Autistic Boy Put In Duffle Bag As Punishment!?!?!?!?!

[Hotwire]

I can honestly say, I would have been arrested for beating the living HELL out of those teachers!!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45770432.../#.TvTD9nrZWSp

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A 9-year-old autistic boy who misbehaved at school was stuffed into a duffel bag and the drawstring pulled tight, according to his mother, who said she found him wiggling inside as a teacher's aide stood by.
The mother of fourth-grader Christopher Baker said her son called out to her when she walked up to him in the bag Dec. 14. The case has spurred an online petition calling for the firing of school employees responsible.
"He was treated like trash and thrown in the hallway," Chris' mother, Sandra Baker, said Thursday. She did not know how exactly how long he had been in the bag, but probably not more than 20 minutes.
Mercer County schools Interim Superintendent Dennis Davis said confidentiality laws forbid him from commenting.
"The employees of the Mercer County Public Schools are qualified professionals who treat students with respect and dignity while providing a safe and nurturing learning environment," Davis said in a statement.
State education officials said they were investigating.
Chris is a student at Mercer County Intermediate School in Harrodsburg in central Kentucky. The day had barely begun when his family was called to the school because Chris was acting up. He is enrolled in a program for students with special needs.
Walking toward his classroom, Baker's mother saw the gym bag. There was a small hole at the top, she said, and she heard a familiar voice.
"Momma, is that you?" Chris said, according to his mother.
A teacher's aide was there, and Baker demanded that her son be released. At first, the aide struggled to undo the drawstring, but the boy was pulled out of the bag, which had some small balls inside and resembled a green Army duffel bag, Baker said.
"When I got him out of the bag, his poor little eyes were as big as half dollars and he was sweating," Baker said. "I tried to talk to him and get his side of the reason they put him in there, and he said it was because he wouldn't do his work."
Baker said when school officials called the family to pick him up, they were told he was "jumping off the walls." Days later, at a meeting with school officials, Baker said she was told the boy had smirked at the teacher when he was told to put down a basketball, then threw it across the room.
At a meeting with school district officials, the bag was described as a "therapy bag," Baker said, though she wasn't clear exactly what that meant. She said her son would sometimes be asked to roll over a bag filled with balls as a form of therapy, but she didn't know her son was being placed in the bag. She said school officials told her it was not the first time they had put him in the bag.
So far, almost 700 people have signed a petition on the website change.org. Lydia Brown, an autistic 18-year-old Georgetown University freshman from Boston, said she started it after reading a story about Chris.
"That would not be wrong just for an autistic student. That would be wrong to do to anyone," Brown said.
Advocates for the autistic were outraged.
Landon Bryce of San Jose, Calif., a former teacher who blogs about issues related to autism, said the school's treatment of Chris was "careless and disrespectful."
"A lot of the damage that we do to students with all kinds of disabilities is by treating them as though they deserve to be treated in a way that's different from other people," Bryce said.
Baker said she heard different accounts about her son's behavior that day.
Baker stopped short of calling for the dismissal of school employees, but she said they should be suspended. They also need more training, she said.
In Kentucky, there are no laws on using restraint or seclusion in public schools, according to documents on the state Department of Education's website.
A July letter from the state agency to special education directors said the state had investigated two informal complaints this year.
In one, "a student (was) nearly asphyxiated while being restrained," and in the other, a student vomited from panic attacks after spending most of an academic year "confined to a closet, with no ventilation or outside source of light," according to the letter.
Baker's case was first reported by WLEX and WKYT.

[THE MR. TERRIFIC]

WTF!?! That's all I can say!

[Metamorpho1977]

Somebody would have to bail me out of jail if it were my kid, I'd be beating some tail in that establishment. That teacher's aide wouldn't be standing long if I walked in and found my kid like that.

[Pink Ranger]

Wow, it's like the 1940s all over again when dealing with mentally disabled people. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that this is more common than we might think.

[BizarroAids]

No matter how loud or violent an autistic child gets, if you remove him from the class and put him in a safe room, he will no doubt calm down. This makes me angry. At some point they should have called his behavior specialist before even taking action towards punishment...that's rule 1 with all special needs children in public or private schools.

[Duke]

WTF??!! I can say that if they did this to my kid I would've beat the living crap out of them & they'd certainly be hearing from my lawyer.

[Scooter]

Oh come on Mods, that one was funny.

[E-Man]

Every teacher who knew about that should be fired. It's insane to treat a child like that. Hell they should find another line of work because that is one of the worst ways to deal with a kid.

