In legal documents, authorities allege Dr. Tanya Giovanni, the Deputy Superintendent of Administrative, Legal and Compliance Services, Ayesha Hunter, Senior Executive Director of Employee Relations, and Dr. Tounya Wright, who had been serving as Principal at Eno Valley Elementary, were, to varying degrees, misleading or not forthcoming with information, including when they learned of the allegation.
Giovanni is facing five counts of felony obstruction of justice. Hunter is facing six counts of felony obstruction of justice and two counts of perjury. Wright is facing three counts of felony obstruction of justice and one count of perjury.
The initial incident involves an educator who allegedly tied a six-year-old girl with autism to a chair with a rope.
"I think it's every parent of a special needs child's worst nightmare," said Rachel Cordero, who has three children at Durham Public Schools, including a 10-year-old with autism, though he does not attend Eno Valley Elementary School.
3 DPS administrators indicted on criminal charges
Cordero is upset by claims, particularly involving a student with special needs.
"These kids cannot advocate for themselves. And I think that is all the more reason why we as a community kind of have to stand up for them in this moment, because we're seeing a lack of leadership in DPS doing what we need them to do and protecting our children," Cordero said.
Giovanni, Hunter, and Wright are not accused of or charged with child abuse; the indictments focus on their response and actions following the alleged abuse.
"Documents state that Wright claimed she received an anonymous photo of the six-year-old girl tied to a chair with a rope under her door on November 22, 2024, and reached out to HR the same day she learned about the photo. However, two staffers separately stated that Wright was made aware of the alleged incident and existence of photos days earlier, and was sent a text message of the photos by a staffer on November 21, 2024."
During a July 2025 meeting held with the District Attorney's Office, a court document notes that Giovanni stated, "That Human Resource investigations are not this super formalized thing where you're like documenting everything." Separately, she is accused of not producing evidence that was in the possession of Durham Public Schools in response to a search warrant and court orders.
Hunter is accused of withholding witness statements and interview notes from law enforcement, and falsely claiming during a hearing in Durham County Superior Court that "the Principal reported the child abuse the same day she found out about it."
Cordero criticized the district, expressing frustration over what she felt was a lack of communication regarding the allegation and subsequent investigative process.
"(DPS is) showing us and they've shown us before that when problems arise, they're going to hide them as best as they can," said Cordero.
Durham Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Anthony S. Lewis sent two separate e-mails regarding the allegations - one to DPS families and a second to Eno Valley Elementary families.
In an email to DPS families, Lewis wrote:
Dear Durham Public Schools Families,
I want to personally share with you an important issue involving our shared responsibility to protect students.
Yesterday, three district administrators were indicted in connection with their response to a 2024 incident at Eno Valley Elementary School involving student safety and subsequent court orders and law enforcement inquiries. These matters are also the subject of a thorough review initiated by Durham Public Schools, and the individuals involved have been suspended with pay pending the outcome of that process.
Let me provide some background about the initial incident, which occurred at Eno Valley in November 2024. These allegations were reported to law enforcement and the instructional assistants involved resigned shortly thereafter.
Because active legal and personnel matters are ongoing, there are limits on what additional details I can share at this time. What I want to be clear about is this: nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our students. Any matter involving student safety must be handled with urgency, care, and full cooperation.
Our focus remains on supporting students and maintaining safe, positive learning environments. Durham Public Schools has established policies and procedures in place to protect student safety. As our review moves forward, we will reinforce expectations and apply what we learn to ensure those practices meet the high standards families expect and students deserve.
We understand that this news may raise questions for families. Our schools continue to operate as usual, and our educators and staff remain focused every day on supporting student learning, safety, and well-being. If you would like to discuss any concerns, please contact your school principal or email public_affairs@dpsnc.net.
Thank you for your trust and partnership as we continue this important work together.
The three individuals were suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation. Lewis did not identify the educators in either email to parents.
Superintendent addresses indictments
Thursday, DPS Superintendent Anthony Lewis delivered an address regarding the indictments.
"I know there are thousands of families across Durham, the entire Durham community, who place a tremendous amount of trust in us each day, not just to educate their children, but to care for them. And most importantly, most importantly, to keep them safe. Both of those responsibilities are critically important. But our most foundational and fundamental job is to ensure that our students are safe and well," said Lewis.
Lewis, who spoke for just over seven minutes, did not name the three indicted staffers during his remarks and cited "confidential personnel matters and an ongoing investigation that limit our ability to share information."
