When Sandra Baker was called to pick up her 9-year-old autistic son, Chris, from his Mercer County, Kentucky school, she was stunned by what she found: She says that Chris’s teacher had stuffed him in a bag and left him in the hallway as punishment.
“When I walked in,” Sandra told CBS News, “I went down his hallway, and I saw this big green bag laying in the floor beside the [teacher’s] aide, and I saw it moving.”
Then Sandra heard a voice come from inside the bag:“Momma, is that you?”
Sandra demanded her son be released immediately, but allegedly the bag was tied so tightly the teacher’s aide struggled to open it. When Chris finally got out, his mom says he was sweaty and uncommunicative.
Lydia Brown, a freshman at Georgetown University, is autistic, too. When she heard about Chris’s ordeal at school, she started a petition on Change.org demanding the Mercer County school district discipline the teacher who put Chris in the bag and require its teachers to complete training on interacting with autistic children. Click here to sign Lydia’s petition now.
At a meeting with school officials last week, Sandra learned this wasn’t the first time Chis had been stuffed in the bag as punishment. The teachers allegedly referred to the bag as a “therapy bag,” but lacking even basic training for working with autistic children, were unable to explain how confining Chris to a drawstring bag constituted “therapy” of any kind.
Here’s the worst part: after her meeting, Sandra says she received no guarantee that this kind of abuse wouldn’t happen again — either to Chris or to other students in Mercer County schools.
That’s just not acceptable to Sandra, or to the 12,000 people who’ve already signed Lydia’s petition on Change.org. The school board won’t be able to ignore this issue when they see the thousands of people angry about Chris’s treatment and calling for changes.
Followers, sign and reblog the shit out of this, please.
I read this so many times. Another reason to hate most education systems? Check. Sign this petition. I want to use all...
What the actual hell… I… I’m kind of still in a weird numb, shocked state right now, actually. That’s insane and just,...
“therapy bag” and thrown down a well. She is a disgusting human being and a disgrace...all...
This is child abuse plain and simple. That teacher should be arrested, not just fired. Not to mention that every single...
What in heaven’s name did ANYONE involved at...school think that they were doing?
FUCK. Dear anyone who didn’t believe me when I said children with intellectual disabilities are abused solely...
just to clarify, the bag was a therapy bag. there are therapy bags for autistic children to help them feel more safe if...