Abuse Allegations At Banneker Elementary Expose Concerning Patterns In Special Education Programs

LOVEVILLE, Md. — When St. Mary’s County mom Summer Owens sent her 9-year-old son, Evan, to Benjamin Banneker Elementary School on the morning of Sept. 23, she never expected he’d come home covered in bruises and urine.

And yet she says he did. According to Owens, that afternoon, the school called to inform her that they were having trouble getting Evan on the bus. Owens and her fiancé went to the school to find Evan cornered by teachers, covered in sweat, and in a complete panic. Owens said she was able to get him home.

Evan has Down syndrome. He’s autistic and mostly nonverbal and has spent his time in school in special education classrooms in St. Mary’s County, where Owens alleges he has been repeatedly injured over the last few years — injuries that have not been adequately explained by the school or its administrators. She says Evan has repeatedly come home with bruises or scratches and has had two concussion evaluations this year. The school sent home a nurse’s note for those injuries saying he fell backward out of his chair. Owens claims there were numerous other injuries where the school did not reach out to the parents, including those she believes may have been related to restraints.

And while the physical injuries are what finally motivated Owens to share her story on social media, she claims she’s been fighting the school for years about following Evan’s Individualized Education Program (IEP). She says the school doesn’t make Evan wear his hearing aids, has used restraints on him that aren’t approved in his plan, and was using candy to bribe him to get on the bus without her knowledge — a move that she believes could come at a major cost to Evan’s development and his learning to self-regulate.

Owens alleges that the school refused to acknowledge Evan’s autism diagnosis because it came from an institution outside the school and because it was “medical, not educational.” The urine incident was also upsetting, she said, because it was a clear indication Evan’s IEP wasn’t being followed; Evan struggles with incontinence and is supposed to be in diapers. On the day of Sept. 30, Owens said she sent him to school in a diaper.

“So someone took off his diaper and didn’t put a new one on,” she said. “How do you miss that?”

After Evan came home with injuries, Owens took to her Facebook to share his story and her anger. To her surprise, other parents quickly chimed in. Each parent of a special needs child had a complex story, alleging years of ignored IEPs, mysterious injuries, and lack of accountability.

Michelle* — a parent who spoke on the condition of anonymity — said that her son Tyler* came home on his first day of second grade at Banneker with scratches on his arms, bruises on his body, and swollen wrists and ankles. Tyler had safety issues last year, mainly with ingesting things he wasn’t supposed to, which Michelle says shouldn’t happen if the school follows his IEP.

“He’s supposed to be in close proximity to an adult at all times,” Michelle said. “How is he eating rocks if he’s with an adult at all times?”

Lindsey Holmes’ son Gavin is now 12 and thriving in his new middle school classroom, with a teacher who communicates daily with Holmes through the school’s chat app. But Gavin’s time at Banneker, she said, was filled with incidents — from kindergarten through Gavin’s second fifth-grade year.

Holmes recalled that when Gavin was in first grade, she worried about him making a run for it into the road when he saw his school bus approaching, so she preferred waiting at the end of the driveway and walking him up when the bus stopped.

“It was like, an extra ten seconds at the most,” Holmes said. But she said Gavin’s bus driver screamed at them for wasting time.

Holmes followed the bus to school in her car to report the incident and says she was turned away by the school’s special education director, Audrey Ellis. The BayNet could not corroborate this complaint because Holmes said she made it verbally, rather than in writing.

She said there were other occurrences throughout the year. Most vividly, she recalls a fifth-grade incident where Gavin came home scratched from head to toe. He contracted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from the scratches, according to Holmes.

Like Evan and Tyler, Gavin had issues with his IEP in addition to the injuries, Holmes said. He was left behind for Special Olympics and didn’t participate in the end-of-year choir concert because he had stopped going to choir at some point. Holmes was unaware he hadn’t been going, or why.

Holmes said she always took her concerns to the school, not the police, because she thought another student was at fault for Gavin’s injuries and she’d “hate to see another family come at her son if the roles were reversed.”

She acknowledges that there are risks in special education classrooms, where many students are nonverbal and have impulse control issues or other co-disabilities that make it hard for them to manage strong emotions or impulses and sometimes lash out at others.

“But if there’s an incident, I need to know about it,” she said. “I need to know what happened and how. I shouldn’t be learning about these injuries for the first time when I give him a bath at night,” Holmes said.

Holmes also said there were frequent substitutes in Gavin’s class that year, and she thinks that some of the errors around Gavin’s school experience were due to a revolving door of teachers.

Special education teachers must have a bachelor’s degree and a special education certificate. Substitute teachers, however, do not need to have either of those qualifications to work in the district or in special education classrooms. And, like many other aspects of Gavin’s education, Holmes said she didn’t know about the changing substitutes from the school until a friend told her they were subbing in Gavin’s class.

Holmes also acknowledged the challenge of following all the kids’ IEPs when there are 18 kids in a class and three educators. Each classroom has one teacher and two paraeducators. The BayNet could not confirm the class sizes of each program.

“They told me after the scratching incident that they were ‘keeping the other student separate from everyone,’” Holmes said. “Okay? How is that possible when there’s three staff and 18 kids?”

Owens said she’d heard of another elopement incident at Banneker where a child wasn’t found for hours. The BayNet could not confirm that report.

The BayNet could not independently verify many of the parents’ allegations described in this story.

Owens and Michelle both said they called the police after their sons came home with their most serious injuries this year. In both cases, they documented the injuries and provided “incident numbers.” The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office said Michelle’s police report wasn’t available because the case was ongoing.

