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Gateway settles parents' suit over child queries
Tuesday, February 13, 2001 By Eleanor Chute, Post-Gazette Education Writer
Gateway School District parents who complained their elementary children had been asked personal questions without parent permission in 1995 have settled their lawsuit.
The agreement completed yesterday includes a $225,000 payment -- or about $1,400 for each of the 80 plaintiffs -- and a pledge to destroy any results or findings.
The defendants named in the agreement are the school district, school board, the University of Pittsburgh and its Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.
The parents and their children filed the lawsuit in 1997 over a program known as PSWIM -- for the Pittsburgh School-Wide Intervention Model -- at elementary schools in Gateway.
The program, developed at Western Psych, was used in Gateway for less than three months when it was shut down after parents objected to the types of questions asked of pupils in psychological profiles.
It also was used in some other school districts which were not part of the lawsuit.
The suit stated that the children were asked "outrageous and highly personal questions." The suit charged it had caused nightmares and other reactions in some children.
An attorney for Western Psych in 1997 said the questions were in preparation for a federally funded behavior modification program that would reinforce good conduct with incentives.
Proponents said the program was designed to help teachers better manage their classrooms.
A trial had been scheduled for Feb. 5 before U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose, but the trial was avoided as the agreement was nearly completed by then.
"We feel pretty good about it," said Vince McCarthy, an attorney for the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal aid organization that represented the parents and their children.
"It's really what we were looking for. It gets the program out of the school system, destroys any information taken and includes assurances a program like this won't happen again," he said.
McCarthy said about half of the $225,000 will go to the 80 plaintiffs -- parents and children -- at a rate of $1,406 per person. Thus, a family with two parents and one child would receive three times that amount.
He said the rest goes to various attorney fees and expenses. He said his center is not receiving attorney fees but is receiving $67,500 for costs, including depositions.
Attorney Bethann Lloyd, who represented the school district, said the district's share of the payment is $75,000 and will be paid by insurance.
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