A four-year-old civil lawsuit alleging abuse of a special needs student by Greenville County Schools employees may go to trial in August.
Jeanette Watson filed the lawsuit in 2018, alleging that her then16-year-old daughter, who has Down Syndrome and cannot speak, was physically and verbally abused by a school bus driver and a bus aide.
A federal lawsuit was filed in the District Court of the United States for the District of South Carolina Division in 2019.
The local case is currently scheduled for a jury trial starting on August 29, according to a Greenville County 13th Judicial Circuit Court roster.
A trial date was initially set for March 16, 2020. The family received a call on Friday, March 13, 2020, that the entire judicial system was shutting down due to COVID-19, said Clayton Jennings, an attorney representing Watson.
Since then, there have been a number of other court dates that have been continued or postponed because of COVID-19 and court scheduling problems, he said.
The lawsuit alleges that the victim, who was then a special needs student at the Washington Center, a school for students with severe/profound intellectual disabilities, was physically and verbally abused "numerous times" over the course of the 2017-2018 school year.
Watson was alerted that something was happening with the teen in or around January 2013, when her behavior changed, the lawsuit said.
She began having displays of anger such as "pounding her fists on...
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