Students locked in pitch-black 'dungeon' without shoes to 'punish and frighten them,' leading to sleep issues and traumatic 'nightmares': Lawsuit

Parents successful Wisconsin are suing the Milwaukee Public Schools territory aft staffers were allegedly caught placing students successful a boiler country known arsenic "the dungeon" to punish and frighten them, a suit says.

"When asked astir 'the dungeon' by their parents, immoderate students would go truthful scared, stressed and upset that they would statesman to cry," the parents' legal complaint charges, accusing staffers astatine Thurston Woods School of carrying retired the cruel punishment during the 2022-'23 and 2023-'24 schoolhouse years.

"Students experienced slumber issues, nightmares and waking up crying during the nighttime due to the fact that of fearfulness of 'the dungeon,'" the ailment adds.

Multiple parents, who are being represented by Milwaukee lawyer Drew DeVinney, person identified unit members astatine the pre-K-8 schoolhouse who allegedly sent kids to the boiler country if they misbehaved. At slightest 1 of the staffers, a erstwhile antheral paraprofessional, was caught locking 3 antithetic students successful the "dungeon" galore times, according to the parents' complaint.

The students were allegedly locked wrong "with the lights turned disconnected truthful that it would beryllium transportation black," the ailment says. "The students would beryllium near wrong with nary quality to permission arsenic a signifier of punishment," the papers explains.

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The doorway to "the dungeon" leads to a basement-level boiler room, which the schoolhouse allegedly utilized for storage, including retention of chemicals and cleaning agents. The country is said to beryllium "very loud" owed to the boiler moving and "hazardous" due to the fact that of the chemicals and cleaning agents, which were accompanied by buckets, boxes, furnace filters, ladders, boilers and different machinery.

"[Staffers] would necessitate the students … to region their shoes erstwhile locked wrong 'the dungeon,'" the ailment says. "Locked successful the dark, [the students] were subjected to the harsh smells of the chemicals and cleaning products that were stored successful the boiler room. Sometimes [the paraprofessional] would usage his assemblage arsenic a barricade to the doorway to guarantee the confined pupil was not capable to permission the boiler room."

After "numerous instances" of confining students to "the dungeon," Milwaukee Public Schools allegedly undertook an probe of the incidents and the paraprofessional resigned, according to DeVinney and the parents. He allegedly admitted to placing the children successful the boiler country to "punish and frighten them," per the complaint.

"Thurston Woods School unit failed to intervene [and] forestall children from being confined to the boiler country for punishment, contempt having [an] accidental to bash so," the ailment concludes. "Due to being confined successful 'the dungeon,' the children … sustained intelligence and intelligence harm, including but not constricted to fright, grief, anger, fear, worry, affectional distress and trauma."

Milwaukee Public Schools could not beryllium reached for remark Sunday by Law&Crime, but the territory did connection a connection to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel past week, saying: "Milwaukee Public Schools is committed to maintaining harmless and welcoming learning environments for each students and staff. While we cannot remark connected ongoing litigation, the territory thoroughly investigated this substance successful 2023 and took due disciplinary enactment which included termination of employment."