Deciding the Fate of Charged School Officials (abuse of autistic child & cover up)

[Echo In Light]

Backstory: Teacher’s aides accused of waterboarding special-needs student
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/teachers-aides-waterboarding/

Update: Deciding the Fate of Charged School Officials

Dorchester County, SC - Some Dorchester District Two principals and teachers are accused of covering up child abuse at Knightsville Elementary.

Heather Martin, 38, is a teaching assistant who worked with special education students. She is charged with nine felony counts of unlawful conduct towards a child. 38-year-old Rebecca Piersol-Crosby is a lead special education teacher. She is charged with three felony counts of unlawful conduct towards a child and four counts of misprision of a felony.

While, 47-year-old Assistant Principal Mary Rita Watson and 42-year-old Principal Anita Ruff-Putillion were charged with one count of failure to report child abuse.

http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/1109/677633.html

More info:

The affidavits include allegations that while working in a classroom for children with autism, Martin:

On several occasions to quiet a child held her hands over the child's mouth and nose for up to 15 minutes.

Dragged a child for about 10 feet by his hair to a time-out area.

Grabbed a kneeling child by the hair and forced him into his seat.

Grabbed a child by the arm so hard it left red marks and bruises.

Threw pencils, erasers and paper clips at children and laughed when they wondered what had hit them.

Struck a child in the back of the head with an open hand.

The affidavits state that Piersol-Crosby was the classroom teacher and was in the classroom when Martin held her hands over a child's mouth and nose, and while she threw things like pencils and erasers at children, and did nothing to stop it. The affidavits also state that Piersol-Crosby repeatedly threatened a witness to an incident of alleged abuse that the witness would lose her job if she kept talking to people and that "what happens in the classroom stays in the classroom."

Family members and friends of the educators, visibly shaken and some in tears, packed the tiny courtroom to show support. The judge allowed some of them to speak. All of them said the women were exceptional and dedicated educators who had never been in trouble in their lives.

Nobody was in the courtroom to speak on behalf of the alleged victims.

http://www.thesunnews.com/news/local/story/1162563.html

[Brickbat]

1. I was mad until I read that last sentence you quoted.

Then I was furious.

[Echo In Light]

2. "never been in trouble in their lives"...that anyone knows about, or is willing to admit to

[Angry Dragon]

3. Huge prison time is indicated

Federal law might even come into play if they receive feral monies. Civil rights violations

[tonysam]

4. Cynically speaking, these people must be nepotisms in order to keep their jobs

I was shitcanned on what amounted to a clerical error on an FMLA form because the district's H.R. crook wanted my retirement and used this as cover; meanwhile, criminal staff, including teachers, aides, principals, and superintendents, are allowed to keep their jobs.

Cute:


Greenwood is concerned about her son's safety and wants to know how the district will handle the situation. All of the women except Heather Martin have been reassigned to other schools in the district.

Piersol-Crosby is working in the districts special services department. Watson was reassigned to Oakbrook Elementary and Putillion is at Beech Hill Elementary. A district spokesperson says Heather Martin no longer works for the district.





I think Martin actually resigned or something rather than was fired.