Thursday, 4:30 PM
Jury awards $2 million verdict against school for autistic children
By Michael Naughton, Globe correspondent
A Suffolk County jury awarded $2 million today to the family of an autistic boy who was abused at a private school for autistic children in Randolph, the lawyers for the family said.
The jury found Robert Fantasia, the executive director of the Boston Higashi School; three teachers; a doctor; and an administrator at the school responsible for the physical abuse caused to Scott Tedeman. The student's family said it discovered the abuse in 2000 and later withdrew him from the school where he was a residential student for 14 years.
School officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Boston Higashi, one of more than 200 private special education schools where Massachusetts students can attend on state-financed tuition, is known for its unorthodox methods of teaching autistic students. Last year, a former teacher was convicted of injuring a student.
