Here is a LINK to a story about a Special Ed teacher who has been arrested and charged with physically abusing the students in her care. It came about because of hidden cameras placed by police. Sadly the woman is only getting 21 days in jail for a crime which should warrant much, much more.
I work alot with the special ed community and this is a big issue we are pushing. Kids in special ed often cannot communicate properly and many bad things happen from abuse to the teachers just not doing their jobs. I know one where the teacher basically sat on her computer all the time doing Facebook or shopping and the kids would sit on the floor with toys.
You may not realize it but special education rooms are often stuck in far corners of school buildings and are rarely visited by principals. Another is that parents are not allowed to observe the special ed classroom without permissions and strict guidelines. Staff have a big code of silence.
What’s this going to fix? The cameras aren’t magically going to solve the underlying problem, which is that our schools systems are doing jack-all to properly address the needs of our children. If positions in the classroom were highly desirable, if training were effective, if funding was where it needed to be, we wouldn’t be having these conversations at all.
In this particular case, it looks like we probably have a veteran Special Ed teacher who over a very long period of time completely lost her shit. Probably she should have been transitioned out of that self-contained classroom setting a long time ago. Personally, I think teachers who spend every day in those environments should see mental health professionals on a regular basis, and on the school district’s dime.
But yeah, sure, put cameras in these classrooms. These kids need to be protected from the negligent assholes we hire as caretakers since we don’t have the means to hire, pay, or retain qualified people who will actually do them any good.