Bullied Autistic Boy in NJ

[Lothlorien]

Sick. Unfortunately, with the tenure in effect, the teacher will probably NOT lose his job. Phhhht

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/stuart-chaifetz-father-wire-son-records-teacher-abuse_n_1447330.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

When Stuart Chaifetz sent his 10-year-old son to New Jersey's Horace Mann Elementary School wearing a hidden audio recorder, he couldn't have predicted what he would uncover.

The move came in reaction to accusations from the school that his son Akian was having "violent outbursts," including hitting his teacher and teacher's aide -- claims that Chaifetz claims are against his son's "sweet and non-violent" nature.

Akian, who has Autism, returned with a tape containing hours of apparent verbal and emotional abuse from his classroom aide and teacher -- whom Chaifetz identifies as "Jodi" and "Kelly" -- a recording which his father later The Feb. 17 recording started with Akian's aide and the teacher, whom Collingswood Patch provides evidence may be Jodi Sgouros and Kelly Altenburg, respectively, based on a previously published online staff directory.

The two engage in inappropriate conversations, like joking about their alcohol abuse and sex lives in front of their students -- all of whom have behavioral conditions and, according to Chaifetz, communication difficulties that prevent them from relaying the conversations to their parents.

"You would never get away with talking about your alcohol abuse the night before if this was a mainstream class," Chaifetz says in the YouTube video. "And that's the point, isn't it? They knew none of those boys could go home and tell their parents that the person who ran that class was under the influence of alcohol and was throwing up."
As the tape continues, the teacher and teacher's aide's behavior turns from inappropriate to cruel.

"Who are you talking to, nobody?" Kelly asked Akian, who sometimes talks to himself. "Knock it off," Jodi chimed in.
According to the video, Akian became upset, and starting crying.

"Go ahead and scream because guess what? You're going to get nothing until your mouth is shut," the classroom official is heard saying. "Shut your mouth."
Due to his son's anxiety, Chaifetz, who is divorced from his wife, has to reassure Akian that he will return to his care after the boy spends time with his mother.
"It's not a big deal," he said, When Akian asked his teacher for the same reassurance, however, she answered "no," sending him into an emotional panic. The teacher's aide, too, responded cruelly.

"Oh Akian, you are a *******," Jodi said, according to the audio recording.

Chaifetz said that the classroom aide was fired after the he presented the recording to school district officials, but that the teacher remains employed, though in a different classroom.

Susan Bastnagel, Cherry Hill Public School District spokesperson declined to comment on the teacher's continued employment, but told The Huffington Post that the incident is a "personnel matter that the district took seriously and handled appropriately."
“That my son's teacher was not fired and still works in the school district is an outrage I am not willing to allow to pass in silence,” Chaifetz said in an email to The Huffington Post.

“She betrayed my son and caused him great pain. If some union rule or HR regulation has allowed her to keep her job, then the law needs to be changed so that the next time a teacher bullies a child, especially one with special needs, they will be immediately fired. For me to do nothing would mean I was treating my son with as much disrespect as they had," he added.

An online petition on Change.org and a Facebook page calling for the teacher's termination have already received attention.
Akian's troubling experience is not unique, nor is his father's method of exposing believed wrongdoing in the classroom.

"I have also been stunned by how many emails I have received from people with special needs who were bullied by teachers when they were in school, and from parents who have a situation that mirrors what I went through," Chaifetz told The Huffington Post. "These parents are desperate to find out what is happening to their child and have asked for help on how to wire them."

This was the case for parents of a special needs student at Miami Trace Middle School in Ohio, who sent their daughter to school with a hidden tape recorder last fall after the girl repeatedly complained about teacher bullying.

The revelation was shocking: the educators on the recording called the child lazy and dumb, and forced her to run on a treadmill with increasing speed.
"Don't you want to do something about that belly," former teaching aide Kelley Chaffins says in the recording. "Well, evidently you don't because you don't do anything at home. You sit at home and watch TV."

The girl and her father spoke to Ann Curry on NBC's "TODAY" last November and, in a tearful interview, the concerned dad recounted how the abuse had affected his daughter.

"She got to where she didn't want to go to school," he said. "She was ... starting to harm herself to keep from going to school and we knew we had to do something at that point."

Chaffins was later forced to resign from her position. Other bullying incidents have also been exposed by hidden cameras. After Julio Artuz, a 15-year-old at Bankbridge Regional School in New Jersey asked his teacher to stop calling him "special," the teacher told him, "…I will kick your a-- from here to kingdom-come until I'm 80 years old."

