Woodland Hills faces lawsuit
A Pittsburgh-area school with a history of racial tension created a culture of verbal abuse and excessive force that allowed resource officers to shock students with stun guns and body-slam them, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The lawsuit by the guardians of five black former students of Woodland Hills High School also says school administrators “intentionally discriminated” against students because of their race and filed false charges to cover up abuse.
The suit seeks compensatory damages and legal fees from the defendants, named as the district, the Churchill borough government, a security contractor and six individuals, including a former principal, two school resource officers and the district superintendent.
In April, the Allegheny County district attorney said he was reviewing allegations that Steve Shaulis, a resource officer at the school, punched and knocked out the tooth of a 14-year-old freshman accused of stealing another’s student cell phone. Pictures of the freshman’s bruised face appeared online.
In May, video surfaced of Shaulis body-slamming a 15-year-old student in 2015 and shocking him with a stun gun.
The tapes sparked outrage among parents over the district’s reliance on resource officers, and they confronted school board members and held protests.
“Why wasn’t anything ever done? How could anybody in charge look at those videos and not hold anyone accountable?” said one of the filing attorneys, Timothy O’Brien, at a Wednesday news conference. “When a child goes to school, they shouldn’t be treated like an inmate at a prison.”
The suit cites five incidents in total. Attorneys cited two newly released videos dating back nearly a decade to argue the incidents constituted a pattern of abuse.
A video from 2009 shows Shaulis shoving a student into a locker without apparent physical provocation, then shocking the student with a stun gun and arresting him.
One in 2010 shows a behavioral specialist lifting a student up against a locker and slamming him into the ground, breaking the student’s wrist. The student was charged with aggravated assault and disorderly conduct, the lawsuit said, but charges were withdrawn after a district attorney reviewed the video.
The fifth incident involved school principal Kevin Murray, who was caught on a recording last year threatening to punch a 14-year-old special education student in the face and “knock your ... teeth down your throat.” Murray resigned last week.
Shaulis transferred out of the school this year. The district has been troubled by racial tensions.
