From Fox News: 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. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/22/school-accused-putting-autistic-boy-in-duffel-bag/?test=latestnews#ixzz1hKwTQQLP
Ok, on the surface, this looks bad, but...
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.
I have to believe that the mom is lying about not knowing that the school did not put the child into the bag. every student in special education has an IEP- Individual Educational Plan- and it describes what kind of education and treatment a child will have over a years time. An IEP is held at least 1 time a year and sometimes more. All the child's teacher's will be there along with the parents, if they decide to attend. The school and the parent must agree with the IEP and then it will be implemented. And if the school was putting the kid in the bag without mom's knowledge and permission, the school will be deep, deep crapola. So, either the mom knows about the duffel bag and is lying or the school is about to be sued and the teachers arrested for not following the IEP. My guess is that mom is not telling the whole truth or even a little bit of the truth.
I'm not saying that this treatment method is the best- I don't know. I do know that some severely autistic kids respond better being in enclosed areas- like being wrapped up tightly in a blanket or other tight areas though, I have never heard of putting a kid in a duffel bag.
So, while this story seems awful, my guess is that there is a lot more to the story and that mom was aware of what was going on and is not telling the whole story.
An IEP does not spell out every type of intervention that may used with a student. It addresses the educational and behavioral goals as well as the exceptions made for the child such as tests being read aloud. The Mother's claim that she did not know about the bag is quite possibly true.
ReplyDeleteThanks anon, but if they have to resort to this, then I am sure a Behavior Intervention Plan should be in place, which again, the mom would know about.
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