 

[buddy]

There still are ways with tenure. You can't break the law and keep your job. For psycho (our situation) what the law advocate is piecing together after talking to the sp. ed. director, they put him on a pretty strict corrective action program and his pressing charges seems to have put her right in a place where she can do something, which I dont fully understand because obviously anyone has a right to press charges if they truly feel they were assaulted, but I assume they all know that he was not assaulted, they know he was being too harsh and escalated the situation into what it was. A good administration can find a way, they have legal resources and no union wants to protect a child abuser. I hope they pull every political string they can......there are ways to make her want to resign.

 

[Lothlorien]

Off topic, but Buddy, there are about 6 cases of sexual offenders (teachers), in this area, who are sitting pretty in their homes, awaiting trial for what can take up to two years. They are still getting paid. Granted, they are removed from the children, but they are home and getting paid. Makes me want to spit!

 

[buddy]

Loth, that is just awful, thank heaven they are not in the classroom but just AWFUL.....my contract clearly said breaking the law was cause for termination but yes, I can see that it could take a long time, ugggg.....(and yes, there are people who are falsely accused but wow!) My last job was at a charter school, no tenure and actually it was better. I never felt worried I'd lose my job without it...and everyone had to do a good job.

 

[DDD]

Loth I read this report...and then reread it yesterday. Sadly my first thought was "boy I wish more parents would choose that course". Then, however, I found myself wondering if it is even legal to record teachers with-o their advanced knowledge.
I bet at least fifty percent of us have strongly suspected verbal abuse with our special needs children.

on the other hand, I'm sure our family members who are teachers would be aghast at the invasion of privacy and the likelihood that the children would be fiddling with wires and unable to learn. Personally I am sure that in our community the s.e. teachers are usually the least experienced and often the least trained. So sad. DDD

 

[buddy]

If it weren't for the privacy of the other students, I'd actually not mind working in a setting (child care or school) where there were internet cameras on us with audio at all times...(with the exception of fixing a wedgie or blowing your nose...embarrassing things like that) I wish everyone would act as if they are being watched at all times. I was trained in therapy that way, each and every session was video taped and reviewed by professors so I got very used to it. If I had my daycare back, I'd use some way to have parents be able to check in on kids if they wanted thru the internet. I always allowed drop in etc. But, of course in Special Education, we do have to consider the privacy of the other students so I get it is really impractical but just the idea...no one should be doing anything that an audience could not see.
JJJ, I bet you are right, I bet the majority of people have suspected that their child was being talked to inappropriately at some point. I felt so awful when I actually thought Q was misunderstanding the bus driver who was tormenting him. Glad I heard it first hand!

 

[Star*]

My only thought on this WHOLE case was - I wish the Father would have contacted an attorney FIRST before he went to YOU TUBE with his emotional taped message. You can tell he's VISIBLY upset - and with cause, but he tipped his hat and that's never good when you're trying to get someone canned. It gave the SD time to get organized.

I can believe this goes on a lot more than it does. I like, DDD had wondered if what the Father did was legal, but seriously with a handicapped kid? SHAME ON YOU! IF MY CHILD were in THAT teachers class? I'd be pulling him/her out and making a statement and I'm SHOCKED and APPALED that parents in the class where they moved him to - ARE NOT.

 

[susiestar]

This is a big reason why I was a homeroom mom for as long as my body would allow it. My kids teachers NEVER knew if I was right outside or not. the only ones who EVER had even a tiny problem were ones who abused kids. The shock on the face of the one mainstream teacher when she realized that I had NO problems telling the principal of the disgusting things she said about the kids was priceless. She had always gotten all the special needs kids in her class because she had adopted a special needs child herself (and I feel for that child, greatly). She bullied Jess until she learned i was going to kick her to kingdom come and make her name worse than mud in the district. She did outmaneuver me but I had already sown enough doubt and mistrust that her very short reign as principal at that elem school was a living Hades on earth. She finally went WAY too far with a friend's daughter, not knowing I had shown them how to get proof by getting a copy of the IEP two months AFTER it was signed (idiot hag changed it, NOT learnng from the disaster that I made of the career of the middle school teacher who did that to Wiz) and they dragged her through so much - she left town and is now living on her pitiful savings because she cannot get another job anywhere NEAR children. We have attached things to her records and any google search of her name pulls up facts about things she has been proven to have done and now even places like various tutoring places who are not known to do thorough background checks won't touch her. She applied at a Walmart to be a greeter last I heard. Imagine her surprise when she went to ask about her application and the hiring mgr was a former student who wouldn't let them even discuss her app - she can't be trusted around kids or anyone vulnerable was what the former student said to the store mgr (who I know).

