From great grandmother, listen to me.

People, take you child out immediately if they are treated inhumanely. Tell as many people as you can until you get someone to take action. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO ANY CHILD.

NO WAY should this happen to children. You must change his or her school to another or CHANGE THE SCHOOL. Keep up with what is happening in the classroom. Ask if you can help, go to meetings, talk to other parents, by all means, GET INVOLVED.

Some teachers are wack-o's.

I observed a parent kit her child in the classroom and this parent kept telling me to let her son scream because it is the only way he communicates.

While I was alone with her child he behaved better then when the mother was there for an hour.
Anyway, one day I told the mother that I could not control the children when she was there because while she was there it was crazy. The rest of the children would hear her son yell and scream and they would get nervous.

I went to the office and guess what. It was I who got a warning. The parent won, she lived in the getto, acted as if she was in the getto and controoled the classroom because administrators just can't be bothered.

I would never allow my child to be in that classroom. That parent didn't give her son a chance, nor did she allow others there to have peace when she was there.
What this teacher did is horrendous, but others such as parents also do harm.

It's not the getto thing that bothers me, it could have been any parent, it's just that she scared everyone with her gansta attitude and was allowed in the classroom with other children who were terrible effected by this parent.
This was not for me and it took me a while to say something, but glad I did even with a complaint for asking that did parent leave.

This is hard to stomach-it sickens me and brings back some scary school memories of my oldest child on the spectrum. He was denied food and drink by the "regular ed." teacher. That was an almost daily punishment. He would only be in her class for about 1 hour or so a day (he was in there to socialize with the "typical" kids.) She labled him as a behavior problem and would send him to the principal's office or to sit in the hallway alone. He wasn't that verbal and was a flight risk. AND ONLY 5 YEARS OLD!!! She would tell me that he couldn't join reading group with "the other students" because he would disturb them. She would complain to me that he didn't make eye contact with her. (????!!!) She also said that because he didn't bring up his milk money when told that his snack was either thrown in the garbage or sent back home. ( He never got his milk either and I never got my money returned to me) I started to write a check to ensure that he would get milk and snack but she did the same thing over and over. She walked out in the middle of an IEP meeting for my son. She is now the head Kindergarten teacher and highly regarded from other teachers. She gives seminars and her picture is in the paper all the time (R.I). Parents rave about her-(although never a parent with a special needs child).... Then along came my second child who had to have her because she was the only full-time Kindergarten teacher. She would insist that he played too many video games at home but we didn't own any and she didn't believe us. She pushed the medication issue so many times. He has low muscle tone and motor dysgraphia which causes him to have poor handwriting. She would write a big "X" on his papers and also write "SLOPPY" across the top in red marker. (He's been denied an IEP for 7 years straight because he scores well on tests) She made us do all of his school work with him at home. It would take hours. At the end of the school year, she said that he should be kept back a year because of his "behavior problems".....then along came my third child (on the spectrum)and they wanted him in her class for an hour or so at a time to "socialize" to which I responded "OVER MY DEAD BODY!!!!!!!" I think they got the point.

This is so beyond shocking that there are no words to describe this other than child abuse and endangerment charges need to be filed. Call social services and report this. PLEASE DO NOT RELY on the school district to take action. I have seen them ignore similar behaviors as if it's no big deal.

Each child should have a known "calming down" comfort thing that stops meltdowns. With my son, I quickly learned he was calmed by trees and tree parts. In is IEP I wrote that when he started to melt down, take him outside and hand him a leaf, twig, piece of bark or simply let him hug a tree and he'd settle down instantly. It worked perfectly every time. Some kids it is vacuum cleaners, ceiling fans or dryers, so that is not so easily accomodated. Some prefer a pet. My son had one teacher that kept a therapy dog in her class, she said was for kids that needed a dog, but turns out the dog was really to calm herself, and she shared him with the students.

I had no idea that "inhumane practices" .. such as .. "forcing verbal as well as nonverbal students to get on a classroom treadmill and forced to go faster and longer than students wanted, placing cotton balls saturated with vinegar into their mouths, withholding food and water, lemon spray to the eyes, force feeding, sensory exploitation, shaving cream to the mouth, peppers to the mouth" .. were called "aversives"?

After all .. these inhumane practices appear no different than what were labeled "torture" in Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib.

Indeed, the only difference are the laws that prohibit inhumane abuse of Abu Grahib prisoners in Iraq .. while at the same time .. there are no laws to prohibit the equally inhumane "aversive" abuse of special education students in Exley Elementary school in Katy, Texas.

When I think of a child with autism having his/her mouth stuffed with vinegar soaked cotton balls, I could vomit, myself. I picture my son with his oral sensory issues, and how he can gag on a single grain of rice as he hates the texture of rice. How can school officials dehumanize our children this way and get away with it? These horrid special ed teachers and school administrators (including Principal Imelda Medrano) should be forcefully subjected to the same treatment in public by police officers and be videotaped during their experience. The videos should be posted on the internet. This is the only acceptable punishment for what is truly a disgraceful crime against the innocent.

This is breaking my heart. As a mother of two on the spectrum, it just gives me more reason to want to homeschool them. I don't understand how these people aren't all fired and in jail right now.

Victor

I think this is actually a brilliant idea that there should actually be an extra penalty for abusing the rights of people who may be physically or mentally unable to stand up for themselves.

Mind you, it should presently be very easy to find and employ suitable people for the care and support of the disabled (given funding) but as Jake says elsewhere 'the fish rots from the head'.

John

The penalty needs to be double in this case, for abusing disabled and non-verbal children. What kind of people are they hiring? All teachers everywhere should be trained to deal with these children, at least a yearly review.

Good luck with these efforts. Many of the top private ABA schools in the country use these techniques, including several of the very elite ones in New Jersey (costing 100K a year, populated by the children of CEOs, and with waiting lists of hundreds). Of course it is kept very quiet and no one tells you this during the admissions process. It is justified on the basis of its efficacy, which is never backed up by anything other than anecdote.