Poudre School District sued after ex-paraprofessional found guilty of abusing students with disabilities

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (KDVR) — A lawsuit has been filed against Poudre School District after abuse came to light in 2023 that led to a conviction.

In January, Tyler Zanella, 37, pleaded guilty to seven counts of third-degree assault on an at-risk person, two counts of harassment and two counts of child abuse – knowingly/recklessly causing bodily injury. He originally faced 164 charges . These were the top charges for each of his victims in this case, according to the 8th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Now, parents of two of the victims have come forward and filed a federal lawsuit alleging Poudre School District hired a known child abuser to watch over autistic children and abused them.

In his job application to help these children be safe on the bus, he said he had no criminal record, which is false. He did have a prior conviction on his record for child abuse. The school district did not have his record when he started employment as a bus assistant, whose main role is to assist with special needs children on bus rides.

The lawsuit claims that after the first day on the job, his record came back showing the conviction, but he was allowed to continue employment.

Parents say bruising, marks were noticed on children

Ashton Montgomery was one of the children who suffered the abuse. His parents, Barclay and Daisy started noticing bruising and marks on Ashton shortly after Zanella’s employment. In fact, at one point Ashton suffered a seizure, which he had no history of beforehand. All of which was before they knew what was going on.

“When we would be getting him ready for school in the morning he would be very excited and run to the bus and be excited to go to school and around the time when these strange marks would appear on him, he would cower under our dining room table when we were trying to get him dressed and he did not want to go to school,” Barclay said.

In May 2023, the district pulled video footage from a school bus which the lawsuit claims clearly showed Tyler Zanella slapping, punching and physically torturing and tormenting non-verbal autistic kids, many of whom weighed less than 50 pounds and were unable to report his misconduct due to their disabilities. Ashton was one of those children.

“We couldn’t even finish watching the videos, I assumed that he was doing the right thing and taking care of my sweet little boy instead of beating him, spitting on him, hitting him with his backpack, hitting him in the head with a metal water bottle, kicking him, punching him so hard that his head would bounce off of the bus window. He told Ashton that his daddy does not like him and other hurtful things,” Barclay said.

Paraprofessional’s actions blamed for boy’s PTSD

That level of intense abuse has left Ashton with severe PTSD and many triggers that weren’t there beforehand, not to mention the difficulty of dealing with that alongside his autism.

“It’s taken forms of head banging, not sleeping, extreme weeping episodes where he’s just crying and crying and when we approach to comfort, he doesn’t want us near him,” Daisy said.

She said that’s been one of the most heartbreaking parts is even though he is no longer nonverbal, he cannot fully express his feelings.

“We did everything right, we researched the schools, we moved here because of their autistic programs because in the south they had nothing. We came here to give Ashton a chance at a great life and this still happened,” Daisy said.

Based on the abuse, the suit claims the district violated the Americans with Disabilities Act for hiring Zanella given his background, as well as other claims of negligence and outrageous conduct. Zanella was ultimately charged criminally, convicted, and sentenced to 12 and a half years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

FOX31 reached out to Poudre School District regarding the suit and claims of abuse. The district sent the following statement.

“Poudre School District takes the safety of our students very seriously. The District is aware of the complaint and will respond through the lawsuit.”

Poudre School District

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