Alyssa Wright’s name kept coming up at last month’s hearing on whether Central Bucks School District’s superintendent and Jamison Elementary School’s principal should be terminated for mishandling child abuse allegations.
The duo on the hot seat, Superintendent Steven Yanni and Principal David Heineman, pointed fingers at Wright, who didn’t testify at the hearing.
Now Central Bucks’ former-Director of Pupil Services is sharing her side of the story. In a federal lawsuit filed last week in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Central Bucks and eight school board members, Wright says she was a whistleblower who was being scapegoated after raising concerns over the pace and competence of the investigation into suspected abuse of autistic children at Jamison.
The lawsuit is the latest turn in a scandal that has been unfolding in Central Bucks since November when a personal-care assistant submitted a complaint to the district detailing abuse by a special education teacher and educational assistant. It alleged that autistic children were “improperly restrained, physically punished, left undressed for extended periods, and prevented from drinking water and communicating using speech devices.”
Yanni and Heineman are both currently on leave pending the board’s final decision on their termination, which could come as soon as next month.
Wright, who oversaw all special education services in the district, had no power over the district’s internal investigation or to overrule personnel decisions at Jamison, and was not involved in communications with law-enforcement, the suit says. Wright claims to have been left in the dark, with minimal information, for the first weeks of the investigation.
Wright questioned why the staff investigated for abuse was allowed to continue teaching in the school, according to a copy of email messages included in the complaint. She also attempted to meet with school board president, Susan Gibson, to discuss the investigation but her request was denied, the suit says.
In March, Wright filed a 13-page whistleblower complaint directly with Yanni and other district officials, the suit says. She accused Heineman of attempting to terminate the personal-care assistant who reported the abuse initially. She also accused Yanni and other administrators of misleading the police and lying to the public.
To further her claim on the district’s failure to respond and investigated misconduct, Wright said that she previously reported sexual harassment but her complaints were ignored.
Wright’s whistleblower complaint was a turning point, in the lawsuit’s telling. After it, the suit says, the school board held an emergency meeting, expanded its investigation, and demanded results from the district.
“In sum, prior to March 3, 2025, Defendants were a do-nothing entity and Board who watched serious problems unfold and continue as if they were an audience in a reality TV show,” the complaint says.
But in May, after four years at Central Bucks, Wright was placed on administrative leave and in August she was terminated.
A June statement of charge explaining the termination says, according to the suit, that Wright should have “been on notice of potential child abuse” at Jamison before the complaint, failed to report “unlawful restrains” to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and participated in a speaking engagement without approval.
The lawsuit disputes each one of the allegations, and calls them a “pretext” for Wright’s termination. It further claims that the Wright was singled out and was denied due process.
Ari Karpf, an attorney with Karpf, Karpf & Cerutti who represents Wright, declined to comment.
District solicitor Peter Amuso, an attorney with Clarke Gallagher Barbiero Amuso & Glassman Law, said in a statement Wright’s termination was “neither wrongful nor in retaliation” and Central Bucks will “fight her claims vigorously.”
“Ms. Wright was terminated by a unanimous vote of the school board for her persistent negligence in the performance of her duties as director of pupil services, as well as her persistent and willful violation of or failure to comply with the school law of the Commonwealth related to the district’s response to the abuse of children at Jamison Elementary School,” Amuso said.
School board member, James Pepper, who is the only school board member not named as a defendant in the suit and whose son was one of the four students in the autistic support classroom, said in June he felt Wright was wrongly terminated. He abstained from the final vote in August on her termination.
District officials initially denied the allegations, and said police investigated the matter and found no criminal conduct. Community members corroborated the allegations in statements to the school board.
In April, Disability Rights PA issued a report finding the allegations credible and accusing district administrators of failing to adequately investigate the matter. The watchdog group also said that the administrators’ belated report with ChildLine, the state’s hotline for child protective services, “withheld relevant information from ChildLine and then the police.
The lawsuit comes roughly a month after the Central Bucks School Board held two days of termination hearings for Yanni and Jamison principal Heineman, as Amuso alleged the two administrators failed to take appropriate action in response to the reports of child abuse.
They were both placed on leave in the spring and were two of five employees whom the school board moved to terminate in June, including the teacher, Gabrielle McDaniel, and educational assistant, Rachel Aussprung, who are accused of carrying out the abuse (McDaniel has denied wrongdoing).
Yanni and Heineman testified at the August hearing. The superintendent emphasized that he was responding to the abuse allegations based on information he was given from other district administrators, including Wright.
“I asked her if she was comfortable with the path forward… she was,” Yanni said during the hearing.