Julio Artuz, 15-Year-Old Special Needs Student, Records Teacher Verbally Abusing Him (VIDEO)

No one believed 15-year-old Julio Artuz when he said he was being bullied by a teacher at school -- not even his parents.

So the special needs student sought proof, by filming an encounter with said teacher at Bankbridge Regional School in New Jersey, NBC10 reports.

"Don't call me special," Artuz told the teacher.

"What? Oh my god, f-ing. What does the sign on the front of the school say? Special education," the teacher yelled back.

Artuz defended himself by saying that when he got out of the school, the teacher couldn't call him special anymore. In response, the teacher made a threat.

"...I will kick your a-- from here to kingdom-come until I'm 80 years old."

In a statement to NBC10, the school district said officials take allegations of harassment seriously and are carrying out an investigation.

"The actions depicted on the video do not reflect the mission or culture of our school," according to the statement.

The teacher is on paid leave until the investigation concludes and would not respond to the station's request for comments.

Unfortunately, this isn't the only incident of teachers bullying special needs students. Kelly Chaffins, a former teacher's aide at the Miami Trace Middle School in Ohio was forced to resign from her position, after a tape recorder hidden in a student's clothes showed her and the presiding teacher, Christy Wilt, bullying the student.

"No wonder you don't have any friends," Chaffins is recorded saying. "No wonder nobody likes you." The audio gets worse as Wilt allows, and at times participates in bullying the special needs student about her weight.

"Don't you want to do something about that belly," Chaffins said.

"Yes," the girl responded. Next, Wilt criticizes the girl for not exercising, and her parents for not taking her to exercise.

This week the girl and her father spoke to Ann Curry on the TODAY show, and in a tearful interview, the concerned dad touched on how the abuse had affected his daughter.

"She got to where she didn't want to go to school," he said, choking back tears. "She was ... starting to harm herself to keep from going to school and we knew we had to do something at that point."

While Chaffins was forced to resign from her position, Wilt remains on unpaid leave after signing an order that mandates she take eight hours of classes on how to recognize, and stop, bullying and child abuse.

Back in August, a teacher's aide at Whitehead Road Elementary School in Athens, Ga. was put on leave after putting clear packaging tape over a girl's mouth to prevent her from talking.

Clark Country Superintendent of Schools Philip Lanoue told the Athens Banner-Herald that the incident violated school policy.

"This incident is counter to our philosophy and how we work with kids, and we will not tolerate it. Swift action will always be taken if there are any issues like this in our district."

Watch Julio Artuz's footage:

View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

Comments

[Bill Maughan]

12:49 PM on 11/22/2012

What kind of human being, choosing the profession to teach, would abuse a student? What kind of school would not sanction such behavior? The schools and the "teacher(s)" should be sued, heavily to establish a no-tolerance precident.

[Lizzie Lake]

06:13 AM on 12/30/2012

Professions like teaching which involve one exercising total authority over others tend to attract more than their fair share of narcissists. Then you have unions which protect them from any kind of consequences.

[Bill Maughan]

12:56 PM on 12/30/2012

Thank you, I believe you are correct; still it's a serious problem that needs attention and correction. Legal consequences for any narcissist who abuses children might just keep them in line.

[spinner49]

09:34 PM on 11/20/2012

My LD daughter was discriminated against by her teacher and the school principal. I filed a complaint with the state, but all that happened was that the staff had to take a 90 minute class. No support for a child who struggles with resulting social issues to this day.

[ravenslvr]

04:41 PM on 11/23/2012

Contact orgs to look into it. Say you don't feel it was handled properly. Even contactyour local news stations

[x1coolmawmawx]

07:26 AM on 07/28/2012

I wish I was able to have something like that when I was in elementary school. I was badly abused by 2 teahers, but that was in the 50s. No one knew about ADD or ADHD back then.I know I had it, but I was put into special ed starting in 7th grade to 10th. I had 2 fantastic teachers. I credit them for my staying in school. I graduated whe I wasn 19. I failed twice because of 2 teachers. Nothing was done to them, and probably they would not have.I wish I was able to see those teachers and lecture them about thier treatment, and tell all the kids from those early years I was not as stupid as they thought.I bet a lot of them didnt finish high school.

