Days after security guards in Lowry Public Elementary School allegedly assaulted a father who refused to send his son to school in a mask, a special ed teacher allegedly put his 7-year-old son in a restraint hold and threw him across the room.
On February 18, Anthony Chavez received a call from the principal asking him to pick his son Chase up from school. A student who regularly began bullying Chase after he stopped wearing a mask in class destroyed Chase’s Lego creation during recess.
When Chase informed one of the teachers, Susan Rayburn, a special ed teacher, about the dispute, she put him in a restraint hold. Anthony received a call from the principal telling him to pick Chase up early and that they were “required” to put him in a restraint hold.
On the drive home, Chase explains that he was choked across the hallway by Rayburn and could barely breathe until she threw him across a room.
Susan Rayburn, Denver Public School Special Education Resource Teacher allegedly choked 7-year-old Chase Chavez and threw him across a room.
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“This child continues to bully my son and the school has refused to course correct. He’s hitting him and punching him at recess, throwing stuff at him, destroying his Lego creation – that’s what he did before they put Chase in a restraint hold,” Anthony told The Gateway Pundit in an exclusive interview.
“Since the school didn’t do anything about it, I instructed my son to defend himself because these adults don’t do anything. Then they treated him like he’s the perpetrator,” he said. “He attempted to defend himself and then they put him in a restraint hold. Rayburn threw my son across the room by his arm.”
Chase insists he could not breathe while the obese special ed teacher held him in a choke hold, carrying him from room to room with his elbows wrapped around his neck.
Denver Public Schools Special Education Teacher Susan Rayburn
“After choking him across the hall from the play area where they had indoor recess, they went from the play area to Ms. Patricia’s office while Rayburn held his hands across his body, his elbows up around his ears,” Anthony said. “Chase could not breathe and was choking across the hall. She picked him up and hung him by his own elbows, choked him across the hall and locked him in the room. Chase tried to get away from them when she grabbed his arm and threw him into something – he had to catch himself from falling into a play pin.”
“He said, ‘I can’t believe she would do that when she has a son that’s a first grader. Why would she do that to other kids?’ He is just in disbelief. They just traumatized and abused my kid.’
Anthony is demanding the school release surveillance footage that documents Rayburn engaging in child abuse and confirms school administrators are complicit in the abuse.
“To cover their tracks, they said they had to put him in a restraint hold and they were required to do that, but because you are licensed person to put children in restraints it does not give you the right to abuse kids, throw them across the room and choke them – you are not shielded like that, you are not exempt.”
The incident with the special ed teacher that has left Chase traumatized comes after a string of incidents in which officials at Lowry Elementary School harassed and intimidated the father and son following their refusal to comply with onerous Covid restrictions and masks mandates.
After Colorado Governor Jared Polis declared “the [Covid] emergency is over” the state on December 10 and rescinded the indoor mask mandate, Anthony Chavez made clear to the school staff that his son would no longer wear face coverings on school premises. The declaration marked the first day of what would become an ongoing battle with the school district that refused to acknowledge the state’s policy.
Each day that Chase attended school without a mask, his father received notice that he was coerced to put a mask on.
On December 14, Chris, a worker with ConnectUs, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to the social and emotional well-being of children,” oversaw students playing during Lowry students during recess when he put Chase in a restraint hold for not wearing a mask.
Anthony filed a complaint on Chris with the school board and demanded Chris be terminated for child abuse.
Days later, Anthony was assured by ConnectUs Executive Director Stefanie Schiff that Chris would no longer be working at his son’s school.
But Chase continued to be marginalized, bullied and coerced to comply at school.
“My son told me Assistant Principal/Interim Principal LaZedrick Jemison tried to offer bags of chips, candy and extra recess to convince him to wear a mask,” Anthony previously told TGP. His teacher began putting window screens around him and around his desk. I instructed Chase to kindly put the windows next to the trash and not allow himself to be separated. They were attempting to have him sit six feet away from the other children while they were in their ‘numbers corner.’ They made him walk in front of the other kids as they walked through the halls to art class. I found out and I said, ‘That is not going to happen anymore and put a stop to it.’
“I sent them an email instructing them to stop going against my parental directive. My instruction was clear, ‘Do not try to incentivize or try to manipulate my son to wear a mask for any reason.’ But they continued to do it.”
On January 25, the principal and gym teacher demanded Chase wear a mask during gym class. When he refused, they locked the second-grader out of the gymnasium into a hall where he was surrounded by a team of security guards.
Refusal to comply came to a boiling point leading to Anthony’s arrest. On January 27, Robert Grossaint, a Denver Public School Security Guard, allegedly assaulted Anthony, wrestling him to the ground to block him from walking to his car, allegedly using his body as a barricade to “manufacture trespassing charges.”
After the altercation with the guard, Chavez spent two nights in jail and was put on house arrest on January 29 and forced to wear an ankle bracelet which alerts law enforcement if he travels more than 80 yards away from his home.
Chavez now faces misdemeanor assault trespassing charges. Law enforcement officials are investigating whether he “interfered with a school operation,” as the school security guard claims.
“Chase will not be attending school anymore,” Anthony said. “I will be suing Ms. Susan Rayburn for abusing my son after she goes to jail for child abuse. I am suing Zed Jameson, the assistant principal who gave me a campus ban for standing up for my parental rights. I found an attorney who will get rid of the bogus criminal cases, and he will take a contingency on the civil case.”
Chavez is awaiting the release of surveillance footage that confirms the guard assaulted him and stopped him from leaving the school premises in a desperate attempt to frame him with trespassing charges. He is also awaiting the release of Lowry Elementary School’s surveillance footage from February 18 that documents Rayburn abusing his son while surrounded by complicit school staffers.
Help support Anthony and Chase Chavez’s legal battle against the Denver Public School system here.
