I’ve never suffered physical abuse, but lately, it's been touching my life.
First, I saw a news report about mentally ill students forced to compete in "Fight Clubs" organized by the school’s staff; it touched me because I have mental illness, so I wrote a diary about it.
Then I saw a child being abused in front of my building, and knew I had to report it. This involved more soul-searching for me than I thought it would; to make the moral decision, I turned to this community for advice.
Next was a local news report about Stephan Ferrari, a non-verbal autistic child whose teacher hit him repeatedly – and was captured on tape doing so. I was angry, moved, and impelled to write about teachers’ abuse to students with special needs.
Herein, reporting the witnessed abuse; an update on Stephan; and why the news is filled with reports of abuse of special needs children.
On May 10, I posted this comment.
I need advice & info.
Yesterday, in front of my building, this guy was picking up 3 kids - I don't know his relation, nor that of the woman who handed them off, but "gramma" was in the cab of the pick-up.
The littlest was 2-3 years old, and I don't know what he did, but the guy totally whacked the kid. This is a big guy, and it didn't look like he was holding back. It wasn't like the kid ran in the street or anything, just apparent misbehavior. Then he whacked the kid again.
I [was only able to take] a photo of the truck with the license plate in view. I've waited a day to decide what to do, and I've decided to contact someone with the information. Does anyone have a reason I shouldn't?
Also, any suggestions where to go? Call police? The Dept of Family & Child Services?
Thanks for your input, it's been disturbing me all day.
Even though I knew what I'd seen was abuse, a part of me was hesitant to report it - maybe the hits were just little fanny-pats but sounded louder, maybe I'd screw things up for the kids and they'd all go into foster care and get lost in the system. With urging and advice from comments, I called the Department of Family and Children’s Services, but they couldn’t help without a name or address of the suspected abuser. There’s 300 people in my building, and I wouldn’t recognize the woman if I saw her again, and she wasn't the one doing the abusing. I can’t tell you how frustrated I was, absolutely fuming that I hadn’t taken more revealing photos or seen his face, even as I know I did what I could given the situation.
I decided to call the police, maybe they could trace the license plate back. Within a half-hour, two officers came to my apartment and looked at the pictures on my computer. Zooming in and out, they were able to estimate his height and weight, confirm the tag information – they even saw a Falcon’s sticker on the fender. They wrote down all the information, made me swear I’d seen the boy actually get hit, and when they left, I truly felt assured it was going to be followed up to the best of their ability. Unfortunately, there’s no way for me to know what happens, but I think that despite of my initial uncertainty, and the help of this community, I did the right thing.
Update on Stephan Ferrari
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previous diary
O The DeKalb District Attorney's Crimes Against Children Unit is launching an investigation, saying they are "very concerned" about the case, and that they’ll do additional investigating. Criminal charges are possible.
O Even with the clearly documented abuse, the Atlanta Public Schools spent over $135,000 to defend against a lawsuit from the Ferraris. Apparently, they plan to spend even more: "We are still reviewing the opinion and record carefully to determine whether and on what grounds an appeal will be filed."
O The teacher on the recording, Sherri Jones, is "out of the classroom." No one will say what her exact status is, but in similar cases, teachers have been placed under paid administrative leave.
O All parties involved are playing Hot Potato with blame and responsibility, and both Atlanta Public Schools and Metro RESA seem to have gone into lock-down with "I can’t speak about an ongoing investigation."
11Alive News has timely updates and full history of the investigative report, as well as photographs, videos, links, and a clip of the audio recorded by the hidden microphone.
Why are there so many cases of abuse coming to light?
The Government Accounting Office was asked by Congress to do a federal investigation on abuse of regarding allegations of death and abuse at residential programs for troubled teens. The report, released on May 19, was alarming: nine of the ten closed cases involve abuse of special needs students at the hands of instructors.
Although we did not specifically limit the scope of our investigation to incidents involving disabled children, most of the hundreds of allegations we identified related to children with [snip] cognitive disabilities, mental health issues, autism, attention deficit disorder and other disabilities.
Of our 10 closed cases:
9 involve children with disabilities.
4 involved children who died as a result of being restrained.
at least 5 involved staff who continued to work with students or had licenses to do so.
when confronted with complaints, school systems sought to minimize or deny the allegations, even after public investigations found the charges to be true.
Examples from the report:
Male, 14, diagnosed with post traumatic stress
* 230 lb. teacher placed 129 lb. child face down on floor and lay on top of him because he did not stay seated in class, causing his death.
* Death ruled a homicide but grand jury did not indict teacher.
* Teacher currently teaches in Virginia.
Female, 4, born with cerebral palsy and diagnosed as autistic
* Child suffered bruising and post traumatic stress disorder after teachers restrained her in a wooden chair with leather straps—described as resembling a miniature electric chair—for being "uncooperative."
* School board found liable for negligent training and supervision; teachers were found not liable.
* One still works at the school.
Five victims, gender not disclosed, aged 6 and 7
* Volunteer teacher’s aide, on probation for burglary and cocaine possession, gagged and duct-taped children for misbehaving.
* No records that school did background check or trained aide.
* Aide pled guilty to false imprisonment and battery.
Male, 9, diagnosed with a learning disability
* Parents allowed school to use time out room only as a "last resort," but school put child in room repeatedly for hours at a time for offenses such as whistling, slouching, and hand waving.
* Mother reported that the room smelled of urine and child’s hands became blistered while trying to escape.
* Jury awarded family $1,000 for each time child was put in the room.
What are the existing Federal and State Laws Related to the Use of Restraints and Seclusions?
There are no federal laws restricting the use of restraints and seclusion in public or private schools.
There are no federal laws elated to the treatment of more than six million children classified as having special needs.
There is no federal agency, a single Web site, or any other entity that collects comprehensive information on this issue.
Committee Chairman Rep. George Miller, D-California, calledthe testimony "...startling...just unacceptable. This punishment is way out of bounds of what I believe are the social norms of this society."
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan [said] that he intends to begin monitoring how states are using seclusion and restraint in public schools. Duncan also said he plans to ensure that all states have clear policies in place on seclusion, restraint and other physical interventions that are used in schools for the coming academic year.
Miller praisedthe Secretary for taking quick action on a first step toward improving federal oversight.
Miller's committee is considering new laws governing what actions teachers can take to rein in disruptive special needs students.
Intend to begin monitoring? This isn’t exactly news. In the 1991 report of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, child abuse and neglect was identified as a "national epidemic." In 1993, in the first national effort to determine the incidence of abuse among this population, the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse (NCPCA) determined that approximately 2.9 million children were identified and/or reported as victims of child abuse and neglect throughout the United States, and that children with disabilities are abused at approximately twice the rate of children without disabilities, an increased risk of abuse between four to ten times that of the generic population.
All states should have clear policies in place? Those that want them do, but state laws are wildly divergent. Only schools that receive federal funding are held to a national set of regulations regarding special needs students and abuse.
Sixteen years later, and it's worse than ever.
Send letters to Secretary Arne Duncan asking for national laws regulating abuse of special needs children in all schools, and a new department to collect and disseminate information about abuses and abusers.
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202
If someone with better skills than I can provide the email address, I’ll add it here.
Visit this siteto find contacts for your state department of education, state contacts and organizations. Find out what local laws are, and insist they be updated and enforced.
Fight Club diary link
Thank you for reading my diary.