Teens sue jail, schools over lack of education

Complainants are in solitary confinement

Three teenagers detained in Palm Beach County Jail accuse the jail and school district of not giving them adequate education while in solitary confinement.

A 16-year-old and two 17-year-olds filed a class action lawsuit Thursday against the jail. The complaint their attorneys wrote and filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida identifies the children by their initials — H.C., M.F. and T.M.

All three have learning disabilities, the complaint states.

At most, child inmates in solitary confinement get packets of school work shoved under their cell door, said Sabarish Neelakanta, an attorney at Human Rights Defense Center, which is representing the teenagers in the lawsuit. Teachers who visit the jail speak to the children through steel doors, yards away. The children can peek through a small window in their cell to see a blackboard, but the windows are scratched and hard to see through, Neelakanta said.

The school district said it is reviewing the lawsuit.

The school does have a legal requirement to provide adequate education to all children in the county, even to the inmates with disabilities, Neelakanta said.

“The school board shares, along with the jail, the obligation to provide an education and they have been shirking that responsibility,” Neelakanta said. “They are children and they are schoolchildren and they are required to have an education. Period.”

The jail is overseen by the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office.

One of the children, 16-year-old Honduran H.C., can’t understand the schoolwork because it’s in English.

H.C. was immediately put in solitary confinement when he went to jail on Dec. 1, 2017 because there were other child inmates he wasn’t allowed to be near, according to the complaint. He wasn’t told he could appeal his status and wasn’t given a copy of the inmate rules for the jail, even though the jail requires all inmates have a copy for the duration of their stay.

Inmates can file grievances about their conditions, but Neelakanta said that rarely works.

M.F. was in solitary confinement for six months to be kept away from child codefendants. While in solitary, he did not receive his prescribed medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder, the complaint alleges.

His leg brace was once taken from him when deputies searched his cell, according to the complaint.

T.M. was put in solitary confinement for 20 days for getting into a fight, the complaint states. He was allowed to leave his cell for only 15 minutes a week to take five-minute showers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Although there are only three youths listed in the lawsuit, the complaint details a pattern of abuse from other children who were put in solitary confinement without procedural due process, Neelakanta said. He said they aren’t told that they can appeal it and aren’t given reviews.

The children aren’t told “how they are doing in these boxes they've been tossed into,” he said.

Paul Wright, executive director of Human Rights Defense Center, said the class action is meant to represent all children who have been or will be placed in solitary confinement.

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Therese Barbera said the sheriff’s office doesn’t comment on pending litigation.