14-Year-Old Special Needs Student Speaks Out On TODAY About Being Bullied By Teachers (VIDEO)

"We were shocked ... we didn't know," 14-year-old Cheyenne's father tearfully said in an interview on the TODAY show Tuesday.

After their complaints to the school board reportedly went uninvestigated, the parents of the special needs student decided to hide a tape recorder in their daughter's clothes. What they captured left them upset -- and angry.

"Don't you want to do something about that belly?" teaching aide Kelly Chaffins said to Cheyenne, according to the recording.

"Yes," the girl responded.

"Well, evidently you don't because you don't do anything at home," Chaffins said. "You sit at home and watch TV."

In his emotional interview, Cheyenne's father told NBC's Ann Curry that his daughter started to react to the stress.

"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. "

After bringing the recordings to the school board, officials demanded that Chaffins resign. Chaffins subsequently announced her resignation while Christy Wilt, the classroom teacher, has been put on unpaid leave and ordered to undergo eight hours of training on how to stop child abuse. But these consequences aren't enough for the family's attorneys.

"There's no good solution, but we don't think that this teacher and this aide should be working with students, especially special needs students," one of the attorneys told Curry. "We would like her to be terminated."

Cheyenne's parents sued the school district and received $300,000 in damages.

WATCH:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Comments

[Ashley Lupfer]

05:25 PM on 03/20/2013

FYI You should be using "person-first" language in articles concerning people with special needs from now on. That is a generally accepted policy.
The title should read "14-Year-Old Student with Special Needs Speaks Out On TODAY About Being Bullied By Teachers".
It is disrespectful to label a person with their disability.

[akieautumn2]

12:22 AM on 12/07/2012

I was outraged after reading this story, how can teachers be so cruel?

[ruben vega]

10:40 PM on 01/28/2012

the reporter is also a dumb*ss because she called the little girl christine towards the end of the interview, after the lawyers spoke. her name is cheyenne, the teachers name is christine.

[ponygirl1022]

06:31 PM on 01/21/2012

I'm studying secondary education and I seriously can't imagine teachers being like this. Teachers, especially special educators, are there to help kids. I can't believe it took a hidden tape recorder to make the board listen. I went to a very prestigious high school in a nationally known district and any complaint from parents or students went right to the board. They acknowledged anything and everything, and took action right away. One year, a teacher disappeared seemingly out of the blue, and we later found he'd been labeled in an abuse scandal. Nobody knew if it was true, but he was suspended immediately.

[Roger Augustus]

02:33 PM on 11/27/2011

That woman should be fired, and never work in education again. And $300,000 is not enough. I would sentance that teacher and the teachers aide to 10 minutes alone with Gary Ridgeway.

[Newmom95]

09:25 AM on 11/18/2011

What horrible women. This is just ONE story. Think of all the kids throught the country who have suffered in silence. How heartbreaking.

[WWJJD]

12:18 AM on 11/18/2011

This sweet girl, I just love her for coming forward. I feel even more fortunate that our special needs daughter has a wonderful school, with a teacher, aides and bus driver that love her. I feel so ill when I read about special needs children that are treated like this. I wouldn't have even been as nice as this Father, I would also have filed criminal charges against the teacher and the aide and make sure they never ever set foot around children again. There are such exceptional teachers, aides etc...in the special needs community, these two women need to find something else to do with their time, S & M perhaps?

[crashburn32]

10:30 AM on 11/17/2011

Something for those of you defending the teachers: Let me convey something you may not realize:

To think that I and many of my classmates could have been on a tv newcast about teacher's abuse in the 70's. Our teacher, a Mr. Horne who taught at Woodrow Elementary in Modesto, CA in the late 70's, used to throw chalk and erasers at students who were talking or not paying attention. He was TOTALLY abusive to the young male adults in the class, and was a total sweetheart to the young girls in the class. (It makes you wonder doesn't it?) It was his job to make us pay attention and learn, it was NOT his job to yell, throw things at us and act no better than a school bully. (Get it?)

