WRAL News had the only camera in the courtroom on Thursday morning as three Durham Public School administrators were arraigned on obstruction of justice charges.
Tounya Wright, Tanya Giovanni and Ayesha Hunter face charges related to an incident in November 2024 at Eno Valley Elementary School. An instructional assistant allegedly tied up a 6-year-old girl with autism using a jump rope.
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Wright was the principal of the school at the time; she has since resigned. She is charged with three counts of obstruction, each carrying a maximum of 39 months. She is also charged with perjury, which carries 59 months.
Giovanni is a deputy superintendent at DPS, currently on leave. She is charged with five counts of felony obstruction.
Hunter is the senior executive director of employee relations, and is also currently on leave. She is charged with six counts of felony obstruction and two counts of perjury.
Prosecutors say those administrators provided inconsistent information during the investigation.
Now, the child's parent has filed a lawsuit, saying the student was tied up because she was humming, “a normal sensory-regulation behavior commonly associated with her disability.”
The suit alleges one of the adults in the room “responded by forcibly tying the minor Plaintiff to a table with a jump rope, bruising and restraining her body, and restricting her movement,” while the other adult “permitted, encouraged, or otherwise consented to the acts,” and “failed to intervene.”
The suit says the 6-year-old came home with bruises on her stomach and hips that required medical treatment.
That lawsuit names Wright, the woman who is accused of tying the child up, and the other adult in the classroom; neither of those women has been charged criminally.
The attorney for the child’s parent argues in the filing that Wright was responsible for the student’s care and “failed to exercise ordinary care in ensuring that competent, trained, and safe individuals were supervising the minor Plaintiff.”
The filing argues Wright had a duty to “properly hire, screen, train, supervise, and retain competent caregivers,” and it says her actions amount to misconduct.
The suit says the child “has suffered severe physical, emotional, and psychological trauma.”
Giovanni and Hunter are not named in the lawsuit.
Giovanni, Hunter, and Wright all have hired private attorneys and are scheduled to be back in Durham County Court on March 4.