Mother Says School Aide 'Waterboarded' Her 14-Year-Old Autistic Son (VIDEO)

The mother of a 14-year-old autistic boy has accused a school aide of 'waterboarding' her son by forcing his head under a running faucet. A fellow student has also claimed that the boy was also forced to eat his own vomit. Two teacher's aides have been charged with abusing the boy and other special needs children. Five families have filed charges and they believe that their children's disabilities prevented them from reporting the abuse.

The two school aides have resigned and are said to be giving the investigation their full cooperation.

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Comments

[tcfpbis]

For the past 2 years we have been collecting and publicly posting news articles about abuse along with a "list" of the names of places where abuse has allegedly occurred. A list that started with 6 locations in 3 states now has the names of over 375 locations in 38 states. At least one new name is added every day. The list can be found at http:// tcfpbis. blogspot. com. If anyone has had a child abused anywhere or knows of a location not on the list that should be, could you please email gmail.commail.com? We only publish the name of the location of alleged abuse, and reason why the location was added; we do not indicate who reported the location to us, because we're all too familiar with retaliation. Thanks for the help, and thanks to HuffPost for covering this story!

[tcfpbis]

Thanks so much for covering this! My daughter was physically and verbally abused in a public school in Pennsylvania in 2006. She has been diagnosed with autism, epilepsy, and numerous other disorders. She was 7 years old at the time of the abuse (and tiny at that) and had been a straight A student in a regular ed classroom full-time the year before, but in 2006 she didn't have a teacher who understood her or her needs - instead I recently learned the teacher told my daughter daily she was too stupid to learn. She was also physically restrained while in seclusion at least once that we know of. We tried to find some agency that would help us fight to stop the abuse, but kept running into dead ends. Protection & Advocacy turned us away, lawmakers turned us away, the Dept of Ed & Office for Civil Rights closed all our complaints without any investigation, the state police refused to take our statement, mediation with the district failed, and our due process case was tossed out. We eventually pulled her out to homeschool her so she'd be safe.

[pxlpsh]

I didnt know Cheney started a school.

[Kim Stagliano - Huffpost Blogger]

And this is why we work so hard to "cure" (help) our children. So they can come home and at least say, "Hurt, Mama." I have three beautiful girls (2 are teens) with autism. What fresh hell do you think THEY face as attractive females with autism when their father and I die? This is why we rail in the media for treatment, vaccine research and any step we can take toward recovery. Awareness is not enough. Acceptance is not enough. Thank you. Kim

[autismaware]

Right on Kim. You send your kid off to school in the hope that the staff is compassionate and competent. This is every parent's worst fear. I would love to believe that there's a special place in hell for such people.

[Matt7]

Saw VI seems a pretty poor and insensitive commercial film choice for this story.

[CriticalDune]

Everyone who interacts with someone with autism needs specialized autism safety education and training. That means families, caregivers, school teachers administrators and staff, first responders, etc. Autism Speaks created a website to link to critical safety resources. Education and training are the key to stopping the ourageous abuse (and worse) of disabled citizens. Please take a look.
http://www.autismsafetyproject.org/site/c.kuIVKgMZIxF/b.5058283/k.BE40/Home.htm

[AmericanLeslie]

My late mother was epileptic. On her very first day of first grade, she had a seizure. The "teacher " responded by making her spend the remainder of the day under the teacher's desk in a cardbord box . I can remember weeping for my mother when she used that experience to explain why I could never let anyone know I had a learning disability (dyslexia). I can't even imagine how children with autism must view this world in which supposed caregivers are their torturers. It's disturbing to know that people who hate children are given so much access to all of our children - especially those who are too young and/or lack the communication skills to help us protect them from harm.

[LaurieAnn]

I too have a child on the autism spectrum. I can relate to so much of what has already been posted here. One thing I have noticed is that many people have an unconscious attitude that if given enough discipline, i.e. punishment an autistic person will become less autistic. In other words; "I can beat the autism out of them." One of the very subtle forms of this is what many parents experience on first enrolling their children in school only to have school personnel insist that the child's behaviors must be the result of a parenting problem.

I am glad to see this article here on HP and hope that it has a wide distribution throughout the nation. More people need to understand what our special needs individuals are subject too. The only way this will happen is to shine the light of day on a dark place in our society.

[kimbutgar]

My son is 17 and also autistic. In his first year at middle school he was placed in class with low functioning kids. My son is verbal and high functioned but not quite aspergers. He acted out daily due to his needs not being met. All he did was work sheets all day long. Not a week went back that they didn't call me to come get him. He was suspended numerous times. But the final nail was he had a meltdown and they took him down on a concrete floor and pounded on him. He had a swollen forehead and fat lip when I picked him up. I knew then and there I had a lawsuit against the district and they knew I did also. I was able to use it to get him in a private school where he is today but I feel for parents who don't have school districts willing to admit their mistakes. We have this large school age population of kids with autism and very few teachers and aides. This large group will also be entering adult hood with few resources awaiting them. Another crisis I have to look forward to.

[calamityjohn]

As a parent of a 16 year old severely developmentally disabled child (nonverbal .. functions at about an 18 month old level) .. one of the things I have learned that frightens my deeply is that very few people actual they consider my son as "a person" .. even many of his teachers and caregivers ... they may not abuse him (although he has been abused in the past at school) .. but they consider him much more as "a thing" .. than a "he" ... even if they treat him well .. there is the underlying attitude .. it is this attitude .. and the strain of dealing with these difficult issues day by day .. with training measured in hours not in credit hours .. working with people who can't speak out .. that makes these instances all too common.

[GardenerNorCal]

I think either the school needs to be shut down. Or at the bare minimum placed on probationary status and closely monitored. If the school district won't or can't do it, then the parents need to band together and schedule their time so that there is a parent in every classroom during every hour of operation. And those parents should be given the power of evaluating those teachers and their support staff, and those evaluations should have weight in whether or not those employees continue in the employ of the school.

[Christina Lane]

You got that right!

[AverageJose007]

Such pain and sorrow.

Dear God, what are you waiting for. Send your Son back. We need to be judged and go into a new world.

[nancytheragingliberal]

What a nightmare. I work with Autistic children and find this story outrageous. I hope the families pursue this outrage against their helpless, non-verbal children.

[Christina Lane]

Good God. Is nothing sacred?! This is a HORROR!!! >:{

[Matt7]

If people don't consider God Himself sacred, nothing else has much of a chance.

I get your point, though.

[Christina Lane]

If you are suggesting I take his name in vain, then I question your notion of the term, vanity. If you are agreeing with me that godliness is not what we've made it to be, then you have my agreement.

[ChumpChicken]

What state did this take place in?

[wsmcke]

Montana, here is the update: http://www.kfbb.com/news/local/64775712.html

[SouthernYankeeBelle]

Great Falls, MT. Am very shocked. I lived there for about a year. It's not a big city. I so surprised and I best the parents there are extremely shocked.