One San Jose mother recently experienced a parent’s worst nightmare: Her disabled son told her that he was being molested by a school employee and no one would believe him. The mother pulled her son from the school, but her accusations were ignored by both school administrators and the police until she contacted until she contacted attorneys Christopher Dolan and Heather Sweeney of the Dolan Law Firm.
Chris Dolan, owner of The Dolan Law Firm, and Ms. Sweeney are helping the mother take legal action against Achieve Kids, a school for developmentally disabled students. The mother says that her autistic son was molested by a 33-year-old teacher’s aide at the school named Waking Bailey.
Local prosecutors are now highly interested in the case, but unfortunately, additional children have been harmed by the school’s failure to protect students from the child predator.”Our client did everything right, went to the school, went to the authorities and yet here we are, four years later, and there are three additional victims,” Ms. Sweeney said.The San Jose mother met with Achieve Kids school administrators regarding her son’s accusations, but the school officials accused her son of lying and took no action. Fearing that her child was in danger, the mother pulled him out of Achieve Kids and filed a police report. She was told that police would look into the matter, but the investigation went nowhere and no one followed up on her child’s accusations until she sought the help of Dolan Law Firm.
Chris Dolan and the legal team at Dolan Law Firm will help the mother and her son hold administrators accountable for their inaction and prevent other children from suffering similar abuse.
“The mother is hoping to change school policies and ensure that her son will have the ability to get the therapy and the schooling he will need in the future,” Chris Dolan said. “We hope that our suit will ensure any allegations of abuse made in the future will be taken seriously and handled appropriately.”
An appropriate school response to allegations of child molestation would entail putting an accused individual on paid administrative leave and conducting a full investigation into the accusations. Schools should also have procedures in place to remove suspected child molesters when multiple allegations are made against a school employee like Mr. Bailey.
“After Mr. Bailey was arraigned and in response to the media’s inquiry into the case, we received many calls from members of the community,” Ms. Sweeney said. “We do believe he has more victims.”
ABC News reports that Bailey is also charged with raping an 18-year-old mentally handicapped girl at Achieve Kids and molesting two young girls at a Los Gatos residential care facility.
“Unfortunately we are seeing a rush of abuse cases involving the developmentally disabled,” Chris Dolan said. “These most vulnerable in our society need our protection.”
