About this time last year, a DeKalb mother confronted the DeKalb School District 428 board over an incident that led to her son going missing on his first day of kindergarten.

Now, she and husband Andrew Stoker have filed a lawsuit against the district and more than a dozen of its employees and some current and ex-school board members, alleging emotional distress. The Stokers, represented by DeKalb-based attorney Blake Cosentino, also are asking for at least $50,000 in damages, according to lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed Aug. 13 in DeKalb County court names 18 defendants including some current and ex-school board members, staff and Superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez, records show.

Stoker said she believes finding success in court could go a long way toward making her family feel whole again.

“There are unknowns as to what happened that day, why it was allowed to happen, and what has been changed to address the problems,” Shannon Stoker said. “We’re sad it’s come to this, but we’ve felt pushed aside and haven’t been given direct answers. We hope this gives us answers and brings attention to what must be fixed to prevent another situation like this.”

The child’s parents argue in the 123-page filing that their son Stevie, who was 6 at the time, also required medical treatment “to abate their fears arising from this incident.” The parents argued in the filing that their son suffered “emotional distress and confusion” which still ails him a year later.

Shannon has previously recounted her story for Shaw Local News Network, saying she wasn’t made aware that Founders Elementary School staff could not locate Stevie’s whereabouts until the afternoon of Aug. 19, 2024.

District officials have previously said that Stevie was not missing, and was in fact in the classroom and safe all day – but staffing errors the district has admitted to led to Stevie being misidentified as a different child that day. So Stevie Stoker was marked absent on the record. His parents did not know that until late in the day, however, they’ve said.

Garcia-Sanchez did not return request for comment for this story.

The child wasn’t properly accounted for until his father, tracking a GPS Apple AirTag, found him on a school bus on his way home that afternoon, the Stokers argue in the filing.

In an Oct. 18, 2024, letter from Garcia-Sanchez to Stoker which is attached to the court filing, the superintendent apologized for the confusion, calling it “a failure on the part of the District,” following an internal investigation. Her letter further acknowledged that “better decisions and actions could have been made.” She said in the letter that any district actions to staff related to the incident would be “handled as confidential personnel action,” the filing states.

A District 428 spokesperson declined to comment specifically on the lawsuit, deferring instead to a statement previously provided to Shaw Local about the incident. The spokesperson said the district has a new handbook outlining transportation procedures for parents and students.

“We have made significant progress in our efforts to ensure there is additional training and staffing for drivers and aids, that everyone follows all drop-off and loading protocols at each of our schools, and that additional checkpoints and tools to further aid everyone in being diligent in their responsibilities are in place,” the DeKalb School District 428 statement reads.

ISBE: District 428 complied with order to review policies

In the year since, District 428 officials have said they’ve taken steps to ensure what happened to Stevie doesn’t happen again. The Illinois State Board of Education also ordered the district to review their existing protocols following the incident.

But Shannon said she and her family felt they needed to take additional action against the district.

“I’m not convinced that they really took this seriously,” Shannon Stoker said. “I don’t really see what was changed to prevent this from not happening again.”

Her son attends Jefferson Elementary, a different District 428 school now. Shannon Stoker said the incident has left a mark on her and her family.

“We just felt at that point in time, we felt that we’d lost our child,” she said. “It’s something very, very difficult to get over. We’re not really comfortable leaving him with anyone outside of family. We haven’t done that since.”

Shannon said that even on the first day of school this year at Jefferson, she and her husband felt uneasy.

“We like Jefferson. We like the administration there,” she said. “It was still scary sending him that first day. You’re getting flashbacks to what happened last year.”

A search in the district’s directory appeared to show principal Connie Rohlman, student transportation manager Brenda Jergens, instructional assistant Sydney Bomkamp, instructional assistant Bethany Larson, and teacher Amy Maher – all named as defendants in the lawsuit – are no longer employed with District 428. A district spokesperson did not respond to request for comment asking about the employment status of the listed staff.

Garcia-Sanchez, former instructional assistant Bethany Larson, and teacher Jessica Sperry deferred comment to a district spokeswoman.

When reached, First Student, the district’s school bus provider, declined to comment.

Some current and former elected officials also are named in Stoker’s lawsuit.

Then-Board President Deyci Ramirez, then-Board Vice President Chris Boyes, Board Member Steve Byers, then-Board Secretary Ariel Owens, former teacher Amy Maher, former student transportation manager Brenda Jergens, former instructional assistant Sydney Bomkamp, former principal Connie Rohlman, and then-Board Member Amanda Harness did not respond or could not be reached for comment.

When reached, Board Member Vanta Bynum and then-Board Member Fred Davis declined to comment.

Shannon said she doesn’t believe ISBE’s review of her complaint was adequate.

ISBE’s Dec. 3 order for District 428 to take “corrective action,” was filed after Stoker made a formal complaint against the district. The agency directed the district to review and revise existing policies to ensure special education students receive adequate services.

When reached, an ISBE spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

In a June 13 letter obtained by Shaw Local News Network, ISBE said District 428 complied properly. The agency said the district planned to provide “targeted training” ahead of the start of the school year to employees district-wide on new policies and procedures to address knowledge gaps and reinforce compliance.

In the lawsuit filing, the Stokers claim that employees for both the district and Founders Elementary were aware of or should have been aware of Stevie’s individualized education plan (IEP), which outlined Stevie’s specific needs.

Shannon said she doesn’t believe that ISBE’s response adequately helped resolve the matter.

“They took six months, and it’s just a document dump,” Shannon Stoker said. “They don’t explain anything. They don’t provide any kind of guidance to what, if anything, they’ve changed.”

In the lawsuit filing, the Stokers allege that former instructional assistant Bethany Larson misidentified Stevie upon his arrival at Founders when she asked him if his name was that of another student. No attempts were made to find additional identification measures or clarify Stevie Stoker’s response, the filing states. The filing alleges that two other former employees, Maher and Bomkamp, had previously met Stevie and his parents during a kindergarten conference held days prior on Aug. 16, 2024.

“It seemed like they were really focusing on the bus, but it wasn’t the bus who had him in a classroom all day under the wrong name,” Shannon Stoker said.

In the filing, the Stokers said their son had a backpack with a folder and documents with his name, teacher’s name and bus route on it.

The lawsuit is expected to go before Chief Judge Bradley Waller at 9 a.m. Oct. 30 at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore, records show.