Krystina Colon
April 30th 2012
Teachers caught in the act

Teachers are expected to be role models NOT down-grade students, especially students with a learning disability. In Ohio, a fourteen year old girl, Cheyanne told her father that she was being bullied in school. The father expected that it was something normal, not to mention she was a special needs student. Eventually, her father realized that the students weren't doing the bullying, the teachers were. School administrators constantly told her father that she was lying about the harassment and bullying. He placed a hidden tape recorder under her clothes to see what was REALLY happening. The next few days, she recorded a number of abusive remarks from not only a teacher, but a teachers aide as well at Miami Trace Middle School in Washington Courthouse, Ohio. The teacher and teachers' aide made remarks like “are you that d*** dumb?” She was also being called a liar and was told by her teacher that she failed a test BEFORE the test was even handed to the teacher. You would never guess what getting a question wrong was like for her. She was forced to walk on a treadmill as punishment. The teacher then said that the Cheyanne had broke the treadmill and made her run in place. All of the problems started in fifth grade and escalated until eighth grade. The cruel remarks were so tormenting that Cheyanne started to harm herself so that she couldn't go to school. Every time Cheyanne's parents called the School, they were told that she was “lying and making up stories.” After the father had brought the recordings to administrators' the teacher and teachers aid were asked to resign. They had to take anti-bullying classes, such a punishment. The family filed a lawsuit against the School District and got three hundred thousand dollars.
In Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a father wired his ten year old autistic son. On April 20th he revealed the tape on Youtube to millions of viewers. The father said the audio showed members of Horace Mann Elementary School calling his son a bastard. The following Tuesday, Cherry Hill School District made a statement that the members in the audio no longer worked there. The father said that shortly after his “wonderful, happy son” went to school, notes were being sent home saying that he was “hitting the teacher, hitting the aide and throwing chairs.” A behavorist was sent in to see what was wrong, but months later the father still couldn't understand what was happening. His ten year old son, Akian was autistic therefore he wasn't able to tell his father. That is when the father decided to plant a hidden recording device in his sons pocket. They were calling him a bastard and told him “go ahead and scream, because guess what? You are going to get nothing until your mouth is shut.” Akians fathers stated that he “didn't go to school, he went to prison and he learned to fight to survive.” The father set up a petition for New Jersey lawmakers to pass the law that teachers who bully children should immediately be fired. That following Wednesday in the morning, it had sixty-one thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine signatures.
I sure do have to give a hand to these strong parents. They did something that most parents wouldn't think of. If it was me, I honestly couldn't handle my child being verbally abused by a teacher. Not only that, I couldn't handle it if my child was autistic or had another learning disability. I have an autistic cousin and if that happened to him, I would definitely go CRAZY! I couldn't handle hearing that not just anybody, but a teacher would even think of doing something so absurd. A teacher is suppose to be a role model, they're suppose to teach us how to act and be responsible, NOT degrade us. They're suppose to teach us and be adults, not show us that they can be immature. Their comments were inappropriate, especially for students who shouldn't have had them said to them.