RBT Who Says Corona-Norco Assignment Ended After She Reported Restraint Concerns is Suing

CORONA, CALIFORNIA – A registered behavior technician (RBT) alleges she was removed from her assignment at John Adams Elementary School less than two weeks after filing a grievance over a student’s behavior plan. For months before that, she says, she had raised concerns about whether the plan was being followed and about the use of physical restraint.

Alejandrina King of San Diego filed a whistleblower retaliation suit in Riverside County Superior Court against the Corona-Norco Unified School District, which runs the school, and Sunbelt Staffing, her Oldsmar, Florida-based employer. Her lawyers at Gomez Trial Attorneys announced the case July 16 outside the district’s headquarters in Norco, City News Service reported.

Sunbelt assigned King to Adams from Sept. 12, 2025, to March 5, 2026, to carry out one boy’s behavior intervention plan, according to City News Service’s July 16 account of the complaint. The suit names both the staffing agency that employed her and the district where she worked.

What King’s Suit Alleges

According to that account, King said she logged 8 to 12 or more behavioral incidents a day and that the boy made “measurable progress” while she worked with him. Some incidents involved physical restraint. A January report cited in the suit said: “staff responses may unintentionally reinforce problem behavior.” City News Service did not identify the report’s author.

King said that on Feb. 23, while she was trying to calm an episode involving the boy, other staff, and other children, she was “physically pinned against a wall.” City News Service’s account does not explain how that happened.

King said the boy’s teacher, the principal, and others pushed back when she documented interventions she considered unwarranted. Her attempts to present data on the behavior plan and how it could be applied better met “hostility and exclusion,” according to the complaint as reported by City News Service.

She took her concerns to the principal and Sunbelt supervisors, then filed a formal grievance invoking California’s whistleblower protections, City News Service reported. After being removed from Adams and told her services in the district were no longer required, she was sent to a school in Orange County. That assignment ended in early June; the July report said she had been unemployed since then.

King also alleges she worked “off the clock” and did not receive legally required rest breaks. Her attorneys said the complaint seeks lost wages and benefits, compensatory damages, and attorneys’ fees, along with punitive damages from Sunbelt.

In a statement reported by City News Service on July 16, the district said it was committed to providing all students a “high-quality, free, appropriate public education” and complying with federal and state law. It declined to discuss the case, citing pending litigation. Sunbelt did not respond to City News Service’s requests for comment that day.

Agency Employer, District Classroom

Sunbelt is among the private-equity-backed contractors supplying special-education staff to districts, as BreakingNewsABA reported July 7. Its school staffing includes board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) and RBTs. Sunbelt is part of Soliant, which announced an investment from private equity firm The Vistria Group in July 2024. Vistria continues to list Soliant in its portfolio.

The Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s RBT Handbook requires RBTs to work under close, ongoing supervision by a qualified RBT Supervisor or RBT Requirements Coordinator. The July accounts do not identify who held that role for King or whether that person was among the Sunbelt supervisors to whom she reported concerns.

AT A GLANCE

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