Parent discovers autistic child is bullied by teachers....

[LXS]

I know it's somewhat of a long read, but it's very sad to hear about such a terrible thing that took place, and who knows, possibly still is taking place? There's a YouTube vid (on the yahoo page/link) of the parent talking about what happened to his son, etc., along with clips of the audio he took! It's a 17 min vid, but if you have the time I say watch it. For those with kids, special needs or not, you'll definitely understand and feel this man's pain! Soo sad!!




http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/stu...220500111.html

Stuart Chaifetz Secretly Tapes His Autistic Son at School, Discovers He's Being Bullied by Teachers

When his 10-year-old son, Akian, started getting into trouble at school, Stuart Chaifetz was stunned. The notes from Horace Mann Elementary School in Cherry Hill, N.J., said that Akian, who has autism, was having violent outbursts and hitting his teacher and his aide -- behavior that the boy had never exhibited before.

"I could not understand why this was happening," Chaifetz, a 44-year-old animal rights activist in New Jersey, wrote on his website. "I had never witnessed Akian hit anyone, nor could I dream of him lashing out as had been described to me."

Related: Bullying, child abuse hastens aging in kids

In October 2011, he met with Akian's teachers and school therapists. A behaviorist was called in, but during several classroom visits he didn't see Akian become violent. "He tried to create a scenario that would push Akian so far that he would lash out," Chaifetz explained. "And Akian did not."

"If Akian was pushed and didn't do anything, what was setting him off?" his dad wondered. After six months of meetings yielded no answers, he decided that he needed to know what was happening in his son's class. Like Akian, all of the other kids in his class also have autism, and complications from the disorder prevent them from being able to communicate to their parents about what goes on in the classroom.

"The morning of February 17, I put a wire on my son, and I sent him to school," Chaifetz says in a video he created to showcase the audio clips. "What I heard on that audio was so disgusting, vile, and just an absolute disrespect and bullying of my son, that happened not by other children, but by his teacher, and the aides -- the people who were supposed to protect him. They were literally making my son's life a living hell."



The recordings are raw and intense. Angry adults yell at kids to "shut up," "shut your mouth," and "knock it off." Adults have inappropriate personal conversations in front of the children, discussing how drunk they were the night before, complaining about their husbands, and talking in detail about adult issues. More than once, an adult goads Akian to the point of tears -- and then laughs at him.

"Go ahead and scream," one adult hisses menacingly at Akian. "Because guess what? You're going to get nothing… until your mouth is shut."

And later: "Oh, Akian, you are a bastard."

Related: Why autistic children are bullied more -- and bully in return

"The six and a half hours of audio I had proved that my son wasn't hitting the teacher because there was something wrong with him -- he was lashing out because he was being mocked, mistreated and humiliated," Chaifetz writes on his website, No More Teacher/Bully. "His outbursts were his way of expressing that he was being emotionally hurt at school."

Chaifetz gave the entire six-and-a-half-hour recording to the Cherry Hill School district (you can hear more of the clips here). One aide, Jodi Sgouros, was fired. Another aide and the teacher, whom the Collingswood Patch identifies as Kelly Altenburg, were reassigned but not fired.

"I don't know why the teacher wasn't fired," Chaifetz writes on his blog. "Maybe the District had no choice; perhaps tenure or HR regulations did not permit them to do so. I know that they were sincere and shocked when they found out what happened. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in this."

On Tuesday, officials at the Horace Mann School in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, directed calls from Yahoo! Shine to the Cherry Hill School District's offices; a call to a spokesperson there was not immediately returned. Cherry Hill Public School District spokesperson Susan Bastnagel told the Collingswood Patch on Tuesday only that the incident is "an internal personnel matter that the district took seriously and handled appropriately."