It is priceless and wonderful when these people get what they are asking for, and it is sad that it takes so long. I think every contract should state that if going to trial for an offense, any pay is held in trust. It is hard for those who are innocent, and I do know people who have been in that spot, but sadly it is what is needed. Or, if they do get paid and are found guilty of ANYTHING then they should have to pay ALL of that $ back.

People who prey on the weak should be taken out and flogged then killed. Brutal it is, but it would send a very clear message. One that needs to be sent. You shouldn't get away with brutalizing a child or anyone vulnerable, ever. Sadly, too many sick people are attracted to that position because they can hold power over the vulnerable. I have no problems running some people lke that out. It just takes too long most times and kids end up really hurt. Heck, I think Kathy Lee Gifford shoudl be run out. There is actually a youtube video of her making an autistic kid cry - it was awful and she was horrible. i t was a tribute to a high school kid who purposely sat with an autistic boy who was being ostracized at lunch and made friends with him - in and out of school friends. But she kept pointing out how nice the boy was because how autistic and different the younger boy was and she made the boy cry. It was just wrong.

Sadly, Star, too often a lawyer will just tell you there isn't anything you can do. Even if you know htere is, or the atty knows there is, they will tell you there isn't because they don't want to bother or go up against a school district. To sue our local SD when Wiz was in 6th gr, the other parents had to get an out of state atty and pay for all the travel time to do the filings and everything. It cost a LOT and the SD had to pay it, but the SD had already taken steps to make double dang sure that NO atty in this area and most in the state would not ever take a case against them Tehy just make it politically uncomfortable for the atty who takes the case. Finding an atty that won't bow to the pressure AND has passed the state bar is not easy. So parents who don't know someone or have resources to find someone have to do what they can. an article in the Huffpost will probably get them an atty, but with-o that video that tipped their hand, they might NEVER have gotten the attn of an atty who would do it.

 

[keista]

My only thought on this WHOLE case was - I wish the Father would have contacted an attorney FIRST before he went to YOU TUBE with his emotional taped message. You can tell he's VISIBLY upset - and with cause, but he tipped his hat and that's never good when you're trying to get someone canned. It gave the SD time to get organized.

I can believe this goes on a lot more than it does. I like, DDD had wondered if what the Father did was legal, but seriously with a handicapped kid? SHAME ON YOU! IF MY CHILD were in THAT teachers class? I'd be pulling him/her out and making a statement and I'm SHOCKED and APPALED that parents in the class where they moved him to - ARE NOT.

Star, he may have. The incident happened in February. Only the Aide was canned, the teacher was just reassigned. That's why he went so public.

 

[tiredmommy]

I've worked as a sub aide and often was 1:1 with special needs kids in classrooms. Most teachers are good and kind and support the kind. Some are not. But a lot of aides, in my humble opinion, need a lot of training on how to work with non-typical children. I've had numerous times that teachers would tell me their special kids had a good day with me and want to know what I was doing differently. I usually said something like "Not blaming them for their problems and treating them with dignity, so they do the same with me". The good teachers liked that, the bad ones did not.

There was one teacher that has an excellent reputation that had an exceptionally difficult boy in her already difficult class. This poor kid had heard since probably pre-k that he was "bad". He repeated kindergarten (behavior and academic issues), was a constant disruption in every placement and loved to get a rise out of the adults around him. His mother told me once that he had ADHD, difficulty with writing and a mood disorder. This was not an unintelligent child, but rather a child that felt unliked and unwanted in school. So the teacher started requesting that her classroom aide try to get me when she couldn't be there because we got along. Oh, he'd argue a little bit and put on a bit of his song and dance... but he'd eventually give in because I kept saying I knew he could whatever task was at hand as well as the other kids because he was so smart. And he'd do it. And not be sent to the principal. And get little smiley faces on his behavior chart... simply because the adult working directly with him that day had faith in him.

 

[Lothlorien]

I think you are very right, TM. There is much more training needed for working with special needs kids. Repeated training. We have some very amazing teachers and aides where I live. The training is very good and constant. One of my friends is an aide in a special needs class and she was able to give me a lot of good tips for dealing with Missy when she was having a lot of rages. She taught me a lot. I guess it depends on the school district....I dunno. I will say that my friends son was not treated well, but he was never classified until middle school. Now he's in a good school just for his diagnosis and is finally doing really well.