A support group for victims of abuse today is
making calls for a grand jury investigation after a boy was allegedly abused
last week at an Antioch school for students with special needs.
This follows the Jan. 6 arrest of Kamaljot
Kaur, 26, after a video posted online a day earlier showed her allegedly
striking a 9-year-old student at Tobinworld II at 2330 Country Hills Drive.
Kaur was charged Jan. 8 with misdemeanor child
abuse. Another teacher's aide, 22-year-old Chad Corbin, was charged with
failing to report an incident of child abuse as a mandatory reporter,
prosecutors said.
Antioch Unified School District officials
reported that the 9-year-old Oakland boy was not injured in the incident.
But that shouldn't be very reassuring, says
Melanie Jula Sakoda, one of the founders of Survivors Network of those Abused
by Priests.
The worst aspect of abuse isn't always the
visible injuries, Sakoda said, "it's what it can do to a child's
mind."
Sakoda's victim support group, which focuses
on abuse at various institutions, is aiming to raise awareness of this case's
seriousness and how it's potentially part of a larger problem.
Sakoda said that this case shouldn't be
treated as separate from prior allegations of child abuse from years past at
Tobinworld.
"We're concerned that there's a pattern
... and that not all the problems have been corrected," Sakoda said.
Among other cases, AdriAnne Pantell in 2014
filed a lawsuit against the same Antioch school for the alleged physical and
emotional abuse of her then-8-year-old son while he attended the school in
2013.
According to that lawsuit, five staff members
responded when the boy acted out by restraining him "first in an upright
position, then violently kicking his feet from underneath him, causing him to
fall to the floor and sustain a bloody nose."
The Antioch Unified School District was named
as well in that lawsuit. Tobinworld contracts with school districts throughout
the East Bay.
Sakoda questioned today whether the districts
Tobinworld contracts with are committed enough to ensuring child abuse is
reported and followed up on.
"They need to be more on top of what's
happening and proactive about complaints of abuse," she said.
Stephanie Anello, interim superintendent at
Antioch Unified School District, issued a statement after the recent incident
reporting that the district "takes all instances of student safety
seriously."
"And (we) will ensure that appropriate
and decisive steps are taken as determined by the outcome of the
investigation," she said.
Kaur was fired from her post at Tobinworld.
Police and state education officials are also investigating the school based on
the recent incident.
With this incident being tied to a video,
Sakoda said, "it was hard to deny that something terrifying was going on
here."
"That video was absolutely
appalling," Sakoda added.
There's not typically a video associated with
these incidents, Sakoda said, but school officials need to take all claims of
child abuse equally seriously.
Sakoda said this all points to a need for a
grand jury investigation into why Tobinworld employees and officials have a
poor record of complying with mandatory reporting laws.
To that end, Sakoda and other members of the
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests are filing complaints to grand
juries in Contra Costa, Alameda and Solano counties.
They said they would file the Contra Costa
County complaint after a small gathering today at 1:30 p.m. at 725 Court St. in
Martinez.
Outside the Contra Costa County Court
Administration building, Sakoda and others will hold signs and speak to
passersby about the recent reports of abuse at Tobinworld.
Tobinworld officials were not immediately
available to comment on the group's complaint.
January 15, 2016
KGO-TV
Bay
City News
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