A former Central Bucks School Board member and his wife have sued the district and 11 current and former employees alleging they intentionally misled, minimized and covered up abuse allegations involving their child, who has autism.
The Sept. 29 lawsuit filed by James and Lisa Pepper on behalf of their 10-year-old son, outlines allegations of mistreatment of him and other students in an autism-support class at Jamison Elementary School in 2024, which resultedin multiple independent investigations and the terminations of three high-ranking administrators including the superintendent.
No one in the district has been chargedwith any crimes related to the abuse investigation.
The accused teacher, Gabrielle McDaniel, has denied wrong-doing, and education
assistant, Rachel Aussprung, has never publicly spoken or released a statement on the investigation.
Both women, among the current and former employees who allegedly participated in, failed to properly report and respond to the alleged conduct are named as defendants along with the district.
There was no immediate response to Sept. 30 emails seeking comment from named defendants or their attorneys, except for Cara Aldefer, a district teacher and Central Bucks Education Association president, and attorney David Truelove, representing former Superintendent Steven Yanni, who both declined comment on the complaint.
In a written statement Wednesday the Central Bucks School District stated it has acknowledged “what occurred” in the Jamison classroom and implemented significant changes at the school and disciplined employees who "committed these offenses, and those employees who failed to report them," the statement said.
“The district understands that none of these actions can change what happened to the students in Classroom 119 at Jamison,” the statement said. “Before the filing of the lawsuit, the district communicated to the attorneys for this family that the district was open to a resolution of their claims. The filing of the lawsuit does not change that position.”
Lawsuit: District, outside agencies found child abuse happened at Jamison Elementary
In the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, the Peppers allege the district has “already admitted” to abuses involving their 10-year-old son who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his alleged mistreatment.
The lawsuit opens with a quote that district Solicitor Peter Amuso allegedly made at the August 2025 discipline hearings for Yanni and former Jamison Principal David Heineman: "As the solicitor of this School District, I am telling you those students were abused by their teacher and their educational assistant."
The couple allege their son was subjected to nearly 3,000 “illegal” restraints over three months, water restriction, corporal punishment, forced exposure to nudity and sexual self-stimulation, screaming and mocking him as a result of behaviors connected to his disability. They also allege a February 2024 head injury was concealed.
The Bucks County Children and Youth agency made a finding of "substantiated child abuse" against McDaniel for failure to seek medical attention for the Pepper's son in February 2024 after he was involved in a head-to-head collision with an adult art aide, and concealing the accident, according to the lawsuit.
The Peppers alleged they did not learn about the accident until December 2024, though the district was required to immediately report it to them. The art aide suffered a concussion in the collision, the suit alleges.
“This case involves an extraordinary betrayal of a child who depended entirely on the adults around him for his safety, education, and care,” said attorney M. Stewart Ryan, who is representing the Peppers. “Not only did our client endure relentless and degrading treatment, but district officials were repeatedly given opportunities to protect him and failed to do so.”
The couple alleges district officials allowed McDaniel and Aussprung to remain in the classroom for months after they received detailed reports of the alleged mistreatment of their son.
The district also allegedly delayed reporting the allegations to ChildLine, the state’s child abuse hotline, provided incomplete or misleading information to investigating authorities and falsely told the couple an internal investigation had found no evidence of abuse.
Pennsylvania law considers school employees as mandatory child abuse reporters, meaning they have a legal obligation to report suspected abuse. Failure to report child abuse was identified among the reasons for termination of three district administrators who handled the allegations last year.
Subsequent independent investigations found that other students, who are also nonverbal, in the classroom also experienced mistreatment, neglect, illegal restraints, prohibited disciplinary techniques, and disability discrimination, the suit alleges.
The Peppers allege they did not know about the alleged mistreatment until a month after theirson’s personal care assistant, Alyssa Kline, first informed multiple district administrators about the alleged abuse and an internal investigation was opened.
Kline reached out to the Peppers in December 2024, after the district reassigned her to a different classroom, the suit alleges.
Later that month, though, the district wrote in an official letter that its investigation found “no evidence of abuse,” the lawsuit alleges. The Peppers removed their son from McDaniel’s classroom after learning about the allegations.
The abuse allegations became public in January 2025 and later that year the Pennsylvania Department of Educationand a state disabilities rights organization investigated and found students were improperly restrained and other concerns including the failure of employees to file timely ChildLine reports.
Later in 2025, the school board ordered a third-party investigation into the allegations and their handling, which resulted in the termination last year of Yanni, Jamison Principal David Heineman, and a Director of Pupil Services and Special Education Alyssa Wright, who are named as defendants in the suit.
Other named defendants were allowed to resign, retire or remain employees. One defendant was hired last year as assistant director of student services at a neighboring school district.
The employment status of McDaniel and Ausspring remains unresolved. The district has fully litigated the terminations through the arbitration process, which is ongoing, district spokesman Mike Petitti said Wednesday.
Other allegations contained in the lawsuit:
- Heineman was called to the classroom to assist and observe multiple times when the Peppers’ son was naked and made no effort to investigate why or how, how long he had been naked and how frequently he disrobed in class.
- When Jamison teachers previously reported alleged misconduct involving McDaniel, Heineman immediately told her about the complaints, which led teachers to stop reporting allegations to him.
- A month before Kline reported her abuse concerns, another aide reported to Wright about “ongoing concerns” about McDaniel’s conduct including that Pepper’s son was allowed to roam the room naked and masturbate and Aussprung would move tables around him to restrict his movement. (The behavior is associated with the boy’s diagnosis.)
- Yanni stated that he did not include either a summary of Kline’s interview with retired Human Resources Manager Christine Trawinski or the seven-pages of allegations Kline provided the district in a Nov. 20, 2024 ChildLine report because he couldn’t figure out how to attach them to the online form.
- The district concealed a Nov. 16, 2024 email written by Trawinski and sent to multiple district administrators outlining Kline’s abuse allegations from the Peppers, Disability Rights Pennsylvania and the school board. The email was not discovered until July 2025.
- The district and defendant Kathleen Veisz determined that McDaniel and Aussprung should spend more time with the Peppers’ son and in an email to the couple Veisz recommended that McDaniel and/or Aussprung accompany their son to therapy sessions outside the classroom.
The lawsuit contends that the district and employees withheld information from the couple to keep the district out of the media spotlight and as retaliation against Pepper, then the only Republican school board member, for his previous positions on district policies.
The couple also allege their successful advocacy for an older son, who is autistic and nonverbal and attends a private school at district expense, was a motivating factor for the district.
In a written statement, the Peppers said it was devastating to find out about their son’s mistreatment at the hands of the people they entrusted with his education and care.
“He could not come home and tell us that he was being viciously abused and traumatized on a daily basis,” the couple said. “We are also furious with the many people who covered up his abuse. We are speaking out for our son and for every vulnerable and defenseless child who depends on teachers and school administrators to protect their dignity and keep them safe.”
Crime and Courts Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at jciavaglia@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Ex-CBSD school board member, wife sue district over alleged abuse of son
