Shrone Dunn loves school. An 18-year-old student at Riverside University High School with physical and mental disabilities, she is usually eager to get to school, often jumping out of the car as soon as her mother, Shirley Dunn, pulls up to the building for drop off.
But earlier this year, Shrone’s attitude toward school started to change, Shirley said.
Panic attacks and requests to stay home became frequent. Shirley couldn’t understand what had changed.
Diagnosed with cerebral palsy and scoliosis as an infant, Shrone has limited verbal skills and is unable to speak in complete sentences, leaving her unable to provide an explanation to her mother.
Then, on Thursday, Nov. 13, shortly after dropping Shrone off at school, Shirley received a call from the Milwaukee Police Department informing her of an incident at Riverside University High School that involved her daughter.
A review of security camera footage, they told her, found that a paraprofessional slapped Shrone in the hallway the day before, on Nov. 12.
Suddenly, the changes in her daughter’s behavior made sense.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel obtained a copy of the police report of the incident.
According to the report, the footage captured showed Shrone sitting on the floor while the paraprofessional attempted to put her shoes on. Following a brief struggle, the paraprofessional then proceeded to “slap [Shrone] with an open hand to the left side of face.”
A brief struggle continued, and the paraprofessional picked Shrone up and placed her in a chair.
Following the incident, a special education teacher discovered Shrone in the hall, upset and inconsolable. The next day, upon consulting with another special education teacher, a request to review the security camera footage was made to the school principal.
Milwaukee police made an arrest on Nov. 13 and referred charges to the Milwaukee County district attorney, but no formal charges have been filed.
A timeframe for if or when charges will be announced is not available, according to the District Attorney’s Office
According to the police report, the paraprofessional who was arrested denied the allegation.
Several days before the incident, Shirley and her husband, Tyrone Dunn, accompanied Shrone to school, carrying pizza, cake and ice cream to celebrate her 18th birthday with her classmates.
“The [paraprofessional] was feeding another kid at the table and just the most talkative,” Tyrone said. “But to me, he was like the Big Bad Wolf in the classroom.”
Riverside University High School sent a letter to parents notifying them of the incident, in part, stating that the paraprofessional involved in the incident “is not currently working in the school.”
In an email to the Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee Public Schools media relations manager Stephen Davis confirmed the paraprofessional is not a current employee of the district, noting that reports of a staff member hurting a student are investigated thoroughly and followed with “appropriate action up to and including termination.”
This is not the first time this year that a paraprofessional at Milwaukee Public Schools has been accused and taken into custody for hitting a child.
In March, a 62-year-old paraprofessional at Ralph H. Metcalfe School in Metcalfe Park was arrested and charged with two counts of felony child abuse.
In September, a 63-year-old paraprofessional at Grantosa Drive Elementary School was also arrested and charged with one count of felony child abuse, according to reports from FOX6 News.
According to Davis, all school district employees are subject to background checks upon hiring. Davis was not able to provide a detailed outline of the hiring process before publication.
The Journal Sentinel asked the school district if there are any efforts to update procedures for screening, training and supervising paraprofessionals in response to the multiple instances of child abuse in a short time span, but the district did not respond with a comment.
Special education students in Milwaukee Public Schools are eligible to remain in school until the age of 21. Shrone’s parents had planned to keep her in the program until she aged out of it.
Now, they say, this school year will be her last, citing safety concerns.
“I just don’t understand — because I know they love her in school, and then this happened to her,” Tyrone said.
April Quevedo covers Metcalfe Park for the Journal Sentinel’s Neighborhood Dispatch. Reach her at aquevedo@gannett.com. As part of the newsroom, all April’s work and coverage decisions are overseen solely by Journal Sentinel editors.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Riverside High School staffer under investigation for striking special-ed student
Reporting by April Quevedo, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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