LI Dad Sues District, Accuses Teacher Of Outing Son's Autism Online

BAY SHORE, NY — A Long Island parent is suing a teacher and the Bay Shore School District, accusing her of revealing his son's autism diagnosis in an online article and using his full name without consent.

The father of a 15-year-old student said that a social studies teacher published an article entitled “Sealing Civic Readiness in Our Middle Schools” to the educator-centric website MiddleWeb.com, according to court documents obtained by Patch.

In the article, which was published on May 18, 2022, the teacher publishes the full name, information about the nature and symptoms of his medically diagnosed disabilities, and the accommodations he receives for his disabilities, the lawsuit alleges.

She also "appallingly" made "disparaging and condescending remarks" about the student that were "stigmatizing," according to the lawsuit.

Patch will not list the teacher or father's name for privacy reasons.

The teacher, who has more than 3,000 followers as of Monday, shared the article on Twitter, the lawsuit accused. It also was discovered by the National Council for Social Studies who shared it in its “SmartBrief” newsletter as the lead article, the suit added.

"(Teacher's name) stigmatizing remarks were shared to tens of thousands of people without the knowledge or consent of T.S. or his parents," the lawsuit said.

The father claims that the school district’s director of special education was made aware that of the article, but "didn’t take any meaningful actions" about it.

The district was made aware of the article on May 25, 2022. But the “link” was made inaccessible to the public until June 9, 2022, the suit said.

The lawsuit claims the district failed to comply with §121.1(a) of the regulation in that they failed to report the incident within the 10 calendar days from the incident.

This resulted in the student sustaining emotional distress, ridicule, humiliation, embarrassment, and stigmatization, documents said.

"There was no justification for the publishing of (student's initials) protected medical and educational records," the lawsuit said. "The publication was done solely for the advancement of defendant (teacher's name) professional career and her financial well-being."

Superintendent Dr. Steven J. Maloney and principal of Bay Shore Middle School, Dr. Lisette Lors, are also listed as defendants in the lawsuit.

"The Bay Shore School District does not comment on pending litigation," the district told Patch in a statement.

Patch reached out to Derek S. Sells, the father's attorney, and Adam I. Kleinberg, the teacher's attorney, but neither immediately responded to the request for comment.