Randolph special education teacher to appear in court on student assault charges

Feb. 27-- Feb. 27--RANDOLPH -- A special education teacher accused of assaulting children as young as 6 at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School is due in court next month.

Tricia Rossman, 52, of Rockland, is scheduled to be arraigned on March 11 on two counts of assault and battery on a disabled person and one count of assault and battery on a disabled person causing injury, according to a criminal complaint filed in Quincy District Court by Randolph police. She has not been arrested.

Shortly after Rossman was suspended last month, a teacher's aide assisting in her classroom told police that she had witnessed what she believed were two assaults on students last year. One of the times, the aide said she saw Rossman "drag" a student into a timeout area, then heard a smack sound and saw the child walk away holding their face and crying. The aide told police she was sure Rossman had hit the student in the face.

Another time, in December, the aide said she saw Rossman put her hands on a student's shoulders and appear to be pinching him. The aide said the student was screaming loudly while Rossman had her hands on him. She told police that the special education students in the classroom ranged in age from 6 to 9.

Police said they also spoke to a man whose son told him that Rossman had pushed him in October. The father told police that his son had stopped wanting to go to school and told him that Rossman was mean and would yell.

A different teacher's aide told police that Rossman's classroom was a "toxic environment" and said that Rossman "manhandled" students and yelled at them.

Randolph police said they were notified about the potential abuse on Jan. 23, the same day a letter went to out to parents informing them that Rossman had been put on administrative leave because of accusations of mistreating students in a classroom.

Thea Stovell, interim superintendent of the Randolph Public Schools, declined to describe the allegations at the time and did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

"We continue to remain committed to our efforts to ensure the safety, and physical and emotional well-being of all our students," Stovell said in a January statement. "School personnel, including our special education director and school adjustment counselors, are available to meet with students and parents to address any questions or concerns."

After the letter went out, police said several parents contacted them to share concerns about children coming home from Rossman's classroom with mysterious scratches and bruises.

Joan Batson, a mother of a 6-year-old boy who was in Rossman's classroom, said in an interview Tuesday that her son came home with four large bruises on his thigh, back and rib cage in November or December of last year. She said she texted Rossman about the bruises and the teacher gave her "the runaround."

She said her son, who is non-verbal and has severe autism, also came home in November with a large bruise on his forehead. She said that Rossman's explanations for the bruises didn't make sense and included the claim that the marks on his legs had come from sitting in an odd position.

"I had some worries in the back of my head about (Rossman) but when I got a call from the principal that she was put on leave I was in shock," Batson said. "It's been an emotional roller coaster, but I'm trying to stay strong for my son."

Batson said her son started at the school in October after they moved to Randolph the previous month. She said that her son had once enjoyed going to school but now hates it and had several outbursts and crying fits at home toward the end of February school vacation that she said she felt were because he knew he had to go back to school.

"It's sad because he was new to the district," Batson said. "He's generally calm and fun."

Batson said that she planned on being in court for the teacher's arraignment.

Batson and two other parents of special education students held a meeting earlier this month with other concerned parents to detail share their experiences with Rossman. One parent, Elizabeth Goncalves, said that her 7-year-old son was kicked out of Rossman's class on Jan. 17.

"I wasn't told about it until a day later," she said at the Feb. 5 meeting. "I still don't know exactly what happened. I'm trying to wrap my head around it."

Material from Wicked Local Randolph was used in this report.

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