Friday, September 19, 2014
AUSTINTOWN
Lisa Schriner, 49, a former Austintown Fitch High School aide, spent more than six hours Wednesday before Judge David D’Apolito on charges of child endangerment and assault.
According to police reports, witnesses said she “roughed up” a 15-year-old autistic student at Fitch on April 9. Witnesses said they saw Schriner yell at the student, throw him into a brick wall and then grab him underneath the jaw. The report added that the student then head-butted the aide when she held his jaw.
Ken Cardinal, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, said there were about 10 trial witnesses for both the defense and prosecution.
Cardinal said Schriner “knowingly assaulted a handicapped child.”
Harry DePietro, defense attorney, said he argued that Schriner “did what she needed to do” to protect the special-needs student and others that day. He said Schriner had tried to stop the special- needs student from running around school buses, which he argued could have been dangerous.
“I am not insensitive to special-needs kids, but I looked at the situation and saw the student did not respond to [Schriner’s] normal commands,” DePietro said. “The fact that the child is special-needs has people looking at this situation in a way that ignores safety factors and what was required of Lisa to intervene so the unsafe situation the child posed could be stopped.”
DePietro added that he thinks the case has garnered public attention because the child was a special-needs student.
Cardinal said Judge D’Apolito will rule later.
“The judge had page after page of things he wrote down at the trial,” Cardinal said. “So he wants to review those.”