NJ teacher calls bullying claims 'disingenuous'
by Leigh Remizowski, CNN
(CNN) - The former teacher of a schoolboy diagnosed with autism, who is accused by the child's father of mistreating the student, has called the allegations "disingenuous," saying she wasn't there when the alleged classroom incident took place.
The father, Stuart Chaifetz, said he put a recording device on his 10-year-old son, Akian, and recorded school staff in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, making what he described as inappropriate comments during class.
Teacher Kelly Altenburg said through her attorney Friday that she "does not condone any such remarks."
"This language was not used at her direction, in her presence or with her knowledge," according to the statement.
Chaifetz launched a website and a YouTube video on Monday to publicize portions of more than six hours of recordings of what he says are teachers and aides talking about alcohol and sex in front of the class, punctuated by yelling at his son to "shut your mouth."
School authorities said in a statement Friday that they are "continuing to investigate what occurred in the classroom in question."
"Since the evidence presented is audio only, it is imperative that the improper conduct identified on the recording is correctly identified to the person(s) who committed the conduct," the statement said.
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A teacher at school had my son arrested...and when my wife talked to the teacher about what happened one of the things she said was her son had problems so she had her own son arrested to get help from the legal system..her son is bipolar..my son has Autism...The legal system just had him do some community service work...Our society does not know how to deal with good kids with autism...later in college one of his teacher's reduced his grade a full scale from a B to a C because he could not sit still in class, and was always fidgeting...he was almost throw out of the school too, because one of the teachers felt he caused too many distractions for the rest of the class. We had to have special meeting with the college supervisors, trying to get a person with Autism not to do the things they do all the time is hard.. He is a good kid, has skills too, but is finding it hard to find a job now, after he graduated, even with his degree in electronics..
Social workers and some teachers, have gone, ballistic, with so called BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS, and want the children all on those certain drugs, they recommend, while treating everything as a behavior problem, versus, There may be a medical problem, for which they are not qualified to diagnos. It appears some of them are making money from those certain drug companies, There always seems to be a ready and waiting psychiatrist to sign for the prescriptions.
tHERE ARE MANY OTHER MEDICAL PROBLEMS THAT GO UNNOTICED, AND MISDIAGNOSED, AND TREATED WRONGFULLY BY UNQUALIFIED PERSONS. ONE VERY OVERLOOKED MEDICAL PROBLEM, iS:
CONGENITAL "HEART VALVE" PROBLEM RELATED TO DOUBLE JOINTEDNESS, THAT MAY CAUSE OTHER CONDITIONS, THAT MAY OR MAY NOT SHOW UP, AT ANY ONE TIME. THE CHILDREN REACT TO HOW THEY FEEL AT THE TIME, NOT KNOWING THERE IS ANYTHING, PHYSICALLY WRONG. AN EKG, WOULD HELP, AND A MONITOR USED BY THE CHILD CAN INDICATE CHANGES IN HEART BEATS. AS WELL AS POOR EYESIGHT, AND DOUBLE JOINTED
FINGERS AND TOES AND ANY OTHER THING THAT MAY ARISE, THAT CAN EFFECT THE CHILD!
EVEN MISSING ENOUGH IRON, OR SITTING TO LONG, OR TO ACTIVE, THE HEART "VALVES" REACT IN DIFFERENT WAYS. But the social workers prefer, what apparently very lucretive "behavior problem" vs medical problem.
and they social workers have been working on inserting themselves into the medical community, with, lack of knowledy and arrogance. Misleading families and teachers! The children do well when diagnosed!, which, can also be inherited!
Teacher bullying is nothing new, unfortunately. My autistic son became suicidal at the age of 7. I knew it had something to do with school. Finally, I spent a morning observing in his classroom. Of course, neither the teacher or aide said anything totally inappropriate in front of me, but I learned a lot by watching. They were unaccepting and as cold as ice. They had no business working with special needs children! I insisted on a meeting with the school superintendant, the principal, and the teacher, and when it was over I said that they would either give me an inter-district transfer to the school I chose or I would go directly to my lawyer (not that I had one at the time). Finally, my son was moved to another school and got a marvelous teacher. The fact that this new school was in a ghetto didn't matter. My son learned and was as happy as an autistic child can be. He can now read extremely sophisticated material, has a college-level speaking ability, and is reasonably independent. Unfortunately, the other kids from that terrible classroom he started in didn't fare so well. Their parents were poor and not able to advocate.
I commend the father of the autistic boy who is making an issue of his child's predicament. If there is anything I can do to help, send my e-mail along. (I'm a California lawyer now.)