DELPHOS — Three employees of Delphos City Schools have been suspended from “all duties that involve the care, custody and control of children” in the wake of misdemeanor charges of child endangerment filed against them in Van Wert Municipal Court.
Arraigned in court this week were Delphos Jefferson High School Principal Chad Brinkman, Intervention Specialist Karissa Hoersten and Education Administrative Specialist Maureen Rentz.
Superintendent Douglas Westrick, in a letter to school district staff dated Monday and obtained by The Lima News, acknowledged the pending criminal charges against the employees.
Westrick wrote that the school district had previously cooperated with requests from law enforcement and children services personnel who were investigating the alleged neglect of a student at the school. He wrote the district conducted its own internal investigation into the allegations and was unable to identify “any instance of child abuse, child neglect or other employee wrongdoing” that jeopardized the safety of any student. The Van Wert County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office declined to pursue criminal charges, he wrote.
“Despite the results of the district’s internal investigation and the decision of the Van Wert County Prosecutor’s office, the Van Wert City Law Director recently decided to pursue misdemeanor charges of child endangerment against these three employees,” Westrick wrote. “Based on all the evidence currently available to the District, including its request to law enforcement and children services for additional evidence, the District does not believe that these three individuals engaged in any activity that endangered the safety of the District’s students. Nonetheless, in an abundance of caution, Delphos City Schools is going to suspend these three employees from all duties that involve the care, custody and control of children until these criminal charges are resolved.
“Unless the Law Director possesses evidence that has been withheld from the District throughout this entire process, the District is confident that these three employees will be exonerated from these charges in the near future,” Westrick’s letter concluded.
Van Wert City Law Director John Hatcher did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Last fall, the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Exceptional Children determined the Delphos schools failed to implement an individualized education plan for a disabled student at the school and that a required Specially Designed Instruction plan for the student was not adequately documented. The school district was also found to be in violation of Ohio code for failing to demonstrate that educational aides were fully informed of their responsibilities related to the student’s IEP.
The state addressed a complaint filed on the student’s behalf that alleged the student spent 90% of the day in isolation and was not around peers “in any capacity for the majority of the day.”
A heavily-redacted ODE report found the district to be in violation of policies mandating the integration, where possible, of handicapped students into classrooms with non-disabled students.
State officials worked with school personnel in October to develop a corrective action plan and to discuss why the student was segregated in a room in isolation from other students.
Training sessions were organized for staff by the state to discuss proper procedures were ordered to take place monthly from November 2021 until June 2022.
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