"Every morning I get pulled out of my homeroom to go mow the lawn," 11-year-old Kiern Sloan of Portland, Ore. told KATU News.
What sounds like a good deed to keep the school grounds tidy, is actually this special needs student's punishment for falling asleep in class.
Sloan, who is a 6th grader at Ott Middle School, has ADD, Aspergers, and what doctors think may be a medical condition which causes him to sleep. Cutting grass with a push reel lawnmower also makes his allergies act up, he says.
"... I try to keep myself awake," Sloan told KATU, "... drink water, walk around school (and) stand up. I try everything to keep myself awake."
The student's mother, Krisit Sloan-Ceron, says her son is so embarrassed that he doesn't want to go back to school, and that what school officials are bullying her son. According to the station's report, the school is investigating into the punishment, but declined to give a comment.
Earlier this month, the New Jersey parents of 15-year-old Julio Artuz were outraged after the student recorded his teacher bullying him for being a special needs student.
"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 fired back.
After Artuz told the teacher that he couldn't call him that once he graduated from the class, the teacher responded with a threat.
"...I will kick your a-- from here to kingdom-come until I'm 80 years old."
Around the same time, parents of a special needs student at Miami Trace Middle School in Ohio hid an audio recorder in their daughter's clothing, hoping to prove the abuse their daughter insisted was occurring. What they found was heartbreaking.
"No wonder you don't have friends," former teacher's aide Kelly Chaffins is heard saying. "No wonder nobody likes you." Chaffins and the classroom teacher later made remarks about the girl's weight. Chaffins was ordered to step down, while the teacher, Christy Wilt, will undergo a probationary period.
Correction: A previous version of this entry incorrectly spelled the boy's name as Kyron. It is Kiern. We regret the error.