Aspies For Freedom

Susan Comerford Wzorek, 54, a Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit teacher from Clarks Summit, was charged Tuesday with two counts of child endangerment. She allegedly tied autistic students to wooden support chairs with bungee cords and duct tape, stepped on their feet, pulled hair and pinched and slapped students.
"Without making a judgment on Mrs. Wzorek, you rely on and trust so greatly the people you give your children to -- your children that can't speak or function in a typical education environment," said Tara McHale, president of the Lackawanna County Autism Coalition and parent of an autistic 11-year-old daughter. "When you find out there may have been things going on that could have happened for two years, and no one said anything, it's devastating."

The abuse allegedly occurred in a classroom of autistic children, 6 to 12 years old, at Clarks Summit Elementary between September 2001 and June 2003.

The district attorney began to investigate in October 2003, when a parent reported her son may have been physically abused in Ms. Wzorek's class.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsi...6046&rfi=6


If shes found guilty I would like to decide her sentence.... :evil:

I wish I could see some of the "teachers" at the "school" I was at brought to justice.    

My first instinct -- which I try to repress because it really wouldn't work on a large scale -- is for the sentence for people like that to be them subjected to the "treatment" they gave people.  Tie them to a chair with duct tape.  Tie them to a bed and beat them.  Gang up on them.  Humiliate them.  Whatever.  Of course it won't work for a number of reasons.  But one can fantasize.   :x

Another case-

Police charged an award-winning former Chapel Hill teacher Tuesday with assault and other offenses that allegedly took place in her classroom for autistic children during the 2003-04 school year.

Supporters, including parents and a former principal, called the charges a "travesty" and praised the teacher's work with the students.

Kathleen Yasui-Der, 49, of 101 Fieldstone Court, Chapel Hill, turned herself in at the Chapel Hill Police Department on Tuesday afternoon to have five warrants served, police spokeswoman Jane Cousins said Tuesday.

The warrants, which were issued May 27, charged Yasui-Der -- who left the district last month -- with two counts of assault on a handicapped person, one count of child abuse and two counts of contributing to the neglect of a minor, all misdemeanor charges, Cousins said.

The charges relate to two students: a 9-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy, who were students of Yasui-Der. School officials reported the alleged offenses that occurred during the last school year at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School, Cousins said.

In the charges Tuesday, one count of alleged assault on a handicapped person allegedly occurred between Sept. 1 and May 28, and the other count of alleged assault on a handicapped person occurred on Sept. 3. The assaults, according to the warrants, consisted of allegedly bending a student's finger back and slapping a student around the head, Cousins said.

The count of alleged child abuse occurred on March 12, when the teacher allegedly twisted a student's arm, Cousins said.

The two counts of contributing to the neglect of a minor allegedly occurred on March 12, and between Sept. 1 and May 28, Cousins said. Police did not provide specifics on the neglect charges.

Yasui-Der was released on a written promise to appear Sept. 20 in District Court in Hillsborough, Cousins said.

When reached at her home Tuesday, Yasui-Der declined to comment on the charges. But supporters were vociferous in her defense.

Alice Wertheimer, whose son was in Yasui-Der's class for six years at Frank Porter Graham, expressed incredulity about the charges and praised the teacher.

"I don't believe a word of these charges," Wertheimer said. "That this has been allowed to happen to her is a travesty in the Chapel Hill public schools."

Wertheimer, who is event planner for Division TEACCH, the UNC program on autism, founded the Chapel Hill Autism Local Unit 14 years ago. Her son was in Yasui-Der's class from age 5 to 11.

"She is the best thing that ever happened to my son in the Chapel Hill school system," Wertheimer said. "At 5, he barely spoke and was considered very difficult to educate. She taught him to read. His ability to work independently is attributed to early education and devotion to teaching by Kathy Yasui-Der."

Wertheimer's son is now in high school and works part time. "He's very happy, very successful and a very able person, thanks to Kathy," Wertheimer said.

Ginny Berg, principal at Frank Porter Graham from 1995 to 2001 and now retired, said she came to know Yasui-Der well during those six years.

"I know of children she has just helped immensely," Berg said Tuesday. "You just can't match the knowledge she has of autism. Her life she totally dedicated to these children with autism."

The former principal said she had had many opportunities to observe Yasui-Der in the classroom.

"I was in her class at least three times a week for a six-year period," Berg said, noting that Yasui-Der provided the needed structure for each child and had "very high expectations" for others working with the students in her classroom.

