Ligonier Valley School Board President Don Gilbert has accused four fellow board members of interfering in a district investigation into a 2023 incident that left a high school teacher with severe injuries.

The teacher was injured in an encounter with a special needs student. Authorities did not file charges in the case, but the district’s handling of the situation is being investigated by solicitor Gary Matta.

Gilbert said board members Irma Hutchinson, Michael Knupp, Mary Gamble and Jennifer Kromel violated board policy and acted as an unauthorized ad hoc committee when they met at Hutchinson’s home with a potential witness in the investigation.

The four were not asked to do so by the board, Gilbert said. Their actions could be considered an attempt to influence the witness and, in turn, the outcome of the investigation, he said.

Hutchinson told TribLive the Aug. 21 meeting at her Ligonier Borough home with former district substitute teacher Sheila Lundquist occurred after Hutchinson reached out to Lundquist via social media to discuss a post the former teacher made about the district.

Lundquist replied she would rather discuss her experiences with the district in person, Hutchinson said.

All four board members said they saw it as part of their duty to listen to what a constituent had to say about special education at Ligonier Valley. Lundquist lives in Ligonier Township.

“We were very concerned about the special education program,” Hutchinson said.

Matta, recently appointed as district solicitor, said his investigation isn’t complete.

The investigation was prompted by concerns raised by the injured teacher, Linda O’Sullivan, who is now retired. She is still recovering from face, head and neck injuries, including a traumatic brain injury she said resulted from what she described as an assault at the high school Feb. 7, 2023, by a special needs student.

The encounter has been termed an accident by at least one school district administrator.

No criminal charges resulted from an investigation of the 2023 incident, according to the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office.

O’Sullivan has said she believes there was no malice on the part of the student, but she has criticized district administrators. Last month, she called for a district investigation, charging that Superintendent Tim Kantor failed to act on previous concerns reported in September 2022 about the student’s behavior.

Those concerns were documented in copies of email conversations between Lundquist and district administrators that were provided to TribLive. The board members who subsequently met with Lundquist said she provided them with similar copies. Hutchinson said she forwarded those documents to Matta along with notes the members took during their meeting with Lundquist and screenshots of messages that prompted the meeting.

In the emails, Lundquist said the student, who was assigned to a life skills classroom, slapped her once across the face and several times across the chest. She reported the student also struck two classmates on the back of the head, one of them with a thrown book.

Investigation continues

Matta said last month the board “at this point does not believe there has been any wrongdoing whatsoever.” But, he added, the district would “make some appropriate modification” if the investigation determines changes are needed.

Gilbert said Matta was asked to look into the issues O’Sullivan has raised.

Lundquist said she attended an August board meeting in support of O’Sullivan. Lundquist said she did not feel she was being interrogated during the subsequent meeting with Hutchinson and the three other board members but now regrets having participated in it.

“Had I known this was going against school policy, I would not have met with them,” Lundquist said.

She said she hopes the investigation will come to a resolution that benefits Ligonier Valley students and staff.

“We have great teachers and great kids in this district,” she said.

O’Sullivan said, when she initially heard rumors that some board members were conducting what she considers to be a side investigation, she alerted Matta.

“I expressed my concern that it was just going to complicate the situation and make his investigation more difficult,” she said.

Gilbert suggested Hutchinson, Knupp, Gamble and Kromel “may have biased themselves with information provided in their improper investigation, which could lead to prejudice in their decision” if the investigation leads to a hearing before the board.

“None of their information was shared with the other five board members in what could have been perceived as an effort to assist Solicitor Matta,” he said.

Hutchinson, Knupp and Kromel said they believe the information they received from Lundquist at the Aug. 21 meeting is not connected to any investigation of the 2023 incident in which O’Sullivan was injured.

“It is our job to listen to a constituent to hear about her concerns,” Knupp said. “It was not about Linda O’Sullivan and that situation.

“We did not interrogate (Lundquist) for hours. She was giving her side of the story of her personal experiences. We had no intentions of tampering with any investigation.”

“I wanted to hear from her what she was talking about,” Kromel said of Lundquist. “I thought that was the right thing to do. It really had nothing to do with Mrs. O’Sullivan.”

“When they say I’m investigating, I’m not,” said Gamble, who is a retired special education teacher. “We discussed special education.”

Gilbert said he intends to report what he considers violations by the four board members to the state ethics commission for review.

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