Parents are suing the Poudre School District over its hiring of a convicted child molester, ignoring months of complaints

The parents of two children abused by a bus aide in Fort Collins have sued the Poudre School District for knowingly hiring a man convicted of child molestation to care for at-risk children and systematically ignoring complaints about his treatment in the workplace .

In April, paraprofessional Tyler Zanella was convicted in Larimer County District Court of child molestation and sentenced to 12 years in prison for physically and emotionally abusing multiple children – mostly on the bus to and from school.

He wasn’t a first-time offender.

Zanella was charged with child molestation in Adams County in 2012. He ultimately pleaded guilty to criminal negligence and was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

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 despite knowing he had a previous child molestation 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 child molestation conviction to work as a paraprofessional with children, not just children, but children with special needs. That seems obvious, but maybe it’s not,” McDonald said. “I believe the only option is to remove Mr. Zanella from the community for as long as possible.”

Attorneys representing two families whose children were victims of abuse say the school district’s multiple failures go well beyond hiring Zanella and include the people who filed complaints about the bus aide and did nothing about it for months.

District officials allowed Zanella to begin work before he received the results of his background check, which in itself demonstrated a willingness to “put students at risk from those with a criminal history that PSD only learned about after employees made contact with.” had children,” it says in the lawsuit.

Zanella had lied when applying for a job at Poudre and denied that he had a criminal record.

When human resources determined he had been dishonest, they allowed him to continue working in the same capacity at the Poudre School District, where he helped special needs children between the ages of 5 and 10, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit also states that he has had other various arrests and charges for driving-related offenses, including a charge of driving under the influence.

After his hiring, attorneys for the parents said the school district and several individual employees violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by failing to take seriously concerns and allegations of abuse raised by parents.

Many district employees are accused of ignoring complaints

In addition to the school district, the lawsuit names an elementary school principal, the assistant human resources director, a bus operator and Poudre’s transportation director as defendants.

At some point, the parents individually went to several of these individuals to express their concerns about Zanella’s behavior.

Transportation manager Sonja Novovesky dismissed a mother’s concerns, telling her that Zanella was “a good guy.”

The same parent then contacted Shepardson Elementary’s family liaison, Jenny Reyes, who emailed Principal Wayne Thornes with complaints that Zanella was pulling her daughter’s hair and upsetting her.

The principal encouraged the children to give Zanella another chance, the lawsuit says. Although he asked Zanella to stop, he did not comply with the legal reporting requirement and did not inform the authorities about the allegations, the lawsuit said.

David Oliver, the primary bus driver who worked with Zanella, was also notified about complaints about Zanella, according to the lawsuit, but he did nothing that resulted in further child abuse.

In addition, Oliver and Zanella had a recorded conversation about visiting a plaintiff parent’s home with assault rifles, the lawsuit says.

Oliver referred to a victim named TP and said, “I think we should buy some assault rifles and go to TP’s house.”

Zanella said, “I don’t have to do that, I’ll give you my gun… Just take my pistol.” An assault rifle would be more fun though.”

Oliver said, “Oh yeah. But cut off their knees, we want them to suffer.”

Oliver has since retired from PSD, but attorneys said they wanted him not to be considered for reinstatement because of his involvement in the events, the lawsuit says.

Sabrina Herrick, mother of one of the victims and a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit, said she was amazed at all the warning signs that so many people systematically ignored. Her daughter is now in sixth grade and speaks more than before, but has special needs and autism.

“We’ve had a lot of time to sit down and go through the police reports and the details they’ve uncovered about the number of people reported are staggering,” Herrick said. “How many people knew something was going on and didn’t report it or deal with it appropriately when they were at a level where something could be done?”

Emily Shockley, a spokeswoman for Poudre County, declined to answer questions about how they have changed hiring practices since Zanella’s conviction.

“The Poudre School District takes the safety of our students very seriously. The district is aware of the complaint and will respond with the lawsuit,” she said in an email.