No one knows what caused 11-year-old Josh Sikes to die last November. But his final moments in a Virginia Beach classroom have led to investigations and renewed questioning over techniques used by Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs.
By John-Henry Doucette
The Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO
The week before he died, Josh Sikes had problems at school. He overturned his desk and broke a teacher’s glasses on Halloween.
Amid a long behavioral episode on Oct.31, he was restricted to a “safe” or “calming” area in a classroom overseen by Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs, a regional consortium serving eight communities in Hampton Roads.
What happened in that area is now the subject of multiple investigations.
Josh was 11, a fourth-grader on the autism spectrum, with ADHD and an intellectual disability. He attended Pembroke Elementary School in Virginia Beach, but he was a student within a SECEP classroom, taught by special education teachers and learning among other children.
His mother, Julie Sikes, picked him up early on Thursday, Oct. 31, after getting a call from the school. The next day, when Josh was home on a teacher work day, a personal care aide noticed a bruise on Josh’s leg.
On Saturday afternoon, Josh suffered what might have been a seizure, and his mother went with him to the hospital by ambulance. A doctor referred him for more tests, his mom said, and the family went home. Early Sunday morning, his grandmother checked on Josh in his bedroom and discovered he wasn’t breathing.
Six months later, the cause of Josh Sikes' death is still unknown. Virginia Beach police are investigating his death. Police, Child Protective Services and SECEP are probing the events in the classroom that day and any possible connection to his passing, according to an internal SECEP report.
CPS is also investigating an anonymous complaint against Julie Sikes, Sikes said. In an interview, Sikes said the claim of her negligence is untrue and that she has cooperated with CPS.
Both SECEP employees and Josh's family members have been questioned, according to the SECEP report and interviews with people who spoke to authorities.
The cause and manner of his death are pending, according to the state medical examiner’s office.
Robert Holt, head of SECEP’s regional joint board and chairperson of the Franklin School Board, said in a March email to VCIJ that SECEP leaders were aware of the allegations and were cooperating with the investigation. Photo by John-Henry Doucette.
What has emerged in the aftermath — allegations about the use of a makeshift area his mother believes Josh was kept in and whether that amounted to negligence or an appropriate calming technique.
SECEP executive director Laura Armstrong and Donald Robertson, Virginia Beach superintendent of schools and SECEP’s executive officer, declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation. Although Josh’s special education classroom was in a Virginia Beach public school, the program and its teachers are part of SECEP.
SECEP, working with police and CPS, produced a 64-page report on Feb. 24 about the bruise and Josh’s recent behavior and treatment at school. The report, obtained by VCIJ at WHRO from Sikes’ lawyer, details Josh’s aggressive behavior and his teachers’ attempts to calm him. It also describes his placement in an area that, at times, was enclosed by bookshelves. Some of the shelves were reinforced with tie-down straps to keep them together.
The report recommended policy changes, including ensuring immediate and comprehensive reporting on disruptive incidents. VCIJ is not naming the staff members interviewed in the report out of concern for their privacy.
In a March 24 letter to SECEP and its eight associated school districts, Julie Sikes’ attorney, Matthew Moynihan, claimed that the schools may be liable for negligence for the alleged mistreatment of Josh, including keeping him in a “makeshift prison located within his classroom.”
Robert Holt, head of SECEP’s regional joint board and chairperson of the Franklin School Board, said in a March email to VCIJ that SECEP leaders were aware of the allegations and were cooperating with the investigation. “We expect all SECEP employees to comply with all federal, state and local policies and guidelines with respect to educating disabled students,” he said.
Julie Sikes in her Newport News, VA apartment on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. Her son, Josh, 11, was on the autism spectrum, with ADHD and an intellectual disability. He died suddenly in early November. Authorities are investigating his death and his alleged treatment in a special education classroom. The cause of Sikes’ death is unknown. Photo by William Tiernan.
SECEP was formed in 1978 by a consortium of Virginia public school divisions to provide a formal structure “to plan and operate programs for children with special needs.” It serves 1,500 students with medical, emotional, and behavioral challenges in the cities of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Franklin and the counties of Isle ofWight and Southampton. The publicly funded program has a $61 million annual budget.
Because student disabilities can sometimes lead to violent outbursts or harmful behavior, teachers are trained in techniques to protect their students and themselves. Under Virginia law, which is mirrored in SECEP policy, seclusion means “the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room or area from which the student is physically prevented from leaving.” Restraint is defined as restricting a student’s movement. The tactics are meant to prevent harm to a student or others during an emergency in which serious physical harm is a risk.
Students with disabilities disproportionately experience seclusion and restraint in schools across the nation, according to federal government data.
