CRIME Autistic kids abused in Pa. classroom to get $5M

[ingodsgarden]

I share this as a mother of an eight year old with autism. Fortunately at this point she is verbal enough to communicate something like this if it ever happened to her, though probably not that well. There was a stage when she first started services when she was almost completely non-verbal and used the Icon communication method and would not have been able to tell me something like this - so the last quote I share really hits home for me.

http://www.lakewyliepilot.com/2010/05/28/740273/autistic-kids-abused-in-pa-classroom.html

Some relevant quotes from article...

"... Former special education teacher Susan Wzorek pleaded no contest to reckless endangerment and spent six weeks in prison in 2005 after prosecutors alleged she subjected her students to a range of abuse, from hitting them, pulling their hair and stomping on their feet to strapping them to chairs with duct tape and bungee cords."

"... The assistants reported Wzorek to her bosses at Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit 19. But the officials conducted no meaningful investigation, failed to report the abuse to police, and merely shuttled the abusive teacher to a neighboring school district, the suit said.

The principal at Clarks Summit even accused the teaching assistants of "breaking a silent code," similar to the code among police officers, the suit said."

"... Many of the children were nonverbal and used picture cards to communicate.

Wzorek, who worked with disabled students for decades, was stripped of her state teaching certification following her arrest."

"... One of the real diabolical aspects of this case was (they) literally could not complain to anyone," he said. "They are very badly scarred."

 

[undead]

Seems a bit excessive that the taxpayer's get hammered for this teacher's behavior. It seems it would be more appropriate to foreclose on the teacher's home and all assets before going after the school and taxpayers.

 

[Bad Hand]

This and worse happened to me and the other boys in our Catholic school at the hands of the Nuns. We were told that what went on at school was none of our parents business and if we told our parents we really got it then. Nothing ever happened to the Nuns or the Catholic school that I was forced to attend.

I am glad this teacher got to spend sometime in prison it should have been longer.

 

[Richard]

Wzorek, who worked with disabled students for decades, was stripped of her state teaching certification following her arrest."

Wonder when the abuse started then.......

 

[ingodsgarden]

I imagine there were countless others but if they were seriously disabled and non-verbal then the only real witnesses who could shed light on that would have been her aides if she had them.

It was the principles willingness to keep silent and cover his own backside that really got to me. Obviously the welfare of children wasn't the priority for some of the admnistration at that school. Shipping her off to another district just transferred the problem to someone else. Reminds me a bit of the RCC church abuse scandal. Same principles.