The mother of an 11-year-old boy with autism filed a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging staff at a regional special education program secluded and restrained her son in a barricaded corner of a classroom, where he struck his head on the floor and pleaded for his “mommy” before going home and dying days later.
The complaint, filed in Norfolk Circuit Court, names Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs, known as SECEP, and four employees as defendants and seeks $150 million. It focuses on an incident on Oct. 31, 2024, inside a SECEP-run classroom housed at Pembroke Elementary School in Virginia Beach. The mother, identified in court papers as Julie Xirau, alleges staff placed her son, Joshua Sikes, in a seclusion area made from bookshelves and straps, failed to summon a nurse and did not tell her about head trauma when they later called to report “misbehavior.” Local police and child welfare officials reviewed the case; prosecutors declined criminal charges, and the medical examiner previously listed the death as natural, from seizure-related complications. The civil suit will test whether staff actions contributed to the boy’s death.
According to the lawsuit, Joshua—who had limited verbal skills—repeated “I want my mommy” and “No more angry bear. I’m calm bear,” as employees kept him apart from other students in what his family calls a “makeshift classroom prison.” The filing says he lay down, kicked and hit his head on an unpadded floor while under restraint and seclusion, and that “hours passed” with staff watching. Shortly after 2 p.m. on Oct. 31, the suit says, staff called Xirau to pick him up for alleged misbehavior. Believing he’d acted out, she told her son he would not go trick-or-treating that night. The next day, a school holiday, he appeared lethargic and withdrawn, the complaint says. Xirau took him for medical evaluation on Nov. 2, but he was discharged with instructions for specialist follow-up. Joshua died in his sleep in the early hours of Nov. 3, 2024.
The suit alleges SECEP employees created and used an impermissible seclusion area—described as furniture lashed together with heavy-duty straps—that denied Joshua freedom of movement and access to routine care. It also alleges they withheld critical information from his mother and from hospital staff, depriving clinicians of details about potential head trauma. In addition to SECEP, four employees are individually named: Theresa Renvyle, Carole Parker, Nicole Smrz and Katherine Wynne. Xirau’s attorney, Matthew J. Moynihan, said in an interview that classroom practices “do not pass muster” and that his client was never told what happened before her son’s condition worsened at home. SECEP’s executive director, Laura Armstrong, declined to comment on pending litigation or personnel matters. A SECEP internal report cited in news accounts says seclusion was used to calm disruptive behavior; the lawsuit calls the practice dangerous and illegal.
Virginia Beach police reviewed the death investigation and presented their findings to the Commonwealth’s Attorney for the city. A spokesperson for that office said prosecutors found insufficient evidence to support criminal charges. Child Protective Services examined the matter as well and recorded suspected neglect by an “unknown abuser,” according to records described in public reporting. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner previously ruled Joshua’s death natural, attributing it to complications of a seizure disorder; the family’s complaint disputes that determination and contends blunt-force head trauma in the classroom set in motion the decline that ended in his death. No subsequent change to the official cause and manner of death has been announced.
SECEP is a publicly funded cooperative created in 1978 by school divisions across southeastern Virginia. It serves roughly 1,500 students with medical, emotional and behavioral needs across multiple cities and counties, with classrooms embedded in host schools such as Pembroke Elementary. The program’s annual budget is reported at more than $60 million. In recent years, seclusion and restraint in schools have faced heightened scrutiny in Virginia and nationally. State rules allow limited use of restraints and seclusion in emergencies to protect students or staff from serious harm, but districts and cooperatives must document events, notify parents and train employees. Advocates for students with disabilities have pressed for tighter limits, more transparency and alternative de-escalation practices; educators counter that staff sometimes face volatile situations and need tools to maintain safety.
Joshua’s case unfolded during a typical school day, according to the complaint’s timeline. After the alleged seclusion and head striking, staff contacted Xirau about behavior rather than injury, the filing says. The next day, when school was closed, Joshua’s lethargy and withdrawal prompted monitoring at home. On Nov. 2, after continued concerns, Xirau took him to an emergency department, where he was discharged and told to schedule a pediatric neurology appointment. Early on Nov. 3, she found him unresponsive in bed. Paramedics and police responded, and the medical examiner conducted a review that ultimately cited a seizure-related death. The lawsuit asserts that had caregivers been told of the classroom incident, clinicians might have pursued different diagnostics or observation.
The civil complaint accuses SECEP and the staff members of gross negligence, failure to warn and wrongful death, and it seeks compensatory and punitive damages. It also asks for a jury trial. While the suit was filed in Norfolk Circuit Court, much of the alleged conduct occurred in Virginia Beach at the Pembroke Elementary site where the SECEP classroom operated. Defense attorneys had not been listed in online court dockets at the time of filing. No criminal cases are pending, and no disciplinary actions against named staff have been publicly announced. The school division that hosts the building is not named as a defendant in the suit, which targets the regional cooperative and employees assigned to the SECEP classroom.
Family photos show Joshua smiling in a collared school portrait taken in 2024. In filings and interviews, Xirau describes him as a child who loved routines and used phrases about a “bear” to signal emotions. The complaint recounts how he repeated, “No more angry bear” and “I’m calm bear,” while confined, and that staff later told his mother only that he had misbehaved. “No one told her about what happened and what they did,” the filing states. The narrative has fueled strong reactions in the Hampton Roads region, where disability-rights organizers say they are tracking the case and where parents of children with special needs have shared experiences involving isolation spaces, de-escalation holds and after-the-fact communication gaps from schools.
What happens next will play out on two tracks. In civil court, the defendants can answer the complaint, move to dismiss claims, or seek to narrow them before discovery. Depositions of educators, administrators and medical providers could follow, along with requests for student records, staff training logs and incident reports. Expert testimony may address whether practices in the classroom met state standards, whether any head injury occurred and, crucially, whether staff actions contributed to Joshua’s death despite the medical examiner’s finding. In the public sphere, SECEP and participating divisions may review protocols for documenting and reporting seclusion, while advocates and legislators watch closely for potential policy changes.
By Tuesday, SECEP had not issued a public statement beyond declining comment. The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office reiterated its earlier conclusion on charging decisions. The civil case docket is expected to set initial deadlines in the coming weeks, including a date for the defendants’ responses and a scheduling order. For now, the lawsuit stands as the family’s attempt to reinterpret the official record and to hold the cooperative and named employees accountable in court for Joshua’s final days.
Author note: Last updated January 14, 2026.