Another School Uses Bullies Against Disabled Child

A twelve year old boy with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of autism, is hospitalized with a cracked skull now, because his classmates at Liberty Middle School in Liberty Missouri thought that beating him up in the cafeteria was a good example of social skills. A bigger kid took the boy's backpack and moved it away from his seat, during lunch. After all, why not? Who is an autistic child to argue with a big, athletic, monster whose behavior is reinforced by a school that does nothing to stop constant assaults by the same bully? After all, in unified school districts, each school can pretty much do as it pleases, and bullies are a great way to get rid of disabled students.

The administration of the public school in Frankfort, Kansas attempted the same with a disabled child in the same grade as the child who was injured at Liberty Middle School. The principal waited until the state and federal "enrollment dollars" came in for each student, then encouraged some bigger boys, two grades ahead of the disabled child, to beat him up in a shower stall in the boys locker room. No teacher was present at the time. Afterward, the principal, Dean Dalinghaus, called the boy's parents and lied, blaming the boy!  He was actually planning to expel the victim, because he doesn't like autistic children. The truth came out when one of the bullies bragged about the incident to the disabled child's older sister. Dean Dalinghaus almost crapped himself when he found out that the Americans With Disabilities Act is a real thing.

At Liberty Middle School, there have been other incidents involving the same bully and the same victim. In the past, the school has ignored all of it. This time, the victim spent four days in the hospital with serious injuries, so ignoring it and telling the parent that her child is not as important as a football player was not an option. Because of that, Liberty Middle School is "investigating the incident". So are police: the bully is currently in juvenile detention. Frankfort, on the other hand, did not bother to take any action against bullying.

Do Students Belong In Duffle Bags?

Of all the insane outrageousness! Just when I though I had nearly heard it all, too! A "teacher" in Kentucky, for special needs children, decided that since a nine year old boy named Christopher Baker smirked at her and threw a basketball across the room, she'd stuff him in a duffle bag and pull the drawstring shut! She then put the duffle bag out in the hallway before calling the boy's mom. When Christpher's mom arrived, she did not know, at first, that her son was inside of a duffle bag, and was stunned to hear the bag say, "Mommy, is that you?"

Ya know......Christopher's mom must be a saint, because I am not sure, exactly, what I would have done if that were my child. Everything about this, from the risk of suffocation, to the humiliation, is simply abusive. I don't care how many times the little boy smirked. I also don't care how difficult of a day this special ed teacher was having, there is simply no excuse for something like that! I don't know this teacher personally, but I am forced to ponder if she took the job with special needs children because they have a more difficult time speaking up about abuse issues within their schools than normal children. If that's the case, she needs to go. But guess what....she's not going anywhere. Kentucky schools, and her principal, think this is an okay way to educate any child with aspergers or any other disability on the autism spectrum. Here's what the principal, Dennis Davis, had to say, quoting from the above referenced Yahoo article: "The employees of the Mercer County Public Schools are qualified professionals who treat students with respect and dignity while providing a safe and nurturing learning environment," Davis said in a statement."

Okay, now that we know that schools in Kentucky consider the inside of a duffle bag a safe and dignified place to learn, and that the "qualified professional" teaching in Kentucky will have an assortment of duffel bags in various sizes in which students can learn, a woman named Lydia Brown has put together a petition and a letter to sign, because Kentucky sees no problem with stuffing children into duffle bags. The Yahoo article did not include a link to the petition, so I will. Here it is. http://www.change.org/petitions/petition-to-board-of-education-of-mercer-county-kentucky

Another very serious consideration about this is the fact that if this child had died in the duffle bag, what on earth would have happened? Would someone have hidden the duffle bag for the teacher and would this have been another missing child case? Or, suppose someone had entered the school, picked up the duffel bag, Christopher still inside, and put it into the trunk of his car and departed? School camaras would not have recorded Christopher's image, the camaras would have recorded a person walking with a duffle bag. This is dangerous, folks. And very, very wrong. Please sign Lydia Brown's petition.