Ambulance records detailing the day a 13-year-old died after being restrained at his special needs school have been given to an El Dorado County judge.
On Tuesday, county officials submitted to Judge Mark Ralphs the records during a brief court hearing for the three staff members at the now-closed Guiding Hands School who are accused of negligence in Max Benson’s 2018 death.
The three staffers — school site administrator Cindy Keller, Guiding Hands principal Staranne Meyers and Kimberly Wohlwend, the teacher accused of restraining Benson during the November 2019 incident — were not expected to attend and did not appear for the status update in Placerville.
County officials released the ambulance records to Ralphs, which included details including that Benson was restrained face down for 105 minutes. When paramedics arrived, they found that Benson had no pulse and was not breathing, according to a civil lawsuit. The teen was declared brain dead the following day at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
Prosecutor Lisette Suder objected to the documents’ submission, saying this is the first time she was hearing about the records. She told the judge she had not been provided with details regarding the documents beforehand.
The next hearing to review the records is scheduled for Feb. 18.
The state Department of Education said in 2018 the school staff used “an amount of force which is not reasonable and necessary under the circumstances.” The school became the subject of several state investigations over its treatment of special-needs students, court documents and state records have shown. In Jan. 2020, state education officials decertified the school, and it closed later that month.
In November 2019, El Dorado County prosecutors formally filed involuntary manslaughter charges against the administrators and teacher at the El Dorado Hills non-public school where the boy died in 2018 after being restrained face down for hours by staffers.
Meyers, Keller and Wohlwend were also named in a civil suit filed against the school and several employees. The suit also names Davis Joint Unified, Elk Grove Unified and Amador County Unified school districts – districts that had contracted with Guiding Hands for education services – along with California Department of Education and special education administrative bodies in Yolo and Amador counties.
The civil suit filed on behalf of Benson’s family and other families of Guiding Hands students alleges Wohlwend held Benson’s upper body while other staff members — Jill Watson, Betty Morgan and Le’Mon Thomas — took turns holding Max’s legs down. …
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