It doesn't matter if this little girl watched too much tv, or ate too much. That does not give a teacher the right to be insulting and mean to a girl with secial needs!! It's the teachers JOB to teach AND be a role model. It is NOT their job to humiliate, talk down to and be outright mean to the students. It was not right in the 70's when I was a child, and it's not right now.

If you somehow think the little girl "had it coming" then you know nothing of what it is to be a teacher.

[Roger Augustus]

02:35 PM on 11/27/2011

Yeah, I got a lot of abuse from both teachers and students in the 70's. Thankfully, my son is healthy, it is generally known that I am a black belt, and do not tolerate abuse.

[sahjmom]

09:47 AM on 05/09/2012

My sixth grade teacher (1969-70) in a public school in California had a big red paddle with holes in it. If we were not in line, he would have us pull down our pants and give us whacks with it, sometimes several whacks depending on the severity of our infractions. If you got a bad score, it was always several whacks. Sometimes the principal would send students from other classes to our teacher for their punishments. If we or our parents questioned the punishment, we were told it was appropriate and our parents were advised to follow up with more punishment of like kind. I'm glad things have changed and hope my grand daughter entering kindergarten this fall will not be punished this way.

[queenietoo]

10:13 AM on 11/17/2011

Kelly Chaffins and Christy Wilt need to be fired instead of given the opportunity to resign, Thank God for tape recorders. I think their should be a web site setup for all these teachers that do this to kids so that other parents will know what these monsters are capable of.

[Jeff Barad]

10:06 AM on 11/17/2011

i remember being bullied when i was younger just because i was "slower" than the other students. now i'm laughing at them because they're in trouble with the cops while i'm getting A's and B's. props to the parents for making the school see the light.

[Cody29]

05:52 AM on 11/17/2011

These teachers wll be able to get another teaching job,because the district will want to white wash the incident.They may be working with kids in the next district over.

Good for the parents for recording and FORCING the school to face the abuse.To many schools pretend bad things do not happen,and if they pretend long enough then it must be true,lol.

[wilhug]

10:34 PM on 11/16/2011

I would say that the teacher was probably right. The kid needed to get off her butt, stop eating continuously and turn off the TV. Only the parents didn't exercise any discipline with her, because they probably do the same thing. Parents are usually the reason that kids go wrong because the kids are only following the example they see at home. Teachers need more authority to apply strict discipline in school, and if they whack an unruly kid sometimes, that's what is needed.

[WWJJD]

11:01 PM on 11/16/2011

Did you watch the video or read the article? EVEN IF this was a typical child, it is not appropriate behavior for a teacher or a teacher's aide to treat ANY child like this.

[londonparisnyc]

01:38 AM on 11/17/2011

Regardless of what you may think, the behavior was completely inappropriate. I'm sure plenty of teachers want to say mean things to their students all the time. But they don't! And that is because they are supposed to be the mature adult, the one who keeps a calm head.

[tinbon434]

09:14 PM on 11/16/2011

So sad. The girl seems so sweet.

[Shesme]

11:18 PM on 11/16/2011

I agree. I watched this video this morning. The girl is obviously well cared for, has nice manners, and is quite bright despite her handicap. She seems to me to be a kid who is easy to like. The two sadists who had the responsibility of educating her horrify me. What monsters!
If a kid this sweet and likeable gets abused this way, imagine the kind of treatment people like these two so-called educators would mete out to the really difficult ones.

[SkreetGil1]

06:53 PM on 11/16/2011

Guess what, you monsters (posing as special needs teachers), that special needs child WAS SMARTER THAN YOU!

You two are awful people! AWFUL!

[queenietoo]

10:16 AM on 11/17/2011

SkreetGi11 those teachers were not smarter than a fifth grader after all lol lol

[constitutional 1]

04:41 PM on 11/16/2011

eight hours of training on how to stop child abuse? WHAT THE >>>

[queenietoo]

10:17 AM on 11/17/2011

Eight hours of training paid for by tax payers and they will be back at it the next day after training kick them to the curb.