An exercise in humiliation — or discipline? New facts emerge in child’s forced pushups case

A Fresno teacher accused of humiliating a fourth-grade student testified this week in a civil trial that she didn’t know a colleague was making students do pushups and other calisthenics in his classroom as a form of punishment.

Slater Elementary School teacher Michelle Coyne said in Fresno Superior Court on Thursday that she sent one of her pupils, a 9-year-old girl, to teacher Joshua Gehris’ fourth-grade classroom after the girl was caught talking in her class.

“My intent was to give her a time out,” Coyne told the jury.

Coyne said she later discovered that Gehris had made the girl do exercises in his classroom filled with students.

When one of the girl’s lawyers asked Coyne whether Gehris’ punishment was appropriate, Coyne declined to criticize her colleague. Instead, Coyne said that form of punishment “is not in my repertoire.”

After two days of testimony, jurors began getting a clearer picture of what happened in Gehris’ classroom nearly three years ago, and why the girl and her mother ended up suing the Fresno Unified, Gehris and Coyne for negligence.

There was no testimony Friday. Gehris is expected to testify Monday or Tuesday. Slater Elementary principal Kelli Wilkins also is on the witness list, along with other Slater teachers.

Los Angeles County Superior Court records say Gehris, 42, had a restraining order against him from 2010 to 2013 after he was accused by his ex-wife of abusing her and their six children. But it’s not immediately known whether jurors will learn about the allegations when he testifies.

According to an article in the Nov. 4, 2017 issue of Education Week, called “When Teachers Use Shame as a Disciplinary Tool,” humiliation and isolation are common forms of punishment in schools. Teachers used punishment to address serious misconduct and to refocus a student’s attention. But in some cases, it can crush a student’s spirit, the article says.

Gehris, Coyne and Fresno Unified are being defended by Fresno attorney Bruce Berger. The girl’s lawyers are Fresno attorneys Jason Helsel and Mark Vogt.

According to Berger, Gehris believed making students do calisthenics in the classroom was a good way to keep them focused after Christmas break. “A lot of these kids are sugared up and have extra energy,” Berger has told the jury. The exercises “was a way to burn off the extra energy, not punishment,” he said.

Gehris had used the method on other students and no parents ever complained, Berger said. But once the girl’s parents complained, he quit doing it, Helsel said.

The incident happened Jan. 21, 2016, at Slater Elementary School near Shaw and Marks avenues in northwest Fresno.

Coyne, 46, is a longtime Fresno Unified teacher, having spent nearly two decades at Slater, where she remains. Gehris, a military veteran, began his teaching career at Slater during the 2015-16 school year. He currently teaches at Fort Miller Middle School.

During the trial, Helsel and Vogt have accused Coyne and Gehris of being “bullies” for making the frightened girl do pushups, leg lifts and other exercises in front of students to publicly shame her. Berger, however, has told jurors state law gives teachers discretion in disciplining students to manage the classroom.

In arguments before Judge Donald Black, Berger appears to blame the girl, who is now 12 years old and in seventh grade. “If she hadn’t been talking in class, this wouldn’t have happened,” Berger told the judge on Thursday.

But Helsel and Vogt have told jurors it wasn’t the girl’s fault for talking; Coyne had put a female student who had been in trouble next to the plaintiff during a class lesson. When the student asked the plaintiff for a pencil, the plaintiff got caught talking and was sent to Gehris’ classroom.

The girl, her mother and an older sister testified Thursday, saying the incident in Gehris’s classroom was hurtful because the plaintiff is shy, insecure and self-conscious about her weight and appearance. They told the jury that students have teased the plaintiff about her clothing and called her fat.

During Coyne’s testimony, the sticky issue of race surfaced. The plaintiff is Hispanic. The student who got in trouble and was ordered by Coyne to sit next to the plaintiff is white, with blonde hair and thin. Because both girls were caught talking, Helsel asked Coyne why she only sent the plaintiff to Gehris’ classroom. Coyne testified the plaintiff was talking louder.

Among other new details jurors learned Thursday from the testimony:

▪ A day after the incident, the girl’s mother went to Slater Elementary and demanded her daughter be removed from Coyne’s classroom. School officials moved her to a new classroom and she had no other incidents the rest of the school year. The girl transferred to another elementary school for fifth and sixth grades.

▪ The mother testified she contacted Fresno County Department of Behavior Health to get help for her daughter. The girl ended up seeing a therapist once a week, and still does. Two of her therapists, Lesby Castro-Flores, and Robin Sjostrand, testified the girl was severely traumatized from the incident and suffers from severe anxiety. They said she cries when she recalls the incident and becomes sad, withdrawn and sometimes angry. They were paid nothing for their testimony.

▪ Fresno Unified paid Dr. Suzanne M. Dupree $31,500 to interview the girl for an hour and 20 minutes, read reports about the case, write a report and offer an opinion in trial. Dupree testified the girl has an “unspecified anxiety disorder” that isn’t severe. Dupree also testified the girl was not severely traumatized by the incident because “it was not a life-threatening event.”

In her testimony Thursday, the girl wiped a tear from her eye as she recalled the incident. She testified that she didn’t know Gehris when she went to his classroom for talking in class. The girl testified that after entering the classroom, one of Gehris’ students told her she would have to do pushups.

She recalled Gehris telling his pupils, sarcastically: “Another student from Ms. Coyne’s classroom.”

Ordered to do pushups, the girl said she thought Gehris was joking. But according to the girl, Gehris told her: “I’m not playing with you.” Scared, she got on the ground and started doing pushups, leg lifts and other exercises. She recalled Gehris standing near her and students looking at her as she did them.

The girl testified she didn’t know how long she did the exercises, perhaps a few minutes. But she told the jury it felt like a long time. Gehris then ordered her to return to her classroom and apologize to Coyne.

“I said I was sorry,” the girl testified. According to the girl, Coyne responded: “You better mean it.”

On the witness stand, Coyne testified she didn’t see anything unusual about the girl when she returned to her classroom. She said the girl was not crying and didn’t tell her anything about doing pushups or other exercises.

Coyne couldn’t recall whether she had sent another student to Gehris’ class before, even though a girl in Gehris’ classroom had testified on Wednesday one of Coyne’s students cried when he had to do pushups in his classroom.

Coyne said she never talked to Gehris about discipline nor has the school district given her detailed guidelines on how to dispense it. Discipline is up to each teacher, she said.

Coyne said she and the girl were good terms before the incident. She also testified she had no intention of humiliating the girl. But since the incident, Coyne said she has not spoken to the girl.

This story was originally published November 2, 2018 at 2:43 PM.