Charges dropped against teacher’s aide

ADA says review of evidence showed there was not a ‘sufficient case’

Charges have been dropped in a case in which a contracted teacher’s aide was accused of simple assault and harassment involving an Indian Valley Middle School special education student.

Erin Horan, 33, of Horsham, was charged after Lower Salford Township police said surveillance video at the school showed her kicking and dragging the 12-year-old student in a vestibule area at the school about 1 p.m. April 12. Another teacher’s aide who witnessed the incident said he heard Horan tell the student, “Get up right now and go back to class,” and “You’re not going to be happy when I get there,” immediately before the incident, investigators said.

After reviewing the case, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office is withdrawing the charges, Assistant District Attorney Erika Wevodau said at an April 30 preliminary hearing before District Judge Albert Augustine, Harleysville.

Requests to the District Attorney’s Office for further comment were not immediately answered.

“I think when the commonwealth reviewed the evidence in this case, including the video and the witness statements, that it was clear to the commonwealth that they didn’t have a sufficient case to proceed on,” Craig Sopin, Horan’s attorney, said following the hearing. “All throughout this proceeding and, in fact, since my client went into this line of business, her primary concern was the safety of the students, and that was her concern in this case, and whatever it is she did was done for the safety of the student, and I think that the commonwealth saw that there was nothing more beyond that, and that’s why the charges were withdrawn.”

The Souderton Area School District previously said the contract under which Horan worked for the district was terminated

following the incident.

The district does not comment on criminal court matters, Superintendent Frank Gallagher said in response to an email seeking comment on the charges having been withdrawn.

“We have ended our relationship with the company

that employed the one-to-one assistant. We will no longer use that company. The safety of our students is always our No. 1 priority,” Gallagher said.

Sopin said Horan wants to continue working as a teacher’s aide.

“She has a son who has special needs himself, so she feels the passion of this particular job perhaps more than most other people would,” he said.

Following Horan’s arrest,

the mother of the child, in an interview with a Philadelphia television station, called the incident a “nightmare” and said that the student did not want to go back to school.

Prior to the start of the April 30 hearing, which was delayed for about two hours, the child’s mother spoke to the District Attorney’s Office in a conference room, where she was apparently told the charges

were being dropped.

Before leaving, the woman returned to the courtroom, which was not in session at the time, and told Horan, “Know for certain, you touch my kid, it ain’t over,” and said, “She should’ve never touched my son.”

“There was a very clear threat, and that’s something my client will be addressing with the police department,” Sopin said following the hearing.