Teacher Bully:
Is it equal for special education students? Disabled students face a lot of challenges. Bullying, timeout, seclusion, and restraint.
What’s in the news?
September 8, 2022.
Video released of incident between former Fresno Unified school principal and student
by KFSN-TV Fresno, California, Walt Disney Company.
What’s the story?
I learned of this story from KABC-TV is Los Angeles at 6pm. However, I use original sources whenever possible, which is the Fresno ABC owned television station.
During the 2021-2022 school year, an elementary school principal in Fresno, California, assaulted an autistic student in the cafeteria.
The principal was charged with misdemeanor child abuse and endangerment for shoving the student, which is clearly seen on the released video. The autistic’s guardian is angry about how quickly the former principal became an assistant principal in another district.
On the day of the incident, the guardian was called to report the student assaulting the principal The school district took three months to show the video to the guardian. Both the autistic boy and his guardian are black. The guardian did say that the principal frequently bullied the autistic boy to provoke him.
The district contacted the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing about the former principal.
The video was released Thursday, three months after the incident.
The guardian is preparing a lawsuit.. Her lawyer was quoted.
The credential site shows no issues and that the principal was certified for handling autistics.
The guardian contacted Fresno Police about the lack of charges.
Golden Plains Unified also saw the video this week.
The former principal will be arraigned later in September 2022 for the June 2022 incident.
Included in the story?
No. The autistic child wasn’t directly quoted, but quoted by his guardian, who was interviewed.
COMMENTARY The original Teacher Bully video on YouTube, on January 5, 2022, did not include commentary because it featured 7 news items. With this post, the Teacher Bully series now has commentary.
Is this the Least Restrictive Environment?
The black student is described as “with special needs” and the white principal has a certificate to “handle” autistic students.
The principal’s behavior effective shows the certificate is meaningless, at least when it comes to actual autistics.
What needs to change?
The news story says that the Fresno police chief saw the video this week for the June incident and the policy will change to have supervisors get involved earlier in misdemeanor cases, at least with those involving children. The police chief was kept out of the loop because of the policy. At least, the police department plans to take the first step in the right direction.
The school district allowed the principal to get away with it because of resignation by investigation.
The guardian did the right thing.
This is an example of why:
Autistics don’t trust authority figures.
- School: The principal did call the guardian, but with essentially a false accusation.
- School: The staff members who witnessed it, also on camera, as well as those off camera,, failed their mandatory reporter responsibilities. They wouldn’t allow this behavior to their children, or even general education students.
- Police: Why no charges? If the student was guilty, a trial would have been scheduled by now. This shows why follow up by parents and guardians of minors is important.
- Police: Shouldn’t the police chief know about all cases in the city? Especially at schools, whether or not officers are assigned to schools?
- Both failed to protect the black autistic 10 year old. Because this is abuse, the staff members who witnessed it are also guilty of failing to report.