A former teacher with Indianapolis Public Schools has been indicted on battery charges involving two students with disabilities less than one month after a judge sentenced another former teacher to prison for neglect of a student.
Hunter Sesemann faces nine counts of battery of two unnamed juvenile students that allegedly occurred on three separate dates in the fall of 2025, according to an indictment a Marion County grand jury filed on Monday.
The two students were between the ages of five and six and were enrolled at Washington Irving School 14 within Indianapolis Public Schools, according to Catherine Michael and Tammy Meyer, attorneys for the students’ families.
The attorneys said videos captured the abuse of the students while in Hesemann’s class, including one showing Sesemann dislocating one child’s arm.
“This teacher was dragging. He was yanking. He was smacking the kids. He would strip them with his foot so that they would fall. He would snap things on top of their heads to cause them pain,” Meyer said. “It wasn’t just a one-time occurrence.”
The indictment includes three counts of misdemeanor battery charges and another six counts of felony battery for touching the two unnamed victims in a “rude, insolent, or angry manner” in September and October.
Sesemann later resigned on Nov. 15, according to district personnel records.
A district spokesperson and leaders at the Near Eastside Innovation School Corporation, the nonprofit that took over the school in 2023, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sesemann was listed as a student support staff member at St. Matthew Catholic School, according to the school’s website. He did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
In a statement, the St. Matthew Catholic School said that it placed Sesemann on administrative leave after learning he had been indicted on Tuesday morning.
“Prior to the start of Mr. Sesemann's employment all required background checks were completed in accordance with Indiana law and Archdiocese of Indianapolis policies,” Executive Director Sally Krause said in an email. “We are fully cooperating with the appropriate authorities and will continue to do so.”
Washington Irving School 14 is an autonomous school within the district’s Innovation Network. Innovation schools are given more individual authority over hiring and day-to-day operations than traditional district schools. While most Innovation schools are charter schools, School 14 is not.
The family’s attorneys are also representing a third family that has also alleged Sesemann physically abused and neglected their child. They said they will file civil lawsuits on behalf of all three families.
Both attorneys jointly and individually have brought cases against multiple school districts throughout the state alleging abuse, bullying and neglect — particularly of special education students.
Meyer and Michael also represented a case against IPS teacher Julious Johnican, who last month was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to neglect for encouraging and filming students fighting in his class.
“This is just the latest among a long, long line of issues in the IPS schools that they just can’t seem to fix,” Meyer said. “One of the things that the families hope to do by the criminal case and the civil case is to bring about some sort of change within IPS because this really must stop.”
In reaction to the lawsuit and charges against Johnican, the IPS school board created a mental health and school culture task force. The goal of the task force was to evaluate the climate and culture of every school in IPS. The last time the group met was October 2025.
Contact WFYI Education Reporter Amelia Pak-Harvey at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.
