Three summers ago, I wrote a post for HuffPo called, "I Will Shake Your Foundation" on the fears my husband Mark and I have about bullying, abuse, neglect, rape and murder of our three defenseless daughters with autism.
Danny Bonaduce, the child star from the seventies TV show "The Partridge Family" had growled, "I will shake your foundation!" in a mock jealous husband rage during his reality TV show, implying he'd rock anyone who approached his wife. I adopted the phrase.
Last week, a 24-year-old special education school bus monitor from Bridgeport, Connecticut was arrested and charged with three counts of assault against a handicapped person and three charges of risk of injury to a minor. That minor is Mark's and my nine-year-old daughter.
The Connecticut Post newspaper has been covering the story Court Case of Woman Accused of Hurting Autistic Child Continued :
According to police, on at least three occasions last April and May, Davila, a monitor on a bus for special needs children for the First Student Bus Co., abused the little girl. Police said there could have been more incidents but only three were captured on the bus's video surveillance camera.Police said the girl's parents were trying to figure out how their nonverbal daughter kept getting bruises and sprained fingers on her right hand when on May 19 they received a call from the nurse at Frenchtown Elementary School that their daughter had arrived at school that morning crying hysterically. The parents then demanded to see the video from their daughter's school bus.
That video, which also had audio, showed Davila grabbing the girl's hands and the girl then crying out in pain.
Police said they then obtained DVD copies of the bus videos for April 27, April 29 and May 19. On the 27th and the 19th the driver of the bus was Davila's mother. Police said the April 27 video shows Davila, during the bus ride from the school to the girl's home, putting her hands in the area of the girl's hands. With each movement the girl's cries get louder, police said.
On the April 29 video, Davila is heard telling a substitute driver to stop at the girl's home first after they leave the school, according to police. "Because she (the girl) will (obscenity) her pants," she explains, and within minutes of leaving the school the video shows Davila again reaching towards the girl's hands and the girl is heard crying, according to police.
On May 19, the girl is seen on the video boarding the bus with her mother who assists her being seated. When the mother leaves the bus Davila is heard saying, "Goodbye mom," police said. She then touches the girl's head twice and then grabs the girl's right hand and begins to manipulate it as the girl whimpers, according to police.
We've had an epidemic of abuse against people with autism in the last several months.
A mother in Dallas murdered her youngsters. A mother in The Bronx shot and killed her 12-year-old son and herself. A 20-year-old man in Pennsylvania was left to die in a residential school's van on a hot summer day. A father in Canada killed himself and his son in their basement. A socialite in Manhattan plied her son with pills in a luxury hotel until he seized to death. A mother in England jammed caustic cleaning product into her son burning his throat and stomach until he bled to death.
And now our daughter, nine years old, preverbal, 62 pounds soaking wet, sitting quietly on her school bus was (allegedly) assaulted once, twice, thrice, four times and who knows how many more?
Let the foundation shaking begin.
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My husband or I drive him to school, and I pick him up everyday. The school district and the teachers were offended that we didn't trust the bus drivers but we could care less!
I'd urge parents also to not only seek criminal and civil measures in these incidents, but also exhaust all means with state BOE complaints and Office of Civil Rights complaints which have a 180 day time limit. It is essential to do so, especially to effect systems change and ensure districts are being kept accountable.
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Schools need to be more on top of who they hire to be around our children. This woman who hurt your daughter was on probation for a criminal offense; why was she not suspended from working around children? My former brother-in-law was CONVICTED of sexual abuse of his own toddlers, and was still driving the school bus in his small town. It seems to take eternal vigilance.
Our prayers are with your daughter and your entire family. We have a 7 year old daughter with autism and to have one of your worst fears come true is unimaginably horrible. Thank you for sharing your story to bring more awareness to this type of abuse.
Thank goodness this was discovered. Hugs for you and your family.
Best,
KIM
How do we stop this? ACCOUNTABILITY. Every special needs bus should have camera’s. I know our town does not and I bet the majority of them don’t. Furthermore, they are only reviewed when a problem is suspected. Every special needs classroom needs cameras and yes, they need to be reviewed by parents. And we need laws that stiffly and justly prosecute violators.
The biggest fear, our worse nightmare, the thought that keeps us awake in the middle of the night is when we are gone, our children will be at the mercy of others…and some of these “others” are monsters. They prey on the vulnerability of this population.
We must not only rock the foundation but replace it with an entirely different code of ethics. Every single person/position that comes in contacted with this population needs to be ACCOUNTABLE. From the special education director to the therapists, to the teachers, aides, bus drivers and monitors. Their jobs are to serve the individual’s they are hired to work with. This is not a population you use to market to, make money from, or work with because you can’t find better employment. This is a most sacred violation and it’s about time it’s punished as such!
Finally, for those of you who take wonderful care of our loved ones, and there are many of you, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!
Stephanie
So we have to ask, why does this happen? It happens because people think they can get away with it, and they do. It’s almost an unspoken understanding that it’s “ok” to treat children/adults with disabilities in any manner they see fit. What does it matter…who will know. And if/when they get caught, the defense is typically to blame the victim.
I remember a case in Massachusetts a few years ago where a teacher’s aide squeezed the arm/hand of a child with autism so violently they actually broke some bones. ONLY 1 colleague had the integrity to report the abuser. Apparently, this had been going on for awhile. The perpetrators attorney was interviewed by a reporter and he actually said, on television, something to the effect of “well we all know how difficult teaching a child with autism can be”. That was his defense of his client…and NO ONE questioned him. No one asked how breaking the bones of an innocent child helped him “learn”. This is only one of many, many cases we hear about. Imagine all the one’s we don’t know about.
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