The parents of two children who were abused by a bus aide in Fort Collins have sued the Poudre School District for knowingly hiring a man convicted of child abuse to take care of vulnerable children and for systemically ignoring complaints about his treatment on the job.
In April, paraprofessional Tyler Zanella was convicted in Larimer County District Court of child abuse and sentenced to 12 years in prison for physically and emotionally abusing multiple kids — mostly on the bus to and from school.
He wasn’t a first-time offender.
Zanella was charged with a felony child abuse charge in 2012 in Adams County. He ultimately pleaded to a misdemeanor negligence charge and was sentenced at the time to 18 months probation.
At Zanella’s sentencing in April, Larimer County Judge Daniel McDonald had harsh words for school district officials who made the decision to hire Zanella, even though they knew he had a previous child abuse conviction in Adams County.
“I have no idea who needs to hear this, and I have no idea if they’re in this room or not, but you don’t hire someone with a conviction of child abuse to be a paraprofessional to work with kids, not just kids, but kids with special needs. That seems self-evident, but maybe it is not,” McDonald said. “I believe that the only option is to remove Mr. Zanella from the community for as long as I can.”
Lawyers representing two families whose kids were victims of abuse say that the school district’s multiple failures reach far beyond hiring Zanella and include the people who fielded complaints about the bus aide and did nothing about them for months.
District officials allowed Zanella to start working before receiving the results of his background check, which in and of itself showed a willingness to “place students at risk from individuals with a criminal history that PSD learned about only after hirees had contact with children,” according to the lawsuit.
Zanella had lied on his application to work for Poudre, denying that he had any previous criminal convictions.
When human resources officials discovered that he had been dishonest, they allowed him to keep working at the Poudre School District in the same capacity, which was assisting special needs kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old, according to the lawsuit. He also had other various arrests and citations for driving-related offenses, including a driving under the influence citation, the lawsuit said.
Once he was hired, the parents’ lawyers said that the school district, and several individual employees, violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause by not taking concerns and allegations of abuse raised by the parents seriously.
Many district employees accused of ignoring complaints
In addition to the school district, the lawsuit names an elementary principal, the assistant director of human resources, a bus operator and the Poudre transportation supervisor as defendants.
At one time or another, parents went to several of these people individually to raise concerns about Zanella’s behavior.
The transportation supervisor, Sonja Novovesky, dismissed one mother’s concerns and told her that Zanella “was a good guy.”
The same parent then went to Shepardson Elementary’s family liaison, Jenny Reyes, who emailed the principal, Wayne Thornes, about complaints that Zanella pulled her daughter’s hair and flipped her off.
The principal encouraged the children to give Zanella another chance, the lawsuit said. He did tell Zanella to stop, but he didn’t fulfill the mandatory reporting law and didn’t tell any authorities about the allegations, the lawsuit said.
David Oliver, the main bus driver who worked with Zanella, was also put on notice about complaints about Zanella, according to the lawsuit, but he didn’t do anything, which led to further child abuse.
In addition, Oliver and Zanella had a recorded conversation about visiting a complaining parent’s house with assault rifles, the lawsuit said.
Oliver referenced a victim called T.P. and said, “I think we should buy some assault rifles and go down to T.P.’s house.”
Zanella said, “I don’t need to do that, I’ll give you my gun … Just take my handgun. An assault rifle would be more fun though.”
Oliver said, “Oh, yeah. Chomp ‘em off at the knees though, we want them to suffer.”
Oliver has since retired from PSD, but lawyers said they want him to be ineligible for rehiring due to his involvement in the events, the lawsuit said.
Sabrina Herrick, a mother of one of the victims and a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit, said she is flabbergasted about all of the warning signs that so many people systematically ignored. Her daughter is now in sixth grade and is more verbal than she used to be, but has special needs and autism.
“We’ve had a lot of time to sit down and go through police reports and the details they’ve turned up about how many people they’ve turned up is mind-boggling,” Herrick said. “How many people knew something was going on and failed to report it, or failed to handle it appropriately if they were at a level something could be done?”
Emily Shockley, a Poudre district spokeswoman, declined to answer questions about how they have changed hiring practices since Zanella’s conviction.
“Poudre School District takes the safety of our students very seriously. The District is aware of the complaint and will respond through the lawsuit,” she said, in an email.
