Baltimore Board of Estimates to vote on $170K settlement in suit alleging teacher assaulted student

Baltimore City’s Board of Estimates will vote Wednesday on a settlement amount for a mom who alleges her then-elementary-school-aged son with autism was assaulted by a school employee.

The Baltimore City Public School System and the Baltimore City government are offering Kimberly Pinder, the child’s mom and sole caregiver, according to the legal complaint, $170,000 to drop her lawsuit against the school system and its employee, Sara Dixon, that has dragged out for years. That money would be held in trust for the student, and the family would receive another $1,500 from Dixon.

The complaint alleges that on July 29, 2019, the then-Pimlico Elementary/Middle School student was forced to the ground and injured by special-needs teacher Dixon.

Dixon’s attorney did not immediately provide a comment.

The Board of Estimates, a group composed of the mayor, comptroller, City Council president, city solicitor and director of public works that makes decisions on the city’s finances, will decide at its upcoming meeting whether to approve the proposed amount for the case that was first filed in July 2022.

The $170,000 is notably higher than the figure Pinder was requesting around the start of the case in 2022, at least $75,000. However, the earlier request included additional coverage of attorneys’ fees, a stipulation Pinder must drop if the settlement is approved.

In an updated complaint from December 2022, Pinder’s legal team leveraged nine charges against the school system and Dixon, including assault, battery, excessive force, intentional infliction of emotional distress and gross negligence.

According to the complaint, security footage of Pimlico Elementary/Middle School from July 29, 2019, during summer school shows Dixon pulling the student through the doorway by his shirt collar, grabbing him from behind, slamming him on the floor and then pinning him face-first into the ground with her body on his back.

Once he got up, crying, she shoved him to the floor again, the complaint says. Surveillance footage then displays Dixon and four other staff members dragging him up a flight of stairs, according to the complaint. He returned home distressed and crying, it adds.

The complaint says Dixon and the student had a negative interaction outside, which led to the student having an “autistic meltdown.” According to the complaint, that is when Dixon started trying to restrain him.

The Board of Estimates agenda characterized the scenario differently, saying Dixon was allegedly aiming “to prevent [the student] from harming himself.”

The student had been transferred to Pimlico that summer from Cross Country Elementary following an incident a month prior in which he ended up at the University of Maryland Hospital. A special education paraprofessional at Cross Country had pushed him to the ground and pulled his arms and hands behind his back, though restraint is not part of his individualized education program, the complaint says. On other occasions, school staff put him in a “quiet room” or took his shoes from him during school, it adds.

The situation at Pimlico led to a prolonged period of distress for the student, the complaint says.

The student “suffered physical and emotional injuries that required both physical and emotional treatment,” wrote Pinder’s attorney, Stephen Thomas, in the complaint, adding that the child “still suffers from the trauma.”

Thomas could not be reached for comment. BCPSS did not provide a comment.

Baltimore Sun reporter Lilly Price contributed to this article.