FRANKLIN COUNTY, Wash. – The family of a nine-year-old Pasco School District special needs student is filing a federal lawsuit against the Pasco School District (PSD) after they say a PSD teacher allegedly abused the student.

The family filed a complaint Monday saying Ratree Albers, special education teacher at Robert Frost Elementary in February of 2014 abused students in her care, according to new release from Johnson and Orr Law Firm.

The complaint filed by the family said their autistic child came home with unexplained bruising and significant behavioral problems that the family said the child did not have before.

The Pasco School District said Albers has since left the school district to purse other employment, and that no misconduct against the student was ever confirmed.

According to the report Albers subjected the students in her classroom to ongoing verbal, psychological and physical abuse.

And according to other records Albers had engaged in a pattern of abuse against children in her class for an extended period of time including yelling, hitting, and pinning children in chairs.

KEPR spoke with the family’s attorney, Scott Johnson, and he gave this statement:

“They’re besides themselves. They were horrified when they learned the bruising they saw on their son, the behavioral problems they saw in him were the result of his teacher actually physically and mentally abusing him. Once they got over that shock though, they thought well the school district will make it right and so they’ve kind of been dealt a double blow by the fact that the school district has just refused to take responsibility for what has happened,” said Johnson.

The Pasco School District released this statement regarding the lawsuit:

The lawfirm said the district placed the teacher on leave but failed to alert police to the alleged abuse.