Court docs show teacher’s aide was fired within an hour of alleged assault of autistic child

MANCHESTER, NH – Louis Efstathiou, the Parker-Varney Elementary School behavioral therapist fired for allegedly assaulting an autistic 7-year-old, blackened the child’s eye and left handprints on his face when he struck him, according to court documents.

Efstathiou, 69, of 349 Hanover St., #5, was released last week on $1,000 cash bail.  He will be arraigned at a later date on charges of second-degree assault, two counts of simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child. He is to have no contact with the child or any child under the age of 13 except for his grandchildren and is to stay away from the Parker Varney School, 223 James Pollock Drive.

Manchester Ink Link obtained court documents – the bail sheet, complaints and Detective Adrianne Davenport’s affidavit in support of Efstathiou’s arrest – after filing a Right-to-Know request with Manchester police.

According to the court documents, Efstathiou was fired within an hour of the alleged assault.  He worked for Applied ABC, which is contracted by the school district for Registered Behavioral Therapists, who are commonly referred to in the school district as paraprofessionals or paras.

Davenport, in her sworn statement in support of the arrest warrant, said on Dec. 28, 2023, Lt. Nicholas Georgoulis received a statement from the boy’s father saying the school notified him on Dec. 21, 2023, that his son was injured and had a black eye.

That afternoon, when the dad returned home, his son, who is identified as H.J. in court papers, had a black eye, a cut along the upper eyelid and bruising to the left cheek.  He took photos of the injuries which he gave to Georgoulis.  The father asked his son what happened and he said, “Mr. Lou punched me in the eye.”

Mr. Lou is Efstathioiu, his son’s paraprofessional.  The boy’s mother contacted the school to ask how her son was injured.  The principal, Andrew Sims, told her Mr. Lou tried to restrain H.J. and that resulted in the injury.  The principal told her there were witnesses who stated Mr. Lou’s actions were excessive and he was removed from the school and terminated.

Sims, according to the affidavit, notified school district staff, as well as the director of Applied ABC, that the boy was in the nurse’s office “with a black eye and what appears to be handprints on his face.” Louis told the principal that H.J. was trying to “elope” and that he grabbed the child “to help him and the boy collided with his hand.”

Sims provided police with some video footage, taken by the school’s cameras, that showed Efstathiou struggling with H.J.

Davenport reviewed all of the evidence in the case.  She said in viewing the photos of H.J.’s injuries, she immediately noticed the bruising on his face was patterned, as there were “parallel, linear bruises along the side of H.J.’s face.  Additionally, the side of the face with the patterned bruising, is a different plane of the face from H.J.’s eye that was also bruised.  The injury presented to me as a slap, delivered with enough force to cause the resulting injuries.”

Davenport said the video footage recorded Efstathiou and the boy struggling on the blacktop outside of the school.  Efstatiou and the student were facing each other, with Efstatiou holding onto the child’s arms with each of his hands.  The boy apparently was trying to pull away from the para, who was attempting to retain control over the child.

In the same video, the child fell to the ground while attempting to pull away from Efstatiou who yanked the child back to his feet by pulling up on the hood of his jacket.  Efstatiou continued to struggle with the 7-year-old and he “delivered a knee strike to H.J.’s torso (front).  I did not see anything in the video that justified or required such a strike in order to gain control over the child,” Davenport wrote in her affidavit.

A few seconds after the knee strike, Davenport said Efstatiou delivered a sweep kick type of strike to the child’s leg, which lifted his body off the ground and caused the 7-year-old to fall back down onto the ground. “Again, I did not see anything in the video that justified or required such a strike in order to gain control of the child.  H.J. then ran away from Louis, and Louis remained where he was standing,” Davenport wrote.

Henry Clark, registered behavioral therapist who worked in Efstatiou’s classroom and was at recess with the group when the incident happened, told the detective he saw Efstatiou pull H.J. up by the hood and felt that it was excessive and inappropriate.  He agreed with his peer that it needed to be reported, which he did.

After seeing that, Clark turned back toward the students he was responsible for and didn’t see anything else.

Efstathiou was interviewed by police on Jan. 5, 2024.  He noted that “this whole incident lasted about a minute and I was fired within an hour.”

He described Dec. 21, 2023, as a “chaotic and difficult day” with holiday celebrations disrupting the class and H.J.’s behaviors being escalated all day.  The class also was short two staff members that day.

He acknowledged he had a struggle with H.J. at recess that day.  He said H.J. was trying to “elope” through a gate that leads to the parking lot and he was concerned for the child’s safety if he made it out. He knew his hand made contact with H.J. but said he didn’t know how or where.  He noted that it was the heel of his palm, and that H.J. immediately put his hands to his face, so he assumed that was where his hand made contact.

He denied it was done in a striking motion.  He said he was blocking H.J.’s strikes and demonstrated a “block” while talking, outstretching his arm straight in front of him, with his palm up and open, Davenport wrote.  He denied “losing his cool” with H.J. during the encounter.  Shortly after the incident he was fired.

“He stated that he cried the whole way home because he felt so awful,” Davenport wrote.

Davenport asked him, “What if I told you that you were seen on video knee striking H.J.”  Efstathiou, Davenport said, seemed surprised by the question and said, “I’d like to see that!”

He said he had no recollection of delivering a knee strike to H.J. but said he could have raised his leg to block a strike from H.J.  He admitted to delivering a sweep kick to the child, saying he felt he could handle him better if he were on the ground.

He said he was not trained to do that, it was “ad-lib.”  He described his management training as including a restraint hold, by wrapping a student’s arms around their body and holding their hands from their backside.  He said they were taught to “spin” a child to achieve that maneuver.  Davenport asked why he didn’t use that technique, he replied he didn’t believe in restraints.

During the interview, Efstathiou confirmed he had two encounters with H.J. during recess.  The first was when H.J. “flopped” to the ground and they struggled, resulting in the sweep kick.  The second incident, he noted, was where H.J.’s face “collided” with his hand.  That happened on the way back inside in a different area outside the school, he told the detective.