In Larimer County, Colorado, the Poudre School District has agreed to pay over $16 million to ten families following a legal settlement. This decision comes after a former paraprofessional from the school district, Tyler Zanella, admitted to charges of child abuse and assault.
Ten families filed a lawsuit in October on behalf of their children who were mistreated by Tyler Zanella. Zanella, who was employed as a bus attendant to assist elementary school children with autism, some of whom were non-verbal, was accused of abusive behavior. The families, represented by the law firm Killmer Lane, LLP, argued that the school district should not have hired Zanella, noting that he had not disclosed a previous criminal conviction for child abuse when applying for the job.
Zanella started working for the district in August 2022. A video shared by the law firm revealed instances of Zanella slapping, pinching, and hitting children on the school bus between March and May 2023. Upon observing signs of physical abuse, district officials reviewed bus surveillance footage, confirming Zanella’s misconduct, which they promptly reported to the authorities.
Zanella was arrested in May 2023, fired and charged with 164 counts.
The school district told Denver7 in 2024 that since his arrest, it has “implemented additional measures to ensure our district is a safe haven for learning and growth… The district’s human resources protocol prohibits the hiring of individuals with any conviction related to child abuse or neglect.”
In January 2024, Zanella accepted a plea deal and pleaded guilty to seven counts of third-degree assault (against an at-risk person), two counts of harassment and two counts of child abuse. In April 2024, he was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison without the possibility of parole. The judge ruled that he would spend 10.5 years in the Department of Corrections after serving two years in the Larimer County Jail.
The parents filed the lawsuit in the fall of 2024.
It alleges that the district knew about Zanella’s criminal history and “hired him for a role that involved him having access to and authority over multiple exceptionally vulnerable young children.” Zanella had previously been arrested on a charge of child abuse in 2012, and that case was dismissed after he pleaded guilty to child abuse (negligence – no injury), which is a misdemeanor. The lawsuit also claims the defendants failed to intervene after learning of assault and bullying incidents.
You can read the full lawsuit below.
“The most shocking aspect of this case is that school district officials almost immediately knew that on his application for the school bus job, Zanella lied by failing to report that he had a prior criminal conviction for child abuse, yet they put him on the bus despite this knowledge, where he continued to torment and torture the most helpless children in Colorado,” the law firm said in a press release on Wednesday.
The settlement amount of $16,200,000 will be funded by the school district and its insurance carrier, the Colorado School Districts Self Insurance Pool. The latter will contribute $10 million, with the district covering the remainder.
Denver7 has requested comment from the school district. We have not heard back as of publishing time.
In the wake of cases involving school employees assaulting children with special needs, Denver7 Investigates looked into Colorado’s current policies and what parents and advocates want to change in May 2024. Watch that report below.
After multiple claims, how are Colorado schools preventing school bus abuse?
