HORRY CO, SC (WBTW) – A Myrtle Beach man has filed a lawsuit claiming Horry County Schools failed to accommodate his son’s disability and is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
David Warner filed the lawsuit on behalf of his 9-year-old son, who was diagnosed with autism. Warner says he sent his son’s MUSC autism evaluation to the student’s teacher to pass on to anyone else at the school. But when he called the principal after his son was suspended for behavioral issues, he found out the principal did not know his son had autism.
The suit claims Warner made repeated requests for the district to allow his son’s trained therapist to “administer medically necessary treatment during school as prescribed by his physician at no cost to the school district.”
According to the lawsuit, the therapy is needed to address the very issues for which the student was suspended.
The suit also claims when the child’s special education teacher when out on maternity leave, the district utilized a recent graduate who didn’t have the appropriate training. The suit says the temporary teacher’s credentials did not meet the minimum requirement for special education teachers.
Warner continued to request his son’s ABA trained therapist be allowed to administer his medically necessary treatment at school “as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act,” according to the lawsuit.
The suit says the student will continue to suffer mental, physical, emotional, psychological and development injures if the district does not accommodate his ABA therapist.
Warner asks in the lawsuit that the district be made to accommodate the ABA therapist at no expense and award damages deemed appropriate as well as other judgments.
Horry County Schools officials said the district does not comment on pending litigation.