[Darthphere]

If you think about it, this happened more than once. Why in the hell would a teacher have a duffel bag in the classroom? This points to premeditation and makes this offense worse.

[Hotwire]

Originally Posted by Scooter

Oh come on Mods, that one was funny.

No, it wasn't. It was rude, childish and uncalled for. As the father of an autistic child, I take comments like the one you made very personal.

[Cosmic]

People can be so cruel. I read about this story right after I finished reading some articles from The Onion. It was so absurd, it seemed like just another silly story from that website.

[Sawyer]

If he didn't have autism......... then would it be okay?

I'm being serious, by the way. Would it be equally apalling if the headline was "Boy put in duffle bag as punishment" or do these publications add that he was autistic just to fire people up and get more hits?

[Hotwire]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

If he didn't have autism......... then would it be okay?

I'm being serious, by the way. Would it be equally apalling if the headline was "Boy put in duffle bag as punishment" or do these publications add that he was autistic just to fire people up and get more hits?

No, it would not be OK. Doing this to a child would be abuse any way you slice it. I think it does make it a bit worse because of the boy being autistic. Since autism causes a myriad of behavioral issues that the special needs teachers are aware of and should already be capable of handling.

I posted this thread in an attempt to spread this story as far as I could. I'm really hoping that these teachers and their administrators not only lose their jobs over this, but end up facing criminal child abuse charges.



Also, why is it that people want to give me a hard time for getting upset when some jerk makes fun of the situation, but the jerk gets a pass? You would think it works the other way around.

[Darthphere]

It's not that they're given a pass but my rule of thumb is: If you want to have a serious and mature discussion, a comic book movie forum probably isn't the place to go.

[KalMart]

I don't think there really are any other ways to look at the situation other than with shock and dismay that someone would actually do such a thing. It's not like there are other sides to take on it, or a misunderstanding that would possibly make it okay, somehow. But as abhorrent as something may seem, just in concept, it's unfortunate that we'll occasionally still hear of someone doing something along those lines. And behind all the shock and the anger, you can't really help but feel sad that someone has that in themselves to do that..and that's the great, sad mystery...that we as humans, intelligent and compassionate beings, are actually still capable of that.

So I guess if there's any light to reach for, it's to learn not to do it...or be even more cautious not to let yourself abandon a sense of moral dignity no matter what the circumstances. Because selling drugs is bad enough...but to do it dressed as a tried-and-true beloved character like the Hulk is beyond comprehension.





Crap...did it again.....

[KalMart]

Put it this way...Hulk selling drugs...autistic kid being left in bag....they're both bad.

[bullets]

A lot of bad things happen , this is a cruel and unfair world. It's time we take a stand, I suggest writing letters to the school-board.

[Scooter]

Hotwire, you're way to sensitive. If you can't laugh at the awful **** in life, it's just going to chew you up.

[KalMart]

Originally Posted by Scooter

Hotwire, you're way to sensitive. If you can't laugh at the awful **** in life, it's just going to chew you up.

Cut him some slack...as he said, he has an autistic child himself, so this stuff hits home right on the button. Parenting is tough enough, but he has to be even stronger and more giving than most of us will ever know.

And that AIN'T no joke, Hotwire.

To be frank....this situation mentioned below is not funny at all...but it is pretty f'in absurd.

[BrollySupersj]

Wow, this is absolutely terrible. I hope that teacher never finds work again, IN ANY form.

[twylight]

Seriously, I would be pressing charges too.

Originally Posted by Darthphere

It's not that they're given a pass but my rule of thumb is: If you want to have a serious and mature discussion, a comic book movie forum probably isn't the place to go.

[C. Lee]

Scooter....do not post in this thread again.

[LibidoLoca]

So teacher aides can put children in bags? Autistic or not this a BIG no-no.

[bullets]

I'd also press charges if i were the parent. I'm not sure how it works with leaving autistic children in a school but they claimed to be able to handle that child. There's no rationale to this type of punishment , it's disturbing .

[Hotwire]

Originally Posted by bullets

I'd also press charges if i were the parent. I'm not sure how it works with leaving autistic children in a school but they claimed to be able to handle that child. There's no rationale to this type of punishment , it's disturbing .

While it's different depending on where you live, my daughter attends a special preschool for autistic kids. She started there at the beginning of January last year when she was three. I also know, her school doesn't do anything like that and that she loves her teacher.