Personnel file outlines school’s response to ex-DPS employee hitting nonverbal student

DAYTON — A former paraprofessional aide at Rosa Parks Early Childhood Learning Center is now facing criminal charges in connection to an apparent assault on a 3-year-old autistic student.

News Center 7 learned Tuesday that the aide, identified as Darrick Sorrells, resigned just four days after we first shared surveillance video of him hitting and pushing a child to the ground. Today, the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office has approved one count of assault and two counts of endangering children against him.

>> RELATED: Prosecutors approve charges for DPS employee seen on video hitting nonverbal student

This afternoon, News Center 7 got ahold of Sorrells’ personnel file after several requests for it over the last two weeks. It showed that Sorrells has worked steadily as a paraprofessional aide for the district since 2003, with a few years off and on, but it was the first couple of days of this school year that led to the end of his employment.

The parents of the child in the video obtained the video of the incident on Sept. 11 and shared it with News Center 7. The incident itself took place almost three weeks earlier on Aug. 21.

School records show that Sorrells was escorting the student, identified by his parents as Braylen Tootle, to the restroom to change his diaper when Tootle jumped out of a transport wagon and ran. As News Center 7 previously reported, the video showed Sorrells chasing after Tootle. When he caught up to him, Sorrells was seen hitting the child on the head and knocking him down. He then grabbed the boy by his ankles and carried him upside down.

The personnel file shows the incident was immediately reported to school officials, who reported it up the chain and scheduled a meeting for that afternoon. The meeting included Sorrells, his union representative, the school’s principal, and a human resources representative.

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Notes from the meeting indicate that Sorrells declined to make a statement and the conclusion was that he “failed to exercise reasonable care or courtesy in dealing with students.”

He was placed on administrative leave for a “possible violation of professional conduct for Ohio educators.”

His file showed that prior to the incident, he served at nearly half a dozen schools within the district. He wrote on an employment application that he was “very patient in working with the physically challenged” and understood “the limited abilities of others and would appreciate the opportunities to work with them”

In News Center 7′s review of his file, we did not uncover any other disciplinary problems in Sorrells’ file, but about two weeks after being placed on administrative leave, he resigned for personal reasons.

He wrote a letter to the principal at Rosa Parks saying he “had a fulfilling experience working at Rosa Parks Early Learning Center but have chosen to leave.”

“I sincerely regret the circumstances of my departure,” he wrote before apologizing for “any wrongdoing” on his part.

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