Propublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates power abuse. Sign up for Dispatches. This is a newsletter that spotlights misconduct across the country, where you receive your stories in your inbox every week.
A short video, filmed at an Illinois school, captured awkward behavior. The teacher holds a six-year-old boy with autism with his ankles and drags him into the hallway on his back.
The April incident would have been upset at any school, but it happened at a garrison school, part of a special education district where students were once arrested at the highest rate in any district in the country. The teacher was charged with battery several weeks later after pressure from the students’ parents.
It’s been about eight months since the U.S. Department of Education directed the garrison to change the way students respond to the behavior of disabled students. The department said it would monitor the Four Rivers Special Education district, which runs Garrison, following a 2022 PropoPublica and Chicago Tribune investigation, after discovering that the school frequently engaged police and used controversial disciplinary methods.
But the Chicago Civil Rights Regional Office, which handled Illinois and five other states, was one of seven people who were abolished in March by President Donald Trump’s administration. The office was closed and all staff members were fired.
The future of surveillance in Four Rivers in western central Illinois is now uncertain. Since Trump took office, there has been no record of communication from the Education Department to the district. His administration has ended a non-discrimination agreement with at least one school district in South Dakota.
In the April incident, police reports show that Xander Reed, who has autism and has not spoken, did not go to PE without stopping playing on the block. Xander then “was upset and fell to the ground,” the report said. When he refused to stand up, alternative teacher Rhea Drake dragged him to the gym.
Another staff member took photos and warned the school’s leadership. Principal Amy Haarman told police that Drake’s actions were “not an acceptable practice at school,” the police report said.
Xander’s family asked to press the fee. Drake, who worked in Xander’s classroom for more than a month, was charged with a misdemeanor battery about three weeks later, records show. She pleaded not guilty. Her lawyer told Propobrica that he and Drake didn’t want to comment on the story.
District Director Tracey Fair said school officials have confirmed that students are safe after the incident and that Drake will not return to the district. She declined to comment further on the incident, but said school officials are “an obligation to keep students and staff very seriously safe.”
Doug Thompson, the police chief in Jacksonville, where the school is located, said he could not discuss the case.
Screenshots from the recording of the CCTV video show Xander Reed being dragged into the hallway by a garrison teacher. Credit: Get by Propublica
Xander’s mother, Amanda, said she was afraid that her son would go to the garrison. She also said she was punished for being placed in a school’s “crisis room.” “He doesn’t want to go to school,” she said. “We want him to get an education. I want him to be with the other kids.”
Four Rivers serves eight counties of areas, with Garrison students ranging from kindergarten to high school. Approximately 70 students were enrolled at the beginning of the school year. Neighborhoods that feel they can’t educate students at their local schools send them to four rivers. Xander travels 40 minutes one way to attend the garrison.
Federal scrutiny of the garrison began after Propovica and the Tribune, and it was revealed that over a five-year period, school employees, on average, called police to report student misconduct. Police arrested more than 100 nine-year-old students during that period. They were handcuffed and taken to the police station for being destructive or disobedient. If they were physically beaten by staff, they were often charged with an aggravated battery of a felony.
Garrison School is part of a special education district that should be under federal surveillance for violating the civil rights of students with disabilities. Credit: Bryan Birks from Propublica
The news organization also found Garrison employees frequently take students out of the classroom and send them to a crisis room when they become upset, disobedient or aggressive.
The findings of civil rights reflect the findings of news research. The garrison determined that they regularly sent students to police for non-criminal behavior that could be related to their disability.
The district was to report progress in making changes to the OCR by December last year, according to Propublica, a document obtained through a request for public records.
However, records show that OCR has not communicated with the district since then, and it is not clear what the job at Four Rivers will be. The OCR has concluded at least one agreement it concluded last year. This is a contract with the South Dakota School District that has agreed to take steps to end discrimination against Native American students. Educational spokesmen did not answer questions from Propublica.
Scott Reed, the father of six-year-old Xander Reed, said he and Xander’s mother frequently used police as disciplinary custody of the four rivers and knew about the involvement of the OCR. However, they were told there was no other option, so they reluctantly enrolled this grade with him.
“You can say you made all these changes, but that’s not,” Scott Reed said. For example, he confirmed that Drake had dragged the 50-pound boy into the hall, but the school leaders sent her home. “They didn’t call the police until I arrived at school and asked for it,” he said.
“If it was a student,” he acted like that, “they would have been handcuffed.”
Xander’s parents, Scott and Amanda Reed, registered their son at the garrison school after being told they had no other options. Credit: Bryan Birks from Propublica
The new Propublica Reporting has found that police have been called to the school at least 30 times in response to student behavior since the school began in August.
Police Chief Thompson told Propobrica that officers were summoned because the student said it was “inappropriate.” They were also called last month after reports that the student had bitten the staff. According to a police blotter from a local newspaper, the officer “sedited the students.”
Police continue to arrest garrison students. During this grade, students have made six arrests for property damage or worsening batteries, police data show. The 15-year-old girl was arrested for spitting out the staff’s face, and the 10-year-old boy was arrested after being accused of assaulting an employee. Police data show that at least nine students were arrested last year in the school year.
Trump administration moves to block Mexican politicians traveling to the US, saying it’s related to drug trafficking
Thompson said four students, ages 10 to 16, were arrested this grade for a more severe, worsening battery charge. One of the students was arrested three times. He believes that police calls to police are inevitable, but the school staff are now dealing with more student behavior concerns without contacting police.
“Now, the call for services is directed at what they can and now I feel like I need help,” Thompson said. “They tried to escalate themselves, but the students are still not working together or they lack control and they need more support.”
Police were called to the school last week to deal with “students involved,” according to police blotters from a local Jacksonville newspaper. This time it didn’t end with an arrest. Parents arrived and “let the students follow the staff.”