Chaifetz disagrees, and has started a Facebook page and launched a petition at Change.org calling for the teacher's dismissal. He's already gathered nearly 18,500 signatures. "No one who treats children like that, who calls them vicious names, who humiliates them, who batters them verbally, deserves to be a teacher," Chaifetz says in the video.
"How is it possible that teachers and staff can do these things, and you have evidence -- not just accusations, but evidence -- and they're still teaching?" he said in an interview with Babble.com. To me, that's the bigger outrage here. How many times has this happened before? How many times will it happen again if I remain quiet?"
For his part, Chaifetz says that what he really wants from the teacher and aides involved is a public apology and a willingness to take responsibility for their actions.

"I want an apology, not for me, but so one day I can play this video back for my son and say Akian, you didn't deserve anything that happened to you," he says in the video. "I'm not going to sue anybody. I'm not going to file a lawsuit. It's not about money. It's about dignity. This is to reclaim my son's dignity."

[shame302]

I'm sure it's going on elsewhere and will continue to do so. I also hope the hammer drops where ever it needs to in these situations without mercy.

[rich1]

I dont know if Shut -up ...Shut youre mouth....and Knock it off can be classified as abuse ! I used to hear it all the time when i was a kid and you didnt have to be special either !
Schools are way too PC these days .
My friends kid came home the other day and told his mom that if he didnt get a new car in 6 months that he was going to leave home ! Hes 16.

[shame302]

Originally Posted by rich1

Schools are way too PC these days .

This is also true.

My friends kid came home the other day and told his mom that if he didnt get a new car in 6 months that he was going to leave home ! Hes 16.

and this is hilarious. No car for you a-hole.

[LXS]

The shut up and shut your mouth can go either way, but the things that got to me where, the teacher calling the poor kid a "bastard," and talking non chalantly (sp?) about having drank soo much the night before that she was throwing up before going into class! What a person does on his/her own time should stay with that person and not be talked about in a classroom in front of your students (and really? If you "need" to drink that much to make yourself feel better, save it for the weekend, just saying...). And calling a kid a "bastard" no matter what isn't acceptable.

[yellowshaker04]

I heard this on the radio this morning and then watched the youtube video the dad had posted. Unbelievable that some teachers would act that way.

[ar15topgun]

Originally Posted by rich1

I dont know if Shut -up ...Shut youre mouth....and Knock it off can be classified as abuse ! I used to hear it all the time when i was a kid and you didnt have to be special either !
Schools are way too PC these days .
My friends kid came home the other day and told his mom that if he didnt get a new car in 6 months that he was going to leave home ! Hes 16.

You can leave here just like you came home from the hospital when you were born...with the clothes on your back...don't let the door hit you in the arse when you leave...that would be my response.

[shadowmaker]

Originally Posted by rich1

I dont know if Shut -up ...Shut youre mouth....and Knock it off can be classified as abuse ! I used to hear it all the time when i was a kid and you didnt have to be special either !
Schools are way too PC these days .
My friends kid came home the other day and told his mom that if he didnt get a new car in 6 months that he was going to leave home ! Hes 16.

My 14 yr old THINKS hes going to get his DL and a car. He thinks I m 'threatening" him and hes going to get both. Guess what? Hes wrong. I was worried bout him being on our policy with my Mach. Im not worried about it bc he doesnt have enough responsibility to deserve either.

My 14 yr olds kindergarten teacher told him bc he colored the people in his picture 'orange' that he was the dumbest kid in class. My wife ask her in front of the principal did she have any kids that lived or did she eat them all bc she was the nastiest most hateful teacher she had ever met.

On the other side of this and its not an excuse but teachers put up with alot now. They cant punish or do anything to kids bc they ll get in trouble. Now people arent raising their kids, they expect the schools to do it. My sister who is a teacher had a 5 yr old girl pretending to 'shoot up' using a pencil.

My first teacher busted my arse for acting up in class. I still remember it 37 yrs later. Guess what? I turned out ok. Guess what? I didnt act up in class again either. My 3rd grade teacher made us write sentences. 'I listened by did not heed, now I must pay for my misdeed.' Yep 34 yrs later I remember that sentence and I didnt have to write it but once, 50 times.

Teachers cant do those things now. They get burnt out or desensitized and this story is what we get sadly.

[USAF_Rock]

its bull**** what happened to that kid.. period