Superintendent: Teacher ridiculed autistic student

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DETROIT (AP) — A Michigan teacher humiliated a student
with Asperger’s syndrome by videotaping him after he became wedged in a
chair and showing the footage to his fifth-grade class and her
colleagues, the school’s superintendent wrote in a letter obtained
Friday by The Associated Press.
Goodrich Area Schools
Superintendent Scott Bogner sent the letter to the school board to
summarize his investigation into what happened Nov. 22 in teacher Nicole
McVey’s classroom at Oaktree Elementary School. The letter reveals for
the first time that McVey was holding the recording device, suggested
the video be sent to a national television show, and continued showing
it to colleagues after several told her it was inappropriate.
Bogner wrote that once the boy became stuck, McVey "castigated" him and "refused to allow
another adult to help him."
The
video shows the child with his chest resting on the seat and his head
and arms protruding through an opening in the back. According to the
letter, McVey took photos with her camera and borrowed a staffer’s
smartphone to record video, announcing "it would be funny" to have the
footage for "America’s Funniest Home Videos."
Maintenance workers
eventually freed the boy, who was stuck for about 10 minutes. When the
class reconvened, McVey played the video on a large-screen television
for all the students — including the boy, Bogner said.
"It was
particularly callous for Ms. McVey to force (the student) to be present
while others laughed at his predicament," Bogner