Hey everyone!!! This is super important, I want you to pass this around to everyone you know on every social media network you can think of...

Teachers humiliate an autistic child

This isn't cute or fun or anything of the sort. These women torment this child and his father is asking for a public apology and their resignation. Spread the word, maybe someone can convince them to come clean about their behavior. less

Hey everyone!!! This is super important, I want you to pass this around to everyone you know on every social media network you can think of...

Teachers humiliate an autistic child

This isn't cute or fun or anything of the sort. These women torment this child and his father is asking for a public apology and their resignation. Spread the word, maybe someone can convince them to come clean about their behavior. less

For the record, the teacher's aide caught making comments on the tape has already been fired.

The children were mistreated and some of the staff acted inappropriately. However, the teacher, Kelly Altenburg, says she was not in the room most of the time and unaware of the aides actions when she was, and after reviewing the tapes and staff schedules, the school administrators agree. The father has an ax to grind and is using this unfortunate incident as a platform to attack tenure.

He has already been told that the matter is still under investigation, and that the teacher has been transferred in the interim (actually put on leave now for her safety). She may be fired, she may be exonerated. We won't know until the investigation is complete. However, the father is being a presumptuous shit, running to every media outlet screaming for her immediate resignation/firing. He might have a point if the teacher had a bad reputation or poor track record, but the opposite is true. The matter needs to be examined closely, by educational administrators and audio experts, not some windbag who thinks because he paid $1,000 in school tax that he can hire and fire teachers at his pleasure.

I'm sorry for this little boy and it breaks my heart that he was treated badly in a place that should have been safe, however I'm not going to jump on a hate-bandwagon to further the father's agenda. less

My experience was different, however looking back at my school years I'd say how good a teacher was wasn't connected to whether or not they had tenure. Some older teachers were great, some were horrible, some newer teachers were fantastic, and one first year teacher in particular caused me so much trouble that my parents lodged a complaint with the school.

I think the father was smart to make the recordings, and I think it's a good thing that the public was made aware of them. However, in the case of Ms. Altenburg, the evidence is unclear, and as opposed to letting the administrators investigate — which TAKES TIME — he's trying to start a media witch hunt. That's not ok.

If an audio expert confirms that she verbally abused the child, or it is proven that she was aware of what the aide was doing, tenure will mean nothing — she will be fired. However, people seem far happier to assume her guilt and form a lynch mob.

@Zombirella:
I'm not saying that the abuse was ok. My point is that the one caught red-handed on the tape — the aide — has been fired. The case is not as clear with the teacher, so the school is investigating. I don't consider it wrong to assume her innocent until proven guilty, but the understandably angry father is trying to play judge, jury & executioner, and that's not right.

Imagine if you were accused of something in your line of work: should you be terminated based on accusation alone? less

For the record, the teacher's aide caught making comments on the tape has already been fired.

The children were mistreated and some of the staff acted inappropriately. However, the teacher, Kelly Altenburg, says she was not in the room most of the time and unaware of the aides actions when she was, and after reviewing the tapes and staff schedules, the school administrators agree. The father has an ax to grind and is using this unfortunate incident as a platform to attack tenure.

He has already been told that the matter is still under investigation, and that the teacher has been transferred in the interim (actually put on leave now for her safety). She may be fired, she may be exonerated. We won't know until the investigation is complete. However, the father is being a presumptuous shit, running to every media outlet screaming for her immediate resignation/firing. He might have a point if the teacher had a bad reputation or poor track record, but the opposite is true. The matter needs to be examined closely, by educational administrators and audio experts, not some windbag who thinks because he paid $1,000 in school tax that he can hire and fire teachers at his pleasure.

I'm sorry for this little boy and it breaks my heart that he was treated badly in a place that should have been safe, however I'm not going to jump on a hate-bandwagon to further the father's agenda. less

Thank you. I agree. Until all the facts are known, I also refuse to witch hunt someone. I wasn't there, so I'll reserve judgement.

I have had three children in the public school system (Two with neurological issues who were considered "special need")
two of them have already finished High School and one still in middle school. I have to say, I see NO difference in effort, talent or hard work between tenured teachers and those who are not yet tenured. My father was a University Professor, and if people knew the problems that teachers and professors have faced in the past (especially as grammar school teaching is still mainly a female dominated field) you would see why being able to earn tenure is important. It should be earned, not just given out.

I think as a parent, one has a better view of "who is a good teacher" than one has of memories from being a child. Memory is fallible, especially from years ago from childhood.

But, as I wasn't there in the room when this child was treated badly by this aide, I refuse to jump on a bandwagon that may ruin a teacher's entire life. We have ABSOLUTELY NO WAY of knowing "what she knew." And such statements, "Well, someone knew...." are not even allowed in a court of law.

Let the investigation continue and come to its conclusion. At any rate I won't be part of a witch hunt that may ruin a woman's life. less

Imagine if you were accused of something in your line of work: should you be terminated based on accusation alone?

It happens every day in a variety of companies across the world. It's never happened to me personally.

I find it extremely difficult to believe that the teacher, Ms. Attenburg, did not know this was happening. Teachers are usually a fairly tight knit group and anything an aide does directly impacts her position and authority as a teacher.

However, I'm not above giving her the benefit of the doubt. If she is indeed innocent, that's great but I think she should definitely receive additional training on how to manage her aides and not be so far removed that they aren't being supervised while around children with special needs.

When I was in middle school, I enrolled in a program that let us go down the street to work with special needs children. I've held children as they've had seizures in my arms and I've seen the level of care that is required to adjust them to their new surroundings. It was a daily battle and it is taxing and it is incredibly stressful.

I posted this because I know many of us have autistic and special needs people in our lives and we need to be aware that these things do happen. It is extremely common for people to be abused when they have special needs.

We just had a woman here who was busted for stealing disability checks and forcing disabled residents to perform laborious tasks for her so she could profit from it. It's disgusting and very, very sad. less

I don't know how I feel about it in her case. But I believe this man has the right to express his anger and share it to the world along with his opinion. This one man isn't going to decide her fate, if it goes to court, the judge and/or jury will depending on how they go about this case.
I know there is no way to know if she knew, but it's just hard to believe she never heard them or had another teacher say they heard inappropriate stuff going on in the classroom when she wasn't there.

As for getting terminated for something you didn't do, like Stormy says, it happens all the time. It happened to me and I had 5 witnesses that backed me up on my story and I still got fired because one girl that didn't like me concocted this BS story. I didn't care enough to take it to the corporate office but I know for sure I had a good court case if I wanted it. I hated that waitressing job so much that I just said to hell with it and found another. Plus I didn't want to work for a company with a manager like the one I had that would take a trouble makers word over mine and 5 other girls. less

I don't know how I feel about it in her case. But I believe this man has the right to express his anger and share it to the world along with his opinion. This one man isn't going to decide her fate, if it goes to court, the judge and/or jury will depending on how they go about this case.
I know there is no way to know if she knew, but it's just hard to believe she never heard them or had another teacher say they heard inappropriate stuff going on in the classroom when she wasn't there.

As for getting terminated for something you didn't do, like Stormy says, it happens all the time. It happened to me and I had 5 witnesses that backed me up on my story and I still got fired because one girl that didn't like me concocted this BS story. I didn't care enough to take it to the corporate office but I know for sure I had a good court case if I wanted it. I hated that waitressing job so much that I just said to hell with it and found another. Plus I didn't want to work for a company with a manager like the one I had that would take a trouble makers word over mine and 5 other girls. less