"There was an incident at Eno Valley Elementary School related to student safety. It was reported to law enforcement by our staff and investigated by the Durham Police Department. The employees in that classroom were questioned about the incident, suspended and then later resigned. In the months that followed, law enforcement questioned various members of our staff and court orders were issued to the school system for a variety of documents. Now, while some records provided, law enforcement raised concerns that our response was not as timely, accurate or complete as it should be. And let me be clear - we take these concerns very seriously. Earlier this week, one of our principals and two of our district administrators were indicted for obstruction of justice, and two of the three were also charged with perjury. These charges are related to how they responded to these court orders and to law enforcement inquiry," said Lewis.
A parent, who has requested anonymity, says her child was in that classroom and shared thoughts on how the district has handled the matter.
"I just feel like everything got swept under the rug," said the parent.
The parent voiced particular concern over the alleged incident involving a child with autism.
"It makes me concerned for all non-verbal (students). This wouldn't have been able to happen in a regular first-grade classroom. Those kids would have gone home and immediately told their parents," said the parent.
In a timeline shared by a DPS spokesperson, the incident was reported to school leadership and law enforcement in November 2024, and the two instructional assistants from the classroom were suspended. In December, the assistants resigned their positions.
In January 2025, DPS was served with a search warrant seeking personnel records and documents related to the alleged abuse, which was acknowledged by district staff.
In March to August of 2025, Durham Public Schools provided documents to law enforcement in response to the initial and follow up requests.
In July 2025, District administrators met with the Durham County District Attorney's Office, in which Prosecutors raised concerns about the completeness and timeliness of prior document production.
In October 2025, a show-cause hearing was held in Durham County Superior Court related to document production, in which District administrators testified.
"When the Board (of Education) and I learned that members of our team were being investigated by law enforcement in December (2025), we worked together to quickly launch an investigation. That review is being conducted by the Tharrington Smith law firm, and it is an active and ongoing review and it is separate from the law enforcement investigation and indictments," said Lewis.
Lewis did not answer any questions from the media following his address, which a DPS spokesperson informed would be the case when initially announcing the press conference on Wednesday.
ABC 11 has reached out to a DPS spokesperson for clarification on the timeline provided by the district, including over when Lewis and/or the Board of Education learned of the allegations or whether they were informed or aware that administrators were being questioned as part of a legal matter related to their respective response following an allegation of child abuse. As of 3:30 Thursday afternoon, the district has not responded to this specific inquiry.
Lewis laid out measures the district is taking in response to the matter and indictments.
"We are establishing systems to standardize how we log and store legal documents, how we create and manage investigative files, and how we notify legal counsel on all of these legal requests. We are establishing regular communications with the District Attorney's Office to ensure that we are fully cooperating with investigative efforts. As a matter of fact, I've scheduled a meeting with the Assistant District Attorney just next week to continue to strengthen our partnership and relationship, because we view the DA's office as a valuable partner in terms of protecting our scholars. We are also conducting mandatory training each year that has always been in place. But we're taking a look at that training to see how we can enhance and make that training a little bit more robust for all of our staff and any staff that interacts with children. And this particular training is on child abuse recognition, (as well as) reporting and the obligations that our professionals have, as well as their professional boundaries and this is beginning with immediate retraining for our principals and administrators. We are also providing retraining to our exceptional children, staff, administrators and others to reinforce expectations when it comes to physical contact and use of restraint," Lewis explained.
The parent believes more need to be done.
"(I'd like) cameras in the classrooms. Parents need to know if their kids have been questioned on (school) grounds," the parent shared.
In a press releaseon Wednesday, Durham Police announced charges against the administrators.
These charges stem from an investigation into the handling of a report regarding the abuse of a special needs student at Eno Valley Elementary in November of 2024. Following the execution of search warrants at administrative offices and a forensic review of digital evidence, investigators determined that these officials willfully withheld exculpatory evidence and provided false testimony to the Court. The systematic withholding of evidence and fabrication of the investigative timeline by these officials directly compromised the integrity of the criminal case.
The parent said she was not informed of the alleged incident by the school, but by a separate parent in the following summer.
"I have yet to be informed by DPS that this happened with my son in the classroom. If I didn't know from my friend, I still wouldn't know (until the news yesterday)," said the parent.
WATCH: DPS superintendent talks indictments of district admins
DPS superintendent talks indictments of district admins: Full Press Conference
ABC11 has made attempts to reach all three individuals for comment.
The Durham Association of Educators tells ABC 11 it does not have a statement regarding this matter.