm representing the victim’s family said this week.

The $219,000 settlement is mostly paid for by the district’s insurance, according to court documents. The district paid $19,000. About $88,000 of the settlement went to Brown & Curry, which represented the family in the two-plus-year court case.

Roughly $105,000 will go into a trust for Saunders. P.J. Saunders, his grandmother and adoptive mother who is his caretaker, will receive $25,345.

The lawyer representing the district did not respond to a call from The Eagle.

Dan Curry, who represented the family of Reed Saunders, said in a news release that “this is the right outcome for the Saunders family and for Reed. ... He deserves it.”

The lawsuit stems from a Jan. 18, 2019 incident at a Wellington basketball game. At the game, the lawsuit says, Saunders was under the supervision of Wellington School District employee Robin Creamer.

Creamer “repeatedly applied physical restraints and physical escort to (Saunders) in excess of what was reasonably necessary, including pinning his arms, striking and shouting at the boy,” the suit says.

District employees Creamer, Tammy Moore and Brenda Gray were also listed in the lawsuit. Creamer and Moore were supervised by Gray, court documents say.

Gray is listed in the district’s directory as a special education teacher. The others do not appear in the current directory.

Saunders was 17 at the time, but has the “mental capacity of a one- to three-year old child,” the lawsuit says. He communicates through limited sign language. He uses a walker for short distances and wheelchair for further distances — both under the supervision of a caretaker.

After the incident, Saunders “suffered setbacks in his development and an exacerbation of his medical challenges; he lost weight and he regressed in language and social development,” the suit says.

Creamer was charged with misdemeanor battery. She pleaded guilty and was given probation for one year, according to court documents.

The lawsuit lists other incidents in addition to the basketball game.

In October 2015, P.J. Saunders told district administrators that an employee had poured cold water on Saunders’ genitalia and “used martial-arts style pressure points to control (Saunders’) behavior with pain,” the lawsuit says. On other occasions, employees restrained, pulled and struck Saunders and secluded him in a bathroom, the lawsuit says.

Saunders, who is 20 now, was moved to the Haysville School District where he is still a student, Curry said. In 2013, then 12-year-old Saunders was featured in an Eagle video about therapeutic horseback rides for people with disabilities.

This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 4:49 PM.