"This is just such a travesty," Berg said of the charges.

Yasui-Der resigned from Frank Porter Graham in July, said current principal Stephen Greene, who wouldn't comment any further on the case. Neither would Margaret Blackwell, the district's executive director of exceptional education. Superintendent Neil Pedersen could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Yasui-Der was named Teacher of the Year in 2002-03 when she was an exceptional education teacher at FPG, which houses two of the district's four elementary classes for children whose primary diagnosis is autism. Also in 2002, she was one of two teachers in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district to receive a Dean Smith Teaching Award. The award recognizes teachers who motivate and inspire others.

Yasui-Der most recently taught the older/upper primary-aged, autistic students at FPG.
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-515056.html

These things are rife in special schools in the UK, it is common place to restrain children with AS and other ASD's.  I've recently spoken to one Mum who's child is regularly locked in a cupboard, as are other Autistic children in the school, but as she rightly says who is going to believe the children?

Debs

A case reported on today-

East Lansing, Ingham schools sued over autistic student's care

October 26, 2004, 4:16 AM

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- A woman says in a lawsuit that an agency working for the East Lansing School District repeatedly left her 21-year-old autistic son alone in a locked car rather than caring for him.

Sara Ponce named the East Lansing and Ingham Intermediate school districts, Residential Options Inc. and two individuals in a lawsuit filed Monday in Ingham County Circuit Court. Residential Options is a Lansing-based nonprofit service provider.

"I don't want this to happen to anyone else," Ponce told the Lansing State Journal.

Representatives of both school districts and the agency declined comment.

According to the suit, between May and July of this year, a Residential Options employee consistently left Fernando Ponce in a locked vehicle for extended periods of time, failing to look after him and feed him. Fernando Ponce was unable to tell anyone what was happening because he isn't able to talk due to the severity of his autism, his mother said.

He would become so upset when left in the car that he would bang his head against the car seat, according to the lawsuit.

http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw10...041026.htm

Makes me ill .

Then, as I had long suspected, all those people telling me that "special" schools in the UK didn't do all the crap that they do in the US were telling me a load of BS.  This sort of thing certainly happens here in the USA too.  Usually the response to it is one of the following:

1.  It didn't really happen.

2.  It wasn't really as bad as you said it was.

3.  It was an isolated incident.

4.  It's like that where you live but not in other places.

5.  You just don't understand what kids like that are like and how they need all that crap to happen to them.

If I'm talking to someone who's outside of the USA, they'll invariably tell me that I only understand American "special" schools and institutions, despite a good deal of research showing that they pretty much follow a similar pattern worldwide.  But it's a fast way to shut me up, I guess.

These things can happen in special schools worldwide, I have heard of a lot of cases in the UK, and my own son has had very poor treatment at times.

Try complaining and you get the type of things such as -

Well we have no way of knowing its true, even if other kids were present.
This teacher has had years of experience.
We havent had any other complaints.
If the problem gets worse we'll do something.
We're understaffed and underfunded.
And the classic after complaining numerous times "why didnt you inform us of this sooner"!

Once outside a pub in Portsmouth, I watched a fellow regular get in his car and stumble his way to the junction and away. Next time I saw him I mentioned, in a friendly manner, what a hash he'd made of it (this was before breathalisers, but if a cop had seen him...nick nick!). His response? Aww I've been driving for thiiirty years...

Some people learn nothing, however long the exposure to reality!

This sort of thing happened all the time in the classes I was in, and I never understood why I was the only one who ever stood up for herself.

Perhaps I was going about it the wrong way, but to a fifth-grader, if someone tries to drag you down the hallway, you bite them*. To a seventh-grader, if someone tries to restrain you, you punch them.

Maybe I wasn't helping my case, but I was doing *something*.


*by the way, she was dragging me to the office for belligerance. What had I done? Sat the 'wrong way' in my chair. Fucking control freak.

Here's an article about the recent abuse cases-

Autism teachers raise flags
Charges of abuse alarm parents

By T. KEUNG HUI, Staff Writer

All parents must place their trust in teachers when they send children off to school each day.

But such trust is especially critical for the parents of autistic children, some of whom can't speak for themselves.

These parents' worst fears were awakened recently by the arrests of two area teachers of autistic children on abuse charges. Both teachers say they're innocent of the charges.

"Everything revolves around the teacher," said Michele Lete, whose autistic son attends Rand Road Elementary School in Garner. "That's what's scary. If you've got a bad teacher, then everything is bad."