[iowastate]

03:19 PM on 10/20/2012

this is what I don't understand - in this day and age we should not have to put up with our children being abused because we can find out when a teacher is not any good or is one of them that hates kids.
then too often the union steps in and protects the worthless teacher instead of the precious child - it is a travesty

[Magali Rincon]

02:41 PM on 07/01/2012

Wonderful use of technology. Every student should carry something to record the crap that goes on in class.

[Dioniso Eliseos]

02:33 PM on 07/01/2012

WOW! What a bully!

[guitargamerdude]

09:41 PM on 06/30/2012

The teacher should be on unpaid leave NOT paid leave. Looks like he might get off easy but I sure hope not.

[iowastate]

03:19 PM on 10/20/2012

I disagree that teacher should be fired right away - there is ample evidence for dismissal.

[fireart]

07:16 PM on 06/30/2012

I bet that teacher thinks the child is a lot smarter now !!!!! Interesting in this day that people arent aware of cameras being everywhere. I hope sooner that that will curtail some of the actions of people.

[ger8380]

02:32 PM on 06/30/2012

My special needs daughter was also bullied her last few year's in public school. I took the teacher to court and the judge's instructions to the jury were 'is the teacher going to be sued every time she hits a student"... Nice, huh. There was a decision of 'no verdict' by the jury based on the judge's instructions but I later heard that the teacher left the special ed field.

[fireart]

06:50 PM on 06/30/2012

Most special Ed teachers take the job waiting to get a non SE teaching job. Of course if the kid in the story had been out for sports he would be use to that kind of talk.

[Beth3]

02:28 PM on 06/30/2012

Now I see why President Obama wants to pick out the Very Best Teachers and Reward them. When I went to school the teachers tried their best to set an example for all the students, not join in with us in our foolish and childish behaviors. Makes me wonder where do these teachers come from? I guess Mars.

[fireart]

06:59 PM on 06/30/2012

They come from the 50's group that decided that their private life didnot reflect on their school life. Thanks to the teachers union they were supported in that thought. We on the school boards found that when a principal was sleeping with a student we asked him to leave and the Adm. gave him a good reference so the union would not sue the school. I know of one that stayed in the Adm. position for 15 years doing bthe same thing over and over. I thought that when we fired him that the Adm. would take care of things but the Adm. was afraid.

[Kibakun1995]

12:41 PM on 06/30/2012

Oh please the school system only cares to help with bullying when it ends up on the news, my 10 year old cousin who's in Ed had someone give him a death threat note and they did nothing about it but try to cover it up and pretend it never happend.

[fireart]

07:00 PM on 06/30/2012

If their kid gets bullied they look at it dif.

[iowastate]

03:24 PM on 10/20/2012

smooth sailing and don't rock the boat - you are right

[Novel Idea]

09:04 AM on 06/30/2012

Yea! for the iphone!

[cassidj]

12:27 AM on 06/30/2012

Eight hours of classes for the teacher; if any of my employees treated a person in this way they would be fired immediately.

[fireart]

07:01 PM on 06/30/2012

8 hr. less recess lunch and personal time.

[DarkZephyr]

12:16 AM on 06/30/2012

I have seen (and experienced) worse from teachers. My first grade teacher kicked me on one occasion and on another, she grabbed me by my hair and slammed my head several times against my desk. I WISH all she had done was called me "special".

[fireart]

07:06 PM on 06/30/2012

My FB coach got me before the Social Studies class girls and explained how I was yellow, gutless and gay because I didnt go out for football. I had a job that the family need the income from. Of course that when a kid could work.

[DarkZephyr]

08:39 PM on 07/09/2012

Wow, how rotten.  

[bkak8484]

11:59 PM on 06/29/2012

As a special education teacher, I am sickened by what I have seen. If you are going to act this way toward students you need to get out of the profession. I have taught for 30 years I have enjoyed working with my students all of who have varying degrees of special needs. This person (I won't call him a teacher) needs to find other employment.

[Kate Gunn]

10:53 PM on 06/29/2012

my first and 6th grade teachers were nightmares...my first grade teacher did not think my desk was tidy enough even though it looked better than most of the others in the class...so she picked it up and dumped it all over the floor...i never told my parents what happened but another student was so upset by the incident she told her parents who in turn called my mom...in 6th grade i was crying in the bathroom over a personal family issue...she came in and screamed at me that i was forcing myself to cry to get outta class for a bit...she pretty much chased me back into the classroom slamming the door so hard that i swear the window in the door rattled...this was back in around 1987...and 1994.

this is just sick