Just weeks into the school year, a 7-year-old student began to complain about the punishment his teacher often dished out in the classroom, but when his mom informed the school, it fell on deaf ears. However, months later, the concerned mother saw a video on the teacher’s phone that school administrators couldn’t deny.
Julious Johnican, an Indianapolis elementary school teacher, was the focus of an unnamed 7-year-old special needs student’s complaints after the educator allegedly dished out a troubling form of punishment among young students in the classroom. The unnamed boy was so distraught over Mr. Johnican’s discipline that he complained to his mom, who then informed school administrators, but their concerns were ignored — until the mother mistakenly saw a video of the punishment on the teacher’s phone.
It all began just weeks into a new school year when the unnamed boy — who deals with “disabilities, including sensory sensitivities, an executive function disorder, and probable learning disabilities,” according to his mother — came home complaining about “fight club-style” discipline in the classroom. The 7-year-old alleged that teacher Julious Johnican orchestrated punishments in which young students would “duke it out” in class, having “fight club-style” brawls on multiple occasions, the NY Post reported.
According to Fox 59, the child said he was punched, slapped, and slammed to the floor, all at the encouragement of his teacher. Of course, the boy’s complaints concerned his mother, who quickly reported her child’s accusations to the school. Sadly, her inquiry into the disturbing allegations fell on deaf ears, with school administrators ignoring her son’s claims for months. That would quickly change after a parent-teacher conference, where Mr. Johnican mistakenly revealed video evidence of the accusations to the mother.
The footage, which the teacher had on his phone, showed the woman’s son being attacked, but that wasn’t what the educator had intended to show the mother. Instead, after concerns had been raised, Johnican had meant to show her a video demonstrating the safety of his classroom environment. Ironically, he unintentionally began playing footage of one of the attacks. In the horrifying video, a suspected classmate repeatedly punched the mom’s defenseless son while shouting, “Don’t mess with me!”
Making matters worse, Mr. Johnican accidentally turned up the volume, allowing the mother to hear him encouraging the other student to beat her 7-year-old disabled son. The teacher was allegedly heard shouting, “That’s right. You get him,” as he encouraged the boy’s attacker. Then, toward the end of the clip, the attacking boy tells the teacher, “I’m gonna get him again,” to which Johnican replies, “I know you want to get him when he does things.”
After seeing the distressing proof that validated her son’s complaints, the child’s mother filed a lawsuit against George Washington Carver School and Julious Johnican, alleging that the teacher condoned the physical abuse between students in his classroom on multiple occasions. Naming Johnican, a substitute teacher, several administrators, as well as the district itself, the mother alleged in the lawsuit that all had failed to keep her son safe after administrators ignored his accusations of abuse.
According to the lawsuit, Julious Johnican “encouraged” and “instigated” a “reprehensible ‘fight club’ type of discipline within his classroom over three months.” The lawsuit also alleged that the teacher held the disabled boy down on at least two occasions while other students attacked him. In addition, it claimed the mother had communicated her concerns with the teacher several times before the video came to light with Johnican dismissing her concerns, saying her son was “lying and/or mentally ill.”
On one occasion, the child called his mother from school in tears. She rushed over to the school to find him “upset, traumatized, and shaken,” but neither his teacher nor any school faculty ever explained why her son was distraught. But, before leaving the school, her son said another student slammed his head against a desk, pulled him to the floor, and hit him repeatedly in the head, adding that the abuse was “done at the instruction of the teacher.”
Of course, when questioned about the events he had recorded in his classroom, the teacher had a much different explanation. Investigators with the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) said Johnican had told them that the two students were “sometimes friends” but had “many negative engagements.” When asked about the video, the teacher claimed he was recording “to have proof of what was happening,” claiming he didn’t have enough patience to interfere with the melee. However, the investigation didn’t end in the teacher’s favor.
According to the DCS report, a “preponderance of evidence” was found validating the boy’s claims that his teacher “knowingly and willingly engaged in behaviors toward the victims that jeopardized their overall well-being while in his care as a teacher at IPS 87.” Julious Johnican was allowed to resign from the school over the video.
Sadly, the mother claims the school “repeatedly” blamed her child, saying he was the disruptive one. He was even accused of lying, as the mother was told his behavior “was a sign of a disordered personality” and “related to his ADHD.” Her lawsuit also alleged that a substitute teacher, who knew about and condoned the attacks, said “special needs students were demonically possessed” and told an administrator, “[They’re] bad kids, that’s what you do!”
Video evidence doesn’t lie, and this footage clearly shows evil occurring in that classroom — not at the hands of the children but at the hands of an educator who taught and encouraged violence and physical abuse. We can only hope that sharing this child’s troubling ordeal will encourage school administrators and parents alike to always consider the possibility that the “disruptive” child might just be the only one telling the truth.
