A New Jersey dad says he was so desperate to save his autistic son from bullying at the hands of his own teachers, he sent him to school with a hidden tape recorder.
You won’t believe what he caught on tape.
Stuart Chaifetz, whose 10-year-old son Akian is autistic, says his son has always been gentle, so when he started getting reports from school that his son was hitting teachers, he knew something was wrong.
He put a recorder in his son’s pocket and caught the unthinkable.
Chaifetz says he caught his son’s teachers gossiping, talking about alcohol and violently yelling at students. At one point, the teacher even calls his son a “bastard.”
He took the audio to the Cherry Hill School District, where officials fired one of the teachers involved.
Chaifetz also uploaded a video exposing the outrageous behavior. He says school districts need to weed out teachers who don’t even belong in a classroom.
Chaifetz says he hopes the video leads to legislative action for zero tolerance from this type of behavior from educators.
Meanwhile, Akian is in a new school and doing very well.
Want to help? Sign the petition here.
You can check out Stuart’s video below:
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.
Related articles
- ‘You bastard, just go ahead and scream’: two white female teachers caught on tape abusing 10 year-old autistic boy after his father fitted him with secret recorder (innerstandingisness.wordpress.com)
- Dad Wires 10-Year-Old Son, Discovers Teachers’ ‘Bullying’ (newsy.com)
- Autistic Boy Records Teachers’ Bullying (abcnews.go.com)
Get Blippitt via RSS feed, Facebook, Twitter, Google+,
and be sure to get our Daily Email Broadcast.
