Stuart Chaifetz, a SHARK Investigator and father of Akian, a 10-year-old boy with autism, reveals shocking audio that shows how his son was bullied by his teacher and aide. See the video on YouTube Here.
"For the first six months of this school year, my son was exhibiting negative behaviors that no one could explain," states Chaifetz. "I was distraught and knew I had to do something to find out what was happening in his classroom. On February 17, 2012, I put a wire on my son and sent him to school. That night, when I heard the audio, my life was forever changed, because I heard my son being bullied by his teacher and aide."
The six and a half hours of audio, recorded at Horace Mann Elementary in Cherry Hill, NJ, shows not only Akian's teacher and aide berating and making fun of him to the point of bringing him to tears, including calling him a "bastard," but how staff in this self-contained autism class engaged in a series of unbelievably inappropriate conversations. These conversations included:
* That the aide who was running the class was under the influence of alcohol
* Complaining about parents, in front of their children (multiple times)
* Complaining that they and their husbands wanted each other to be sterilized
* Lying to parents
The entire audio was given to the Cherry Hill School District and to their credit they took immediate action and fired one aide. For some reason, however, the teacher and other aide were not fired, but instead moved to other schools. And even though one aide was fired, no one was told what had actually happened. The truth was being kept quiet.
"That my son's teacher was not fired and still works in the school district is an outrage I am not willing to allow to pass in silence," states Chaifetz. "She betrayed my son and caused him great pain. If some union rule or HR regulation has allowed her to keep her job, then the law needs to be changed so that the next time a teacher bullies a child, especially one with Special Needs, they will be immediately fired."
Chaifetz is also calling for all the school staff who were present in that classroom to come forward and publicly apologize to Akian for what they did.
"I am going public with this audio to expose a great wrong and to reclaim the dignity that these shameful people tried to steal from my son," states Chaifetz. "For me to do nothing would mean I was treating my son with as much disrespect as they had. Every person is worthy of justice and to not seek it for them is an offense as bad as the original transgression..."
More audio, along with a full statement detailing what happened can be found on this page. A Facebook page has been set-up.
What You Can Do
If you are outraged about this abuse, you can sign a petition to go to New Jersey legislators to pass legislation to fire teachers who bully children.