A civil rights complaint filed in May by four families alleging abuse of their special needs children by a teacher at Garden Grove Elementary School has expanded to include at least 11 families, the families’ attorney said.

The complaint accuses special education teacher Christina Tonkin of grabbing, dragging and dropping children as young as 5—most of whom are non-verbal—in her K-1 Special Day class.

Tonkin, who was working for Simi Valley Unified as a special education teacher as far back as 2008, ended her employment with the district in 2018.

Tonkin’s attorney, Robert M. Moss of Santa Monica, said he cannot comment on the complaint other than to say “It’s in litigation and we have denied all the allegations which are unproven, and we look forward to our day in court.”

SVUSD’s administration has declined to comment on the specifics of the case or about Tonkin’s history in the district, citing privacy laws and litigation.

On Oct. 25, attorney Ron Bamieh, who is representing the plaintiffs, hosted a news briefing with some of the parents at his office in Ventura along with associate attorney Monique Fierro.

The two lawyers remained mostly silent as three women whose children were in Tonkin’s class between 2015 and 2018 shared their stories.

The parents, who the Acorn is not naming to protect the identities of the alleged victims, spoke of alarming changes in their children’s behavior during the time they attended Tonkin’s class, an indication that something was wrong, they said.

They told of their attempts to get an explanation from SVUSD about these behavioral changes, and why their children sometimes came home with injuries. They also spoke about the anxiety and frustration they felt trying to uncover what their children were experiencing but could not express.

According to the lawsuit, several parents reported that their children were biting themselves in response to their anxiety; others mentioned visible injuries.

“My daughter came home with a bruise on her cheek and a cut under her eye, on two separate sides of her face,” said one parent at the meeting.

The next day, she said, she kept her daughter home from school. In the morning, she received a phone call from a student aide inquiring about her child. That afternoon, she said she received another call from Garden Grove Elementary Principal Martha Feinstein asking about her child’s well-being.

“It was very unusual,” she said during the briefing. “If there were bruises, etc., a nurse would call from school. Nobody called me.”

The parent said Tonkin told her that she accidentally hit the child with the back of her hand when the student was trying to take another student’s food.

“It was the entire face,” the mother said. “How could that be if you didn’t hit my daughter intentionally?”

Fierro showed members of the press a photo of a child crying on the ground while being restrained with Tonkin’s knee wrapped around her neck. She said the picture was provided by five different employees “hoping that it would come to someone’s attention.”

Feinstein allegedly told the parent the child “was slipping out of the chair and Tonkin was catching her.”

Sean Goldman, SVUSD’s assistant superintendent of student support services, said the education code allows for a student to be physically retrained when a student’s behavior is a danger to themselves or others.

“All staff who potentially may use a restraint are trained and certified through the National Crisis Prevention Institute,” Goldman said in an email. “The training emphasized de-escalation techniques but does cover physical restraints in rare occasions where restraints are required to keep students safe.”

Details of lawsuit

The civil complaint alleges Tonkin was grabbing “students by the face, arms, and/or shoulders in aggressive and painful manners”; dragging students “across the floor (even children who have paralysis on parts of their bodies); picking them up and “intentionally dropping them back on the floor,” among other things.

The complaint also names Feinstein and Goldman, alleging that they “threatened and intimidated school staff” to keep them from reporting the alleged abuse and “deliberately failed to inform parents.”

In September, when the story first broke, SVUSD spokesperson Jake Finch responded that, “We did not cover it up; nor did we keep quiet out of loyalty to the teacher.”

Feinstein is no longer principal at Garden Grove. She was reassigned in May. Her current title is administrator on assignment in educational services.

Bamieh said complaints about Tonkin go back as far as 2008.

“We believe there are potentially 50 to 80 victims of this woman,” he said.

Asked to comment on the lawsuit, Finch said the pending litigation and privacy laws preclude the district from discussing students and employees.

In an earlier interview, Finch said there were two separate investigations by the Simi Valley Police Department that failed to provide “evidence to substantiate the concerns raised.”

Records obtained by the Acorn show one report was made in November 2015 for alleged child abuse. The report was made by telephone from a mandated reporter who said a “disabled student was on the ground and teacher hostilely grabbed the child.” The case was referred to Child Protective Services.

A second incident report in February 2016 also alleged “ongoing harassment by the teacher,” according to the report.

Before a case involving the alleged abuse can proceed, Bamieh said, an administrative hearing must be held to determine if any educational benefits were lost for each child.

SVUSD has a number of special education programs for students with various needs, Goldman said. “SVUSD is a regional provider for seven other Ventura County School Districts because they do not operate their own programs.”

Some of the campuses are specifically designed for students on the autism spectrum, though there are students with autism at all the schools.

With regards to administrative hearings, Goldman said there are three steps in a due process case: an informal resolution meeting, a formal mediation facilitated by a judge, and if necessary, a hearing adjudicated by the administrative law judge who is employed by the Office of Administrative Hearings.

“If we went to such a hearing, we would ask them to be made public,” Bamieh said. “We would call Tonkin and other witnesses and establish the abuse.”

According to the Ventura County Superior Court, a case management conference is scheduled for March 6, 2020.

The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing website shows no adverse action listed for Tonkin.