Woodland Hills High School students report physical abuse from school staff
Multiple students at Woodland Hills High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are accusing school administrators of abusive practices during 2015 and 2016. These claims were supported when Todd Hollis released a damning video showing school Officer Steve Shaulis get into a physical altercation with Que’Chawn Wade, 14.
By the end of the incident, Wade was on the way to a local hospital to have a tooth sewn back in after Shaulis punched it out, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“Four kids have been injured as a result of some conduct by one or more administrators at the high school,” said Hollis, who represented another student who recorded high school principal Kevin Murray threatening to “knock his … teeth” down his throat.
To make matters worse, there’s also a second video from 2015 that shows Shaulis throw a boy to the ground and then use a taser on him while Murray helped to hold him down. The student in question was acquitted of resisting arrest, but received probation on a charge of disorderly conduct. Wade was charged with charged with resisting arrest, simple assault, aggravated assault and making terroristic threats for his incident. His case is still pending.
“They make you flinch when you see what they did to that young man,” said Tim O’Brien, who’s representing the fourth student, a 15-year-old girl with a very similar story.
Despite the surveillance footage, which local investigators have been made aware of, Murray is still employed. He was initially put on paid administrative leave in December but was reinstated in January. He was then appointed as head high school football coach last month.
“We are disappointed that Mr. Hollis is attempting to take a small number of widely separated incidents and spin them into a conspiracy or a pattern of abuse that simply does not exist,” said Superintendent Alan Johnson.
According to a poll on The Post-Gazette’s website, only 27% of voters were surprised by the incidents compared to 65% who weren’t.