Student, parent sue district

Board of Education, Lorain police also named in lawsuit over Milk Duds incident

A Lorain City Schools student and her mother are suing the district, the board of education and Lorain police for more than $1 million on negligence claims.

The suit was filed Dec. 6 in Lorain County Common Pleas Court on behalf of Shannon Ciotti and her daughter, Autumn C. Ciotti, both of Lorain.

It names as defendants Lorain City Schools, Lorain Board of Education, Lorain Police Department, Lorain Schools CEO David Hardy Jr., Southview Dean of Academics Melissa Cheers, Southview School Security Guard Michael Johnson and Southview secretary Kimberly Roush, which the lawsuit states is director of out of school suspensions.

The suit makes three claims: negligence; gross negligence; and defamation.

It is seeking more than $50,000 in damages and more than $1 million in punitive damages.

Lorain Schools and Lorain police declined to comment on

the case Dec. 6.

Tony Dimacchia, president of the Lorain Board of Education, declined to comment on the case directly on behalf of the board, but expressed sympathy for the Ciottis.

“I think it’s extremely unfortunate the way the district handled this,” Dimacchia said. “It’s attributed to the lack of experience and incompetence that we’ve been dealing with in this district.”

According to the filing, the suit is a result of a Sept. 20 incident where Autumn, 14, opened a sealed box of Milk Duds at lunch at Southview Middle School, 2321 Fairless Drive, and began eating the candy.

The filing claims a group of students grabbed the candy and began passing it around between them and eating it.

But Autumn previously told The Morning Journal she did not like the Milk Duds, as she found them too sweet, and gave them to another student who then passed them around among another group of students.

The filing said one of the students “blurted out loud” that the candy “smelled like weed,” which drew the attention of Johnson, who sniffed the box and believed it did smell like marijuana.

While taking one of the students who’d eaten the candy to an area of the campus used for in-school suspension, the child indicated he felt “high” and that his head and stomach hurt, the filing says.

The student told Johnson that Autumn had brought the candy, according to the filing.

Roush then “cited” Autumn for a “level III violation – possession of marijuana edibles.”

A manifestation was to be held to determine whether Autumn would be expelled and she was referred to The LCADA Way for counseling, the filing claims.

Lorain police Officer Reuben Figueroa was alerted and confiscated the box as evidence and “supposedly” sent it to the Lorain County Crime Lab for testing.

Figueroa allegedly told Autumn she would be charged in Lorain County Juvenile Court, the filing claims.

As previously reported by The Journal, Ciotti said she already had picked up her daughter from the school before Figueroa was called to the premises.

In a Lorain police report Figueroa filed on his investigation, he wrote that the case should be forwarded to Juvenile Court pending the results of the crime lab’s test on the candy.

Autumn was given a 10day suspension.

The filing claims there was no further followup from the school or police and Ciotti was given notice of an expulsion hearing after Autumn had returned to the school on her own accord.

As previously reported by The Journal, Ciotti received a letter dated Oct. 9, informing her that a hearing would start at 8:30 a.m. the next day to decide whether Autumn would be expelled from school for “possession of marijuana; shared with students,” sent from Arliss Prass, chief of scholar and family engagement officer for Lorain Schools.

Autumn returned to school Oct. 11 after administrators chose not to expel her at the hearing, Ciotti said previously.

The filing says Ciotti repeatedly contacted Figueroa to check the status of the crime lab’s tests and later learned they’d been mislabeled and not sent to the lab.

The problem was resolved and the candy was tested finding no illicit substances.

Ciotti previously told The Journal she received the lab results Oct. 25, two weeks after Autumn was admitted back in school.

While awaiting the results, Ciotti reached out to the Hershey Co., which manufactures Milk Duds, and the company pulled the batch of candy from store shelves and tested it finding no illicit substances, the filing says.

Since Autumn’s return to school, she has been the subject of bullying, from both students and staff, for the situation, according to the filing.

The suit claims that due to the action of the Lorain Schools employees, Autumn was forced to enter counseling, takes anti-depression medication, has panic attacks and other mental health issues.

The suit requests a jury trial before Common Pleas Judge Raymond J. Ewers.