In August, Kathleen Yasui-Der, a former teacher of autistic children at Frank Porter Graham Elementary in Chapel Hill, was charged with two counts of assault on a handicapped person, two counts of contributing to the neglect of a minor and child abuse. This month, Melinda Dawn Whitley, a former teacher of autistic children at Wakefield Elementary in North Raleigh, was charged with misdemeanor child abuse.

Parents and advocates for autistic children are calling for greater training of teachers and for stricter guidelines on how they can control students. A state advocacy council plans to ask the General Assembly for help.

"More teacher training is needed to protect students," said Allison Bowen, interim executive director of the Governor's Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities.

Autism is a developmental disability that typically involves delays or impairment in social skills, language and behavior. Some studies suggest that as many as one of every 166 children has it.

Statewide, the number of public school students identified with autism nearly doubled from 2,273 in 1999 to 4,215 last year.

Rooting out causes

High-functioning autistic children are supposed to be in mainstream classes or mixed into classes with students who have various disabilities.

But students with more severe autism are put in separate classrooms. Some of these students can speak, but many don't or will do so only with prodding.

Such traits can tax teachers.

"We know we have children with autism who will be demanding for even the most talented and prepared teachers," said Roger Cox, director of training for TEACCH, a nationally recognized program based at UNC-Chapel Hill that provides education for autism teachers.

TEACCH encourages having structured classrooms to give autistic students a sense of order.

When problems happen, it's like playing detective to find out the cause, said Jennifer Dougherty, a teacher of autistic preschool children at Baileywick Elementary in North Raleigh. That cause could be anything from shoes being too small to fluorescent lights irritating a child's eyes.

"You have children who can't communicate what's wrong," Dougherty said. "So like anyone else who gets frustrated, you act out. You may get screaming or you may get pinched because they want you to do something that they can't communicate."

Lessons in restraint

When things really go wrong, some teachers are trained in how to physically restrain students.

"We don't get hazard pay, so we have to protect ourselves," Dougherty said. "We have to keep up our training. If you don't do the holds right, you can injure them. The holds aren't meant to be disciplinary action, but to restrain them from doing harm."

For liability reasons, teachers are advised not to physically restrain students by themselves unless necessary, said Bill Hussey, the Durham school administrator who oversees restraint training.

"When you're restraining a child and the child struggles, a lot of the times there will be bruises or red marks or burns," Hussey said. "That's when you have potential problems from parents. When you're dealing with autistic children who have escalated to a point, people may get hurt."

Whether the right methods were used is the question being asked of Yasui-Der, an award-winning special education teacher. Either the Chapel Hill teacher's approach was misconstrued as abuse or she lost her temper and hit one student on the head, pulled a student's finger back and twisted a student's arm.

Whitley's charge is different, because she is not accused of assaulting the Wakefield student. She is alleged to have allowed the student to injure herself by repeatedly banging her head on a floor, causing an open wound and extensive swelling.

Making policy

There are times when some teachers cross the line.

Since October 2003, the Governor's Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities reports receiving six complaints about mistreatment of autistic students in public schools.

The council will ask the General Assembly next year to adopt a policy on restraining and isolating disabled students in public schools. The policy also would require training for special-education teachers in defusing dangerous behavior. A similar bill died last year when education groups said it would tie teachers' hands.

Lete, a past president of the Wake County chapter of the N.C. Autism Society, remembers years ago when her son came home from school with red marks on his arm. Her inability to get him to say what happened scared her.

"Children can't tell you what's going on in class," Lete said. "When a situation happens, it's a problem getting things out."

Susan Hughes, vice president of the society's Wake chapter, said most of the system's autism teachers, such as those who've worked with her daughter, are good. But the few who aren't cannot be ignored, she said; they can cause autistic children to regress academically and socially.

"Just because our children have autism doesn't mean they deserve any less respect or less of an education," Hughes said. "When you find the bad apples, then you can't say, 'Protect the teacher.' You have to protect the children."

Parents of autistic children are upset over the recent incidents, said Judy Clute, whose son attends Dillard Drive Elementary School in Raleigh.

"It's scary," she said. "It's all the parents are talking about now."

Dani Mackison, a teacher of autistic children at Leesville Road Elementary in North Raleigh, can understand the parental fears. She was Whitley's predecessor at Wakefield and knows many of the parents who are complaining.

"It's frustrating," Mackison said. "I don't know all the facts, but we're not doing the best for them when things like this happen. This is a very vulnerable population."

http://newsobserver.com/news/story/18711...5722c.html