PITTSBURGH — A federal judge has ruled that a case involving a Mars first grader must go back to a state hearing officer.

The Mars School Board members are defendants in a case against the district in which the parents of a 7-year-old primary center student accuse the district in 2014 of mishandling the student in the case of his oppositional defiance disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The board asked U.S. District Jude Terrence F. McVerry to dismiss the case, but McVerry ruled that the case must return to the state hearing system for more finding of fact.

Attorney John Corcoran, who represents the child and his family, said the judge ruled that state hearing procedures must be exhausted before the matter can return to federal court for consideration for dismissal.

According to legal documents, the parents of the student filed the lawsuit because the child's diagnosed disorders were not recognized by the district, and that administrators mishandled their son by detaining him in a “safe room” for several hours, parading him through the halls with a police escort in front of other students, wrongfully expelling him, and attempting to place him in another educational setting, among other accusations.

The parents' lawsuit asks for unspecified monetary damages from the district as well as payment to the family for future private school tuition.

The lawsuit claims that in 2014 the student kicked a teacher, overturned desks and pushed a fellow student.

It also claims that Principal Adam Kostewicz grabbed the student by the arm on more than one occasion and restrained him, causing the student emotional damage.

No date for proceedings before a state hearing officer has been set.