Hearing Into Autism Death Keys on Who Was in Charge

A teacher charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 14-year-old autistic student had turned over the boy’s care to the school nurse before any medical problems occurred, the teacher’s lawyer contended at a preliminary hearing Monday.

Jeanne Warnecke, 33, a teacher of 15 years who specializes in students with behavioral problems, was indicted last October by the Orange County Grand Jury in the death of Bartholomew Pico a year ago at the Gill Education Center in Huntington Beach.

The boy, who lived at the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa, was a scoliosis victim who also could not communicate verbally. He had been assigned to Warnecke’s classroom about a month before his death because school officials considered her better qualified to deal with his behavioral problems.

On May 1, 1986, Warnecke had rolled Bartholomew in a plastic exercise mat and sat on him after he had attacked another student, according to testimony at Monday’s hearing. A few minutes after the mat was removed, the boy stopped breathing and he was taken to Humana Hospital in Westminster. He died three days later.

The restraint method is called “matting” at the school and is commonly used for controlling problem students, according to testimony.

At the hearing Monday, Warnecke’s attorney, Paul S. Meyer, attempted to show that Warnecke had left the boy in the care of the school nurse, Laurie Menekee, before any problems became apparent.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Bernadette Cemore told Judge Richard W. Stanford Jr. that she would prove that Warnecke had not followed official policy on how to “mat” the child.

Menekee testified that Warnecke had covered Bartholomew’s head with the mat and had also placed a diaper around his face.

Cemore said later that she would show the court that under official policy the boy’s face should not have been covered.

Warnecke actually worked for the Fairview Developmental Center at the time. She taught at Gill under an in-kind trade between Gill and Fairview, the school’s principal, John E. Wright, told the court.

The district attorney’s office a year ago cleared her of any criminal wrongdoing in the boy’s death. But Warnecke was fired from her job in June after Fairview officials decided that she should not have used both the diaper--a visual screen--and the mat combined and that she should not have used the mat without permission.

The district attorney’s office reopened its investigation after the Fairview ruling. Warnecke was then indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and felony child endangerment.

Nurse Menekee said it was standard procedure for her to go to the classroom when a teacher or an aide had “matted” a student. She said she had gone to Warnecke’s classroom to observe matting “about 12 to 18 times.”

The day of the Bartholomew Pico incident, she said, she observed the boy breathing normally after Warnecke had removed the mat. Menekee said Warnecke announced that she had to go to the laundry and left the room “for about three minutes.”

During that time, Menekee said, she talked with another school official who had come into the classroom and did not notice anything wrong with Bartholomew.

Menekee said it was Warnecke who, on returning to the room, first noticed that the boy was having problems. Menekee said Warnecke asked why no one had removed his restraints. Besides the diaper around his face, Warnecke had tied socks on his hands.

Menekee, aided by Warnecke and later Principal Wright, administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation to the boy.

Menekee sternly denied Meyer’s suggestion that she was responsible for the boy after Warnecke had left the room.

Meyer, however, put a similar set of questions to Principal Wright. Wright said it was his policy to always have the nurse called in cases where medical problems might come up. Wright said that while he did not give the nurse specific orders on what to do in such cases, “I viewed her as the medical expert, and she should use her best judgment.”

Once the nurse arrived, who was in charge? Meyer asked Wright at the hearing

“In terms of the medical well-being of the child, the nurse was in charge,” Wright said.

Would a teacher be free to leave the classroom once the nurse arrived? Meyer asked.

“Yes,” Wright said, “as long as the child was OK. That’s not unusual.”

But Cemore also elicited from the principal that it is the teacher who has the responsibility for the well-being of the students in his or her classroom.

The preliminary hearing is to determine whether there is enough evidence to hold Warnecke for trial.