One would hope that all teachers would strive to be excellent, effective educators. However, education is just like any other profession. There are those who work extremely hard at their craft getting better on a daily basis and there are those that are just simply there never striving to improve.
Truly bad teachers are unusual, but they do exist. Even though this type of teacher is in the minority, just a handful of truly bad teachers can hurt the profession.
What is a “bad” teacher, really? Is the label justified? While some teachers are victims of the rumor mill and develop an unfounded reputation as mean or ineffective, other teachers are just that.
Occasionally, however, someone who might not be fit to be a teacher gets the credentials and a teaching position—just like the two Teachers from Greater Baton Rouge Hope Academy.
There is no such thing as a perfect teacher. It is in the nature of the profession to continuously improve in all areas, including classroom management, teaching style, communication, and subject area knowledge, however for these two Teachers, what they did is beyond worst!
Milissa Davis, a mother of a severely autistic 12-year-old son, Camden just did what we called “Mother’s instinct.” When her autistic son began developing problematic behavior, the mother decided to take an unusual step to help her autistic son.
According to iheart, Camden, who has difficulty with basic skills like reading and writing, had been enrolled at Greater Baton Rouge Hope Academy. Due to the school’s reputation for assisting pupils with learning impairments and Milissa was proud of it.
As we all knew when parents are very busy Teachers are the people, who teach children what is beautiful and what is ugly, what is right and what is wrong. Through them, children learn to perceive the inner world. And the way they perceive it depends on the teacher’s personal particularities that are transmitted to children through interaction and the knowledge that teacher offers them, but in Camden’s case, he shows a change in the behavior of an otherwise ‘sweet boy,” he then began showing signs of aggressiveness and would frequently wet the bed, Milissa’s delight soon turned distressed.
For Milissa, it was very unusual for her son to behave that way, she couldn’t figure it why or how her son turns into someone he was not when Camden didn’t go to school, that’s when Millisa’s instinct kicked in, there could be something in Camden’s school.
She knew that school was leading to anxiety for her son. Milissa tried approaching the school but got no response from them.
And since Camden was not able to vocalize his anxiety, Milissa then decided to do something on her own and hid a recording device in her son’s backpack.
Later that day, when her son returned from school, she played back the recording only to find shocking statements from his teachers making fun of Camden’s disabilities.
In the recording device, Camden was being bullied by the two teachers. In the recordings, one can clearly hear the teacher and the teacher’s aide saying awful things to the boy and talking about him.
“You’re just writing the word. What is hard about it?” one of the teachers can be heard saying. The teacher then mimicked Camden’s response, mocking his inability to speak clearly when Camden tried to speak but his words were unintelligible.
“Camden, why don’t you have anything written down? That’s why you can’t sit with everyone. Tell your momma that. Let’s see what they do with him in f—king public school. He was going to go to Live Oak Middle. Uh uh, he wouldn’t make it for a minute,” the teacher said, pushing him further.
The clip made it clear that the teachers were unconcerned with Camden’s position. They appear to be further demotivating him rather than being supportive and motivating.
Milissa is saddened after hearing the barrage of insults directed at her kid. She started to hate the idea of sending her child to such a violent place every day.
She took the recordings and handed them over to the authorities and even posted them on Facebook.
She told WBRZ: “I just wanted to cry, scream and do everything I could because it was so bad.”
“To think that I had sent my son there every day, and what had happened before that I don’t know about.”
After Milissa published the audio clip the two unnamed teachers at the special needs school have been sacked.
Headteacher at Hope Academy Linda Stone said in a statement:
“The recording appears to be a compilation of audio clips, many of which involve private conversations between two adults with no other persons/children present, The recording contains regretful conversations between these adults. The parent never brought the recording to the attention of Hope Academy before posting it to social media. The parent has also refused to meet with Hope Academy to discuss the actions we have taken to address the issue. The persons involved in the communications are either no longer with the school or will no longer be with the school after this semester.”
Charlotte McGehee, Milisa’s attorney, claims that her client regularly presented her concerns to the school only to be dismissed after the principal alleged that the school was completely unaware of the situation.
“She already had issues, I would like to address where my son is seated, that my son has had a behavior change.’ None of those issues were addressed prior to her going and getting the evidence of abuse that was going on with her child,” McGehee said.
Many autistic youngsters are unable to tell trustworthy adults when they are being threatened. In these situations, concerned adults must pay attention to the child’s unspoken behaviors in order to determine whether something is wrong in the child’s life.
Sometimes individuals who are supposed to look out for the needs of a child with autism instead act in ways that are destructive to their helpless charges. Such was the experience of 12-year-old Camden Davis, thanks to his Mother’s instinct, somehow, Camden was saved.
Although the abuse he experienced at his previous school was still having an impact on him, Camden was reportedly doing well at his new school.
Sources: Taphaps, Iheart, Theautismsite
