VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) -- Jurors took just four hours Tuesday to acquit a couple who had been charged with unlawful imprisonment for keeping two young autistic boys in a dark room with a cage-like door.
The Clark County Superior Court jury had been asked to decide whether John Eckhart, 31, and Alayna Higdon, 27, confined Eckhart's sons for convenience or to keep them safe.
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.
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 published on YouTube.
WATCH VIDEO HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfkscHt96R0
At various points in the audio recording, you hear the 10-year-old, almost fully non-communicative autistic boy being told to "shut your mouth" and that he "is such a bastard."
And as if that weren't bad enough, his teachers also talk about drinking wine and tell Akian Chaifetz that he won't be seeing his father anytime soon, to which the youngster responds by sounding as if he is going to burst into tears with disappointment and fear.
After Stuart Chaifetz showed the audio recording to school administrators, one aide was fired, but at least two other adults can be heard on the tape, and that is why Chaifetz is taking his case public. He has stated ""To this end, I seek a full and public apology from all those adults who were in my son's class for what they did to him," writes on his website. "It is also far past time that these issues are allowed to be hidden from public view."
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No teacher who bullies a child, especially one with special needs, should be allowed to keep their job in the field. With all the evidence against Kelly Altenburg, this petition seeks either her resignment or the termination of any position at Cherry Hill Schools.
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Contact Cherry Hill Schools here:
http://www.cherryhill.k12.nj.us/contact/
SIGN PETITION HERE!!!
Other children at Farm Hill Elementary told their parents they could hear screaming from the two windowless rooms, once used as book cupboards.
The school district claims the cupboards, which they call ‘timeout rooms’, are used to separate disruptive students from the rest of the class.
The child is led to the concrete-walled room and staff stand outside the until the child has calmed down, they say.
But parents lashed out at the school – attended by children both with and without special needs – for the practice during a Board of Education meeting held on Tuesday.
‘The so-called “scream rooms” are just closets,’ Jeff Daniels, a local union member, said. ‘These are book closets turned into rooms for the children.
‘The building custodians had to go in and clean blood off the walls and clean urination off the floors.’
More @ http://widk.com/2012/01/11/school-locks-special-needs-kids-in-scream-rooms-to-calm-them-down-had-to-clean-blood-off-walls/
Why This Is Important
In Mercer County, Kentucky, nine year old Chris Baker, an Autistic student, was told by his special education aide to climb inside a gym ball bag for punishment to "control his autistic behavior" in mid-December 2011. He was placed in the bag with the drawstring tightened and left in the hallway in the school. When his mother, Sandra Baker, was called to the school to get her son, she demanded that he be removed from the bag right away. The teacher struggled to undo the drawstring, and Chris emerged sweaty and non-communicative. According to the teacher, this had been done several times over the last year, but Sandra didn't know until this latest incident. While she met with state officials on Monday 19 December 2011 before a possible meeting with school officials, there is no guarantee that those meetings will prevent this kind of abuse from happening again -- either to Chris or to other students.
If you think it's wrong to tell an Autistic child to climb inside a bag intended for gym balls and tighten it with a drawstring, which could potentially have led to serious injury or death, as punishment, then please sign this petition. This is wrong. This is abuse. It needs to stop.
We hereby affirm that
1.) Physical, mechanical, and chemical restraint or seclusion of Autistic students and students with other disabilities is abuse except in brief, temporary, and emergency interventions when there is imminent and immediate threat of harm to self or others, and that are carefully and completely documented and reviewed with a full debriefing including the student and parent(s) or guardian(s) afterward;
2.) All special education teachers ought to receive extensive education and training in appropriate interactions with and educational methods for Autistic students and students with other disabilities both before starting work with these students and throughout the duration of their careers in order to promote the best possible outcomes for all students;
3.) All non-special education teachers ought to receive at least basic awareness education and training in recognizing autism and other disabilities, particularly invisible disabilities, which can include intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as appropriate interactions with Autistic students and students with other disabilities either before beginning work as teachers or as continuing education credits in order to promote the best possible outcomes for all students;
4.) It is in the best interests of all educators, educational administrators, parents, and Autistic students and students with other disabilities to ensure the safety and well-being of all students, including Autistic students and students with other disabilities, and that a safe environment means one in which a student is free of fear of any kind of restraint or seclusion or punishment-based treatment rather than respectful, individualized education; and
5.) Appropriate continuing education professional training on interactions with Autistic students and students with other disabilities ought to include appropriate de-escalation and crisis intervention techniques that recognize significant differences in processing and communication in Autistic students and students with other disabilities, in order to prevent the use of restraints of any kind or seclusion on Autistic students and students with other disabilities.
And in accordance with our affirmations, we demand that the following actions be taken or started before the end of December 2012, with all due speed:
1.) That the teacher(s) responsible for placing Christopher Baker in a gym ball bag be dismissed from position for abusing a vulnerable person (a person with a disability) OR be required to successfully complete extensive continuing education professional training in interacting with and educating Autistic students and students with other disabilities, not to be fewer than at least the equivalent of a semester-long graduate level course developed using existing standards and best practices in model state systems, and which shall specifically include techniques for appropriate de-escalation and crisis intervention;
2.) That all current and future special education teachers in Mercer County be required to successfully complete extensive continuing education professional training in interacting with and educating Autistic students and students with other disabilities, not to be fewer than at least the equivalent of a semester-long graduate level course developed using existing standards and best practices in model state systems, and which shall specifically include techniques for appropriate de-escalation and crisis intervention;
3.) That all current and future non-special education teachers in Mercer County be required to successfully complete basic continuing education professional training in interacting with and educating Autistic students and students with other disabilities, not to be fewer than at least eight classroom hours of instruction developed using existing standards and best practices in model state systems; and
4.) That use of any type of restraint or seclusion on any student be explicitly prohibited except in brief, temporary, and emergency interventions when there is imminent and immediate threat of harm to self or others, that are carefully and completely documented and reviewed with a full debriefing including the student and parent(s) or guardian(s) afterward.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A 9-year-old autistic boy who misbehaved at school was stuffed into a duffel bag and the drawstring pulled tight, according to his mother, who said she found him wiggling inside as a teacher's aide stood by.
The mother of fourth-grader Christopher Baker said her son called out to her when she walked up to him in the bag Dec. 14. The case has spurred an online petition calling for the firing of school employees responsible.
"He was treated like trash and thrown in the hallway," Chris' mother, Sandra Baker, said Thursday. She did not know how exactly how long he had been in the bag, but probably not more than 20 minutes.
Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- A school bus with special needs kids on board was missing for several hours Monday afternoon and parents say they couldn't get straight answers from the school district.
"I was so upset that nobody could be honest with me and tell me that it's time to worry," says Meg Directo, mother of a 4 year-old autistic girl on the bus. "Everybody I talked to says 'oh she's on her way, she's on her way, she's here, she's there.'"
The bus left Lummis Elementary School around 3 p.m. and over the course of several hours, parents feel like they were getting the runaround from the Clark County School District Transportation Department. (http://transportation.ccsd.net/)
"As parents we don't need to be lied to, especially when the Transportation Department knows the issues," says mom Michelle Zurowski. "We don't need to be lied to."
Action News pushed the school district for answers and learned the bus driver was a substitute and had been given the wrong maps.
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"You know, most of them don't talk so we'll never know what happened for four hours on that bus," says Directo.
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