NJ father catches teachers on tape mocking & bullying his autistic child

How does a special needs teacher who verbally abuses and otherwise blatantly mistreats an autistic child in the classroom not get fired on the spot? I guess tenure would be the answer to that question, since only the aide (presumably not tenured) was canned after this inexcusable incident.

Still, I don’t get it.

If you ask me the father in this case is showing a great deal of restraint by not filing a lawsuit of some kind against the Cherry Hill School System.

Fox 29 in Philadelphia reports:

CHERRY HILL, N.J. – A New Jersey father says he was so desperate to save his autistic son from the bullying of teachers that he sent him to school with a hidden tape recorder.

You’ll never believe the shocking things the teachers were caught saying.

FOX 29’s Sara Madonna has the recordings from a disappointed, outraged father.

Stuart Chaifetz says his 10-year-old who has autism has always been a very gentle, loving boy. So when he started getting reports from school that his son was hitting teachers, he knew something was wrong after putting a recorder in his pocket for a day.

Chaifetz says he caught his son’s teachers gossiping, talking about alcohol and violently yelling at students.
He took the audio to the Cherry Hill School District, where officials fired one of the teachers involved after hearing the tape.

Chaifetz also made a YouTube video and Facebook page exposing the outrageous behavior. He says school districts should weed out teachers who shouldn’t be in a classroom.

“I really hope this starts a conversation, and I hope people out there who are, who do have the power, can take a breath and say, ‘If this can happen here, then it can happen in every state in every town.’ And as long as we keep this quiet, it will continue to happen,” Chaifetz said.

Chaifetz says he hopes the video leads to legislative action for zero tolerance from this type of behavior from educators.

Meanwhile, he says his son, Akian, is in a new school environment and doing really well.

Here is the YouTube video. It is 17 minutes long, but goes by fast.


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