Owens says in her case, the investigator told her that it was only a criminal act if he believed Evan was hurt with “intent to harm.” There was also talk about reporting the incident to Child Protective Services, but when Owens called, officials told her they couldn’t tell her anything about it.

Michelle said she later met with the school principal, Wendy Zimmerman, about an internal investigation into her son’s injuries and felt that the review was inconclusive. The school found no wrongdoing and did not provide an explanation for the injuries.

In nearly every instance where the parents said they tried to get more information, they were told that the school could not discuss student matters.

Owens also alleges that the school has “iced out” the advocate she hired to help steer Evan’s educational plan. She said they’re removing the advocate from emails she’s copied on, and that Ellis refused via email to honor Owens’ written request to communicate with the advocate or add her to Evan’s IEP.

The BayNet reached out to the St. Mary’s County Board of Education (BOE), Benjamin Banneker Principal Wendy Zimmerman, and Special Education Director Audrey Ellis. Ellis and Zimmerman did not reply, but the BOE told us that they couldn’t discuss student matters and declined an interview. They did not respond to further requests for information on internal investigation procedures, hiring practices, or the special education programs at the school.

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) dictates most policies and procedures for special education. MSDE also didn’t respond to requests for information on how internal investigations are conducted. Records show Banneker and Ellis have been involved in previous special education complaints brought by parents or caregivers.

One complaint from February 2025 shows MSDE found that SMCPS violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Since the district already acknowledged they didn’t follow proper procedure, MSDE wrote, “MSDE concurs with the SMCPS’ conclusions and appreciates the school system’s response to the investigation.”

Former Benjamin Banneker teacher Alexis Mocco said she witnessed and reported several concerning incidents while she worked there as a special education teacher in the 3-year-old preschool class. She described instances in which she said staff handled students roughly, which she reported to administrators.

“I’m not going to discount or minimize the level of needs in these programs,” Mocco said. “You’ve got kids with some significant aggressive behavior. But for a child approaching you from behind, there’s a better solution than backhanding them.”

Mocco said she brought her concerns to school administrators multiple times and was disheartened by what she perceived as a lack of accountability.

“Everyone in this system, from top to bottom, is concerned with covering their own a**,” Mocco said.

The law says that public schools must provide an “appropriate, free education” to all students, including those in special education.

An appropriate education in Maryland’s special education programs isn’t necessarily identical to general education. Children like Evan, Gavin and Tyler take academic subjects at developmentally appropriate levels. Other elements of their programs focus on life skills and therapeutic sessions to help them eventually live as independently as possible. If a public school system cannot provide that, it is supposed to facilitate — and if necessary, pay for — a student to attend a more suitable school.

Parents fighting for their children to be sent to private schools at public expense may be seen by some as trying to game the system. But the idea is no more radical than religious exemptions or school voucher programs, and in this case, parents say it’s about basic access to safe and appropriate education.

According to multiple families interviewed, Banneker is likely not unique. Schools across the country face staffing shortages and budget constraints — and special education is especially impacted. These problems originate at the policy level, but they play out in classrooms every day, affecting students and staff.

Teachers like Mocco have been raising concerns for years.

Special education funding is often inconsistent and subject to political shifts. Congress has provided only a portion of what was originally promised when the IDEA was passed 50 years ago. Even when funding is available, distribution, compliance, and implementation remain ongoing challenges.

And while special education teachers now often earn salaries comparable to or higher than general education teachers, the profession overall continues to face worker shortages — especially in lower-income or rural areas where burnout is high and support can be limited.

At every level, there are gaps. Parents and teachers say those flaws are buried in paperwork, vague responses, and internal reviews that offer few answers and even fewer changes.

Instead of real solutions, many parents feel the system is designed to avoid responsibility — and to prevent the legal or financial liability that could result from admitting fault.

So where does that leave families?

It leaves them in the dark — trying to protect children they love, while navigating a system they can’t see, control, or fully understand.

All three boys in this story are autistic. All three are mostly nonverbal. All three have elopement tendencies. Tyler loves cuddles and animals; Evan likes to make people laugh. Gavin doesn’t have many words, but one of his favorites is “pizza.”

All three have come home with injuries. And, their parents say, no one has explained how those injuries happened.

“Things need to change,” Holmes said. “That’s all I want. I want a better situation for these kids. I want the schools to have the resources and the right people to give it to them.”

So far, she said she’s been extremely happy with Gavin’s experience in middle school. He’s thriving there, and she feels like her voice is being heard. Ongoing communication with a qualified teacher, she said, has made a huge difference.

Michelle, however, is still waiting for answers. And she said she’s unsure what to do about Tyler’s schooling — right now, there’s no good option.

“What choice do I have, really?” she asked. “I’m faced with sending him back there and risking that he’ll get hurt again. Or I quit my job to stay home with him, and I risk not being able to provide the livelihood that keeps a roof over our heads and helps him get all the services he needs.”

“Let’s be honest, both those scenarios are neglect,” she said.

Owens said her main goal is to get Evan transferred out of Banneker. She also wants accountability — and change. Beneath her frustration, she said, is fear.

“He’s regressing,” she said tearfully. “I watch his progress, and he’s not doing the things they’re supposed to be helping him do there. He can do so much more, and he’s not getting the chance. I just want my child safe. I want him to get the best care he can to make him successful.”

“The thing is,” she added, “he’s going to get bigger, and he’s going to get stronger. And he needs those coping skills — he needs to know how to self-regulate and redirect for his own safety and for other people. He’s losing time.”

Meanwhile, more stories from parents continue to emerge.

(Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect privacy.)

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