Central Bucks special education abuse allegations become issue in DA race

Joe Khan, a Democrat running to unseat Republican Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn, is calling on the DA to convene a grand jury to investigate alleged abuse in a Central Bucks School District special education classroom.

“I’m frustrated and disappointed by the DA’s failure to explain what the hell is going on,” Khan said at a news conference Monday.

Khan’s criticism followed the release of a report last week by Disability Rights PA, which found that students were abused by a teacher and educational assistant in an autistic support classroom at Jamison Elementary School.

The report also accused district administrators of failing to adequately investigate and respond to the allegations, first raised in November by a personal care assistant who said children were restrained, physically punished, deprived of water, left naked for extended periods, and prevented from using speech devices.

While the district said it didn’t find evidence of abuse, its investigation corroborated the assistant’s allegations of abuse, according to Disability Rights. Yet the district incorrectly told police that no abuse had occurred, the group said. The Central Bucks school board placed its superintendent, Steven Yanni, on leave in the wake of the report.

On Monday, Schorn stood by her decision not to prosecute the case.

“The Warwick Township Police Department conducted a comprehensive investigation in the matter, and my office conducted a thorough review and came to the same conclusion: the facts do not support criminal charges,” Schorn said in a statement.

Schorn and the Warwick Township police both previously said the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office had also investigated and agreed that criminal charges weren’t warranted.

On Monday, Brett Hambright, a spokesperson for Attorney General Dave Sunday, said the office had “received a referral from a state agency regarding this matter. Beyond confirming that, we cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.”

Hambright said the office’s investigation was ongoing since it received the referral and had not been concluded and then reopened.

The allegations have ignited political tensions in Bucks County, the last purple county in the Philadelphia region and the only one that voted for President Donald Trump last year. Republicans hold the five county row offices that are on the ballot this year, while Democrats control the board of commissioners.

The race for district attorney, in which Schorn and Khan are unopposed in their party’s primaries, is expected to be among the most closely watched races in the Philadelphia suburbs this fall.

The Central Bucks school board, meanwhile, is controlled by Democrats; the nine-member board’s lone Republican, Jim Pepper, is the parent of one of the students in the Jamison classroom and has said the board majority is divided on taking action against those involved in the abuse investigation.

Schorn, a longtime prosecutor in the district attorney’s office who succeeded fellow Republican Matt Weintraub, has criticized Khan — a former Bucks County solicitor who ran for attorney general last year — as motivated by a political agenda.

“It’s unfortunate — but not surprising — that my opponent is trying to politicize this," Schorn said Monday. “He simply lacks the experience.”

She said Khan “hasn’t prosecuted a child abuse case in at least 20 years” and had never prosecuted a case in Bucks County.

Schorn also said “the law strictly prohibits my office from disclosing the details” of her investigation.

Khan accused Schorn of a lack of transparency in the Central Bucks case.

Schorn hasn’t said what criminal charges may have been considered, Khan said. He said that while “actual harming of children” is a crime, “there are also broader crimes that address people who endanger the welfare of children,” engage in corruption of minors, or fail to report suspected child abuse.

“If the DA has concluded their investigation, we ought to know what those results are,” Khan said. He noted that the Central Bucks school board has commissioned an outside investigation being paid for by taxpayers, while “we are all left with more questions than answers about what the DA is talking about when they describe this as a non-criminal matter.”

Khan said a grand jury investigation would be valuable even if it didn’t ultimately recommend criminal charges, because it could “provide recommendations about taking action.”

“Our kids need their DA to stand up for them even when it’s hard,” Khan said.