In the 2023-24 school year, Virginia Beach public schools — the fourth-largest division in the state — reported 626 restraints and 281 seclusions, the highest amount for a public school division in Virginia. Of those numbers, SECEP programs in Virginia Beach accounted for 589 of the restraints (or 94%) and all of the seclusions, according to data from the division.
The question of how to calm students and de-escalate violent behavior has stirred debate around the country. It was also the subject of a federal review of SECEP.
In 2017, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened a compliance review of SECEP’s use of restraint and seclusion. Among the concerns, the federal office noted “inconsistent and differing views among staff” about what counted as restraint and seclusion.
SECEP admitted no violations when it signed a resolution agreement with the federal government in 2022. It agreed to revise its policies and procedures, improve recordkeeping and notification procedures, and ensure better communications with parents and the school districts it serves.
Josh Sikes’ experience in late October renewed questions about SECEP’s techniques and the program’s responsibilities to notify parents about their use.
Although seclusion is lawful with certain limitations, some districts have banned the practice. Norfolk, which SECEP serves, doesn’t allow it.
In April, Moynihan obtained the SECEP report about Josh Sikes’ final week at school. The report was written by SECEP’s human resources director and contained interviews with multiple special education teachers and assistants, as well as a SECEP program administrator.
According to the report, a CPS investigator called the school in November to follow up on Julie Sikes’ report that her son had come home with a 3-by-2-inch bruise on his inner thigh. Authorities also wanted to investigate a “possible connection to the child’s death to a bruise that allegedly occurred at school.”
Teachers told an investigator that Josh was disruptive on Oct. 25 and Oct. 31, kicking, biting, scratching and throwing things.
On both days, when his behavior escalated, the report said, staff put Josh into an area in a corner of the classroom that was created with bookshelves.
A longtime SECEP employee told investigators that this type of area was used to calm students throughout the employee’s time at SECEP. “Our first go-to before restraining or anything else is to use the furniture as a barrier to keep them safe as long as we can,” the employee said.
A photo taken by a staff member of a space known as a “safe” or “calming” area in Josh Sikes’ SECEP classroom. (Photo taken by a SECEP employee andobtained from Julie Sikes)
Straps were used in some classrooms to make furniture heavier, the same employee said. In Josh’s class, the employee added, straps were placed on the shelving because he had been able in the past to tip the shelves over.
The employee said Josh could get out of his area “because he was not enclosed.” However, staff “did use the shelves to block him when he was coming towards us aggressively and forcefully trying to hurt us.”
When Josh pushed against furniture, another employee said, “We would just stand on the outside of the shelves and push against him.”
The employee told an investigator that the area had a divider covering a window to prevent injury and shelves that were “supports to keep them confined in a safe area so we did not have to touch them if they had behaviors.”
Shelves could be moved in front of the opening.
“Would all four sides be blocked?” an investigator asked.
“Yes,” the employee said.
“Here’s my issue with the whole thing,” another employee said. “That’s not being counted as seclusion.”
According to SECEP and state policy, seclusions, like restraints, must be reported to a child’s parents.
On Oct. 31, the report said, a staff member heard Josh call for his mom from the area.
After Josh’s death, a teacher showed Julie Sikes photos of a corner of a classroom surrounded by bookshelves, some strapped together, Sikes told VCIJ. She said she believes her son may have been hurt while inside the area or while trying to escape.
“Who would put a child in something like that?” she said in an interview.
According to the school’s behavior intervention plan for Josh, shared with VCIJ by his mother, staff were allowed to guide him to a “safe area” with three walls and an opening. A screen or bookshelves “may also be used in this area to block aggressions towards staff.”
Andrew Sikes, Josh’s father, has been divorced from Julie Sikes for several years, but the couple shared custody of their son.
Remarried with four daughters and living in South Carolina, he wants people to know Josh was loving and caring, that his behaviors were part of his disability.
“He was still innocent,” Andrew Sikes said.
He told VCIJ that he hasn’t told his young children their brother is gone. He wants answers so he can explain it.
He expressed doubts that Josh being in the safe area described to him caused his death. There were times when Josh may have needed to be restrained for his own safety, he said. But he said Josh shouldn’t have been confined that way.
“That area?” he said. “No.”
Julie Sikes remembers her son — her little “Joshie,” she calls him — as a loving boy, interested in arts and crafts, music and dancing.
In March, she told Josh’s story to the Virginia Beach Special Education Advisory Committee.
Committee chairwoman Meghan Ashburn said members will review school policies and gather suggestions and questions for school and SECEP officials.
Sikes told the committee that the system “did not always understand or respect” Josh’s needs. She called for an end to restraint and seclusion.
Reach John Doucette at jhd@princessanneindy.com.
Virginia Beach Public Schools are a member of the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association, which holds WHRO's license.