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Mankey
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23 Apr 2012, 10:07 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... fkscHt96R0 This video absolutely disgusts me and made me actually cry. Send your support to the father.



cooldryplace
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24 Apr 2012, 12:05 am

Well, this video's probably going to get a lot of attention. I was about to come and post it.

Just a heads up, the intro is pretty long and the actual content starts at 3:00. In the intro he just says this, if you want to skip it:

Quote:
My name is Stuart Chaifetz, and my son, Akian, is a ten-year old boy who has Autism. Akian has always been a sweet and non-violent child, and that is why it was so distressing when notes started coming home from his school, Horace Mann Elementary in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, saying that he was having violent outbursts, including him hitting his teacher and aide.

I could not understand why this was happening. I had never witnessed Akian hit anyone, nor could I dream of him lashing out as had been described to me. In October, I had a meeting with the IEP team (the teacher, school social worker, occupational therapist and speech teacher) to try to figure out what was going on. From that meeting, a behaviorist was called in who wrote a report. I sat down with the behaviorist on February 8, 2012 to review the findings.

It was pointless; even though the behaviorist was in the classroom a number of times, not only had he never witnessed any violent event, but when he tried to create a scenario that would cause one to happen, he failed.

Something was terribly wrong. I felt I was beginning to lose my son -- that these outbursts were changing his very nature. The teacher and school social worker tried to downplay it, to the point of almost mocking me for my concern. But I knew my son. I knew this wasn't him. And I knew I had to find out what was happening in his class that was having such a dramatic impact on him.

On the morning of Friday, February 17, 2012, I wired my son and sent him to school. That night, when I listened to the audio my life forever changed, for I heard my son being bullied by his teacher and aide.



FMX
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24 Apr 2012, 12:41 am

Yes, it is disgusting and she totally deserved to get fired and never work as a teacher again. :evil: But I do want to make the point that she probably didn't do this to him because of his autism. She did it because of the type of person she is - it just happened to have much more of an impact on him than it would on your average kid.

My own experience supports this. I've had teachers bully me too and I was in a regular class in a regular school, not recognised as being "special" in any way. The same teachers also bulled other kids, who were very likely NT. The worst example was when I gave an incorrect answer in class and the teacher responded (in front of the whole class): "is your mother an idiot?! has your father not [sexually satisfied] her enough?" 8O I was about 9-10, so fortunately I didn't understand at the time what the hell she was on about and neither did the rest of the class - but we got the tone of it and understood that it was meant as an insult. That particular teacher was never fired to my knowledge, despite multiple complaints from multiple students and parents.



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24 Apr 2012, 12:53 am

I think some people like to take advantage of kids disabilities by abusing them knowing they get away with it because the kid can't go home and tell on them.



Kinme
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24 Apr 2012, 1:56 am

That broke my heart.



DVCal
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24 Apr 2012, 2:03 am

This video makes me so angry at the teacher, but so sad for that boy. If I met those teachers in real ife not sure if I would be able to control my rage.



Cornflake
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24 Apr 2012, 7:35 am

[Moved from General Autism Discussion to Autism Politics, Activism, and Media Representation]


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dancing_penguin
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24 Apr 2012, 3:49 pm

This reminded me of this case with a kid last fall: link


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Mankey
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24 Apr 2012, 6:30 pm

Cornflake wrote:
[Moved from General Autism Discussion to Autism Politics, Activism, and Media Representation]
Sorry for the misplacement.



cooldryplace
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24 Apr 2012, 6:30 pm

Thought this thread would have gotten more replies.. At least the video got a lot of views.



Ria1989
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24 Apr 2012, 6:45 pm

cooldryplace wrote:
Thought this thread would have gotten more replies.. At least the video got a lot of views.


Agreed. I just got down watching this video on another site, and I came on here just to see what people were saying.


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AspieAshley
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24 Apr 2012, 9:19 pm

Yes! This dad started a petition! I posted a link to it!


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Cyonce
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24 Apr 2012, 9:38 pm

I don't know if I should watch the video, just reading the article about it on Yahoo made me so angry I had to get up and walk away from my computer.



Bombaloo
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24 Apr 2012, 10:50 pm

This is my worst nightmare. I feel this is the equivalent of the Catholic church and the way they just move the offenders on to someplace else. The thought of children continuing to be exposed to these horrific people makes me seriously ill.



AScomposer13413
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24 Apr 2012, 11:16 pm

I just received that video from a friend...couldn't sit through it without feeling a wide range of negative emotions. It's disgusting, really. I hope that teacher and the aides do, in fact, come clean and do the right thing...Akian definitely didn't deserve the sort of bullying he received!!



AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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25 Apr 2012, 7:58 pm

Some teachers are angry, frustrated people who should not be teaching. And they're mean to almost any kind (to an extent that it would shock and surprise parents).

League_Girl wrote:
I think some people like to take advantage of kids disabilities by abusing them knowing they get away with it because the kid can't go home and tell on them.


http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/25/us/new-je ... ?hpt=hp_c1 (30 second crapola commercial, sorry)

1:23
Teacher: “Did you go to see any books in the library or you just looked at sculptures [child crying] Oh Akian, you are a bastard.”

She would not use profanity in front of a child who could report it to a parent.

So, yes, both are true. Some of these bad teachers are meaner to kids with disabilities.

-----------------------

So this idiot teacher takes it so personally that:

1) an autistic child wants to do something original and creative (the sculptures might be more interesting than the books!)

2) that the child cries.

She harshly and trickily blames the child using complex language and sentence structure. She's not saying something coachful. She's saying something blameful.



Last edited by AardvarkGoodSwimmer on 25 Apr 2012, 8:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.