Do you know the name, Aimee Ragonese? She was a special education teacher at the Daniel J. Bakie Elementary School. Was. She pleaded not guilty to allegations that she abused special needs students, whom whistleblowers and concerned parents claim were ignored by just about everyone, all the way up to the District Superintendent. She was charged, thus the claim of innocence. I’m about as late to the game on this one as you can get, so bear with me while I summarize.
Here’s a screen grab of the whistleblower claim I grabbed from a series of NH DOE emails someone had to pry from their unwilling hands.
Lots of things are going on here, but we’ll focus on the child endangerment/abuse and Ragonese, who was eventually charged by police.
A New Hampshire special education teacher is facing numerous child endangerment and simple assault charges after she allegedly assaulted students at a local elementary school.
Aimee Ragonese, 37, a special education teacher from Raymond, is charged with seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child and four counts of simple assault, police said Tuesday. She was charged following an investigation into allegations of physical abuse at the Bakie Elementary School in Kingston that began last month.
The victims range in age from 6 to 9 years old, police said.
It is worth noting that local coverage reportedly ignored the harm to the kids and centered on how innocent the Superintendent was. One of my contacts observed that,
…every news station at the time opted to discuss how innocent the superintendent was as opposed to how heinous the abuse of special needs children is.
I will need to find time to look into that, but I don’t doubt it for one minute. Especially since a separate independent investigation by Upton Hatfield, while very detailed (and worth your time as regards the allegations of abuse by Ragonese and misconduct by administrators), appears to have been conducted to produce this paragraph.
The administration was aware that Ms. Ragonese was loud, difficult to work with, and
that many people questioned her ability to work well with students, as outlined in the findings in
Section IV, B, above. Several administrators, as outlined below, knew or should have known
about Ms. Ragonese’s abuse of students, and their failure to respond contributed to the
continuing mistreatment of students in the In-step classroom. HR Director Kellen and
Superintendent Ambrose were not knowledgeable of the ongoing situation at the Bakie School
during the 2023-2024 school year, until this investigation commenced
That independent investigation found just about everyone up the food chain in violation of something, except HR Director Kelli Killen and Superintendent Thomas Ambrose, but we have emails from the NH Dept of Ed indicating it had shared the whistleblower’s comments with Ambrose or tried to as early as Jan of 2024.
Another email from Ambrose in Aug of 2024 suggests he still doesn’t know (has not seen the screengrab of the whistleblower’s complaint), eight months later? How is he the only one not getting the screenshot, a question we can’t know because we do not have all the emails; your state government appears to have dragged its feet trying to keep any of it from becoming public.
I find it unlikely that no one tried to loop Ambrose in on alleged child endangerment between Jan 2024 and Aug 2024, but maybe that’s just me.
Ambrose said the findings led him to place Principal Elizabeth Childs, Assistant Principal Lorin Caffelle, and Director of Student Services Troy Kennett on “non-disciplinary paid administrative leave.”
Paid vacations are hardly a punishment, but it looks like they were all eventually let go by Ambrose’s replacement and moved on to other jobs (Note: The other jobs are worth looking into another time). And, yeah, despite the so-called lack of knowledge, Tom Ambrose was forced to resign. None of which would have happened if something hadn’t happened.
Ragonese was initially charged in November 2024 with seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child and four counts of simple assault. [NBC Boston]
Allegations included using excessive physical force, such as:
- Shoving or throwing students to the ground
- Dragging a student by the ankle (causing a head impact with the floor)
- Digging fingernails into a student’s armpits (causing lacerations)
- Yanking a student by the arm
- Pushing a student with a wall divider
- Shoving a student into an enclosure
- Other rough handling (e.g., excessive force pulling up pants)
In June 2025, a Rockingham County grand jury indicted her on upgraded charges, which included a felony count of second-degree assault (related to an incident in early 2023) along with the prior or related counts [Union Leader]
There is nothing in the press I could find on a hearing, trial, or verdict, but I am told she is scheduled for sentencing tomorrow; those paying close attention think the judge will be unnecessarily lenient with the punishment. I’m not sure what that will look like, but the documentation suggests that this woman created an intolerable work environment where other employees were afraid to speak out or report any sort of alleged abuse. What they did report was not acted on. Four administrative professionals were relieved of duty. And worst of all, special needs kids, who are often non-verbal and can’t communicate clearly or well, suffered unnecessarily, as did their parents.
All of that is connected to Aimee Ragonese, who maintains her innocence but whose work habits prolonged the abuse, and when the truth finally came to light, what appears to be another case of ignored serial child abuse in the state of New Hampshire, is probably going to result in another disappointing judicial outcome.
Happy to be wrong, but don’t think I am.
