Autistic boy's father calls out school district for teachers' behaviors

[IDrinkaRum]

Stuart Chaifetz, father of a 10-year-old autistic son named Akian, has put this video up with taped recording of emotional abuse his son suffered at the hands of his teachers and teachers assistants/aides. (Entire video is 17 minutes long. Might have some curse words, can't remember).

FTR, one aide (named Jodi) has been fired. The teachers and other involved in the classroom antics have been moved to other schools in the school district.

This happened in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

This father's investigation started when his son's teachers told him that his son was hitting and attacking the teachers in his classroom. It should be noted that Akian and the other boys in his class are lower functioning autistics meaning they either do not speak or are so limited in thier communication abilities they cannot tell anyone what is happening to them.

A behaviorist specialist was called in to observe the class and Akian. Whenever the behavior specilist was there, Akian never acted out. Also, the specialist tried to stage scenarios that would trigger attacks by Akian. Akian never responded violently.

So Mr. Chaifetz wired his son and recorded a "normal" day for him. On this YouTube video are excerpts of said tape.

It makes me angry that there are teachers out there that think nothing of doing this to children in their care.

[Greenday]

Not listening to it right now. Don't have the time. But boy is my state on a roll with school crap.

[bara]

Yeah.. you dont get to call a ten year old with autism a bastard.

[ngc_7331]

Yeah.. you dont get to call a ten year old with autism a bastard.

You shouldn't be calling any child a bastard period. Or any other derogatory name. At all. No excuse. End of discussion.

I commend the dad. If it had been my child, I don't think I could show the kind of restraint he has.

[Seifer]

You'd be surprised how much abuse happens in those kinds of classrooms. The problem is that if one teacher does it, the others are likely to follow (pack mentality and all of that). I'd also wager that it's more likely when you're dealing with low-functioning children with autism, because stress-levels are through the roof.

I volunteered in a low-functioning autism classroom for a few weeks. The main teacher would make snide remarks or jokes at the students' expense right in front of them (one child even pulled a face after one of her jokes). At first it didn't hit me as being mean or abusive, because it tended to be very low-key and flew under the radar. By the end of my stay there, I caught myself joining in on a few occasions.

Now that I'm away from the peer pressure, I feel awful for what had been said in that classroom. I learned a lesson from the experience, and I hope I can follow a more positive path than my mentor teacher did.

[fireheart17]

The only thing I'm wondering is how long until the teachers counterattack by saying that he shouldn't be wiring his son up per confidentiality/privacy reasons.

Otherwise, is wrong with those teachers?!

I am currently studying Special Education myself and there is no way in hell I would be doing something like that. I've been picked on enough: I'm not going to take it out on people who can't fight back.

[Andara Bledin]

Starting out class by chatting about how drunk you got the night before and about how you were hurling that morning? Who does that?

What's sickening is that aside from the teacher's aide, all of the rest of the people involved (at least one full teacher and someone else) are still there, still teaching, and likely still psychologically abusing the kids in their care. They need more than just to be fired, they need to have charges laid.

^-.-^

[AdminAssistant]

Starting out class by chatting about how drunk you got the night before and about how you were hurling that morning? Who does that?

Besides my students? Not sure...

[IDrinkaRum]

My twitter friend, JillSmo's blog about this.

At the bottom of the blog are links to a petition, the father's e-mail adress, and a link to a local (New Jersey) Fox News interview he did.

Not sure what is going to come out of this, but something needs to be done.

[Gravekeeper]

Ugh, really? They took the Vatican approach to solving the problem? Just move them elsewhere? ><

[IDrinkaRum]

The teacher of Akian is now calling the story "disingenuous" and saying she wasn't there when the alledged incident happened.

[Andara Bledin]

Unless the woman was out of class for the entire day, she's full of shit.

While it may be possible that she wasn't there for some of the incidents, it was essentially a day-long issue of lack of respect and de-humanization of these kids, not just the bit at the beginning with the aide talking about how hung over she was.

^-.-^

[PepperElf]

The teacher of Akian is now calling the story "disingenuous" and saying she wasn't there when the alledged incident happened.

so... the aide was just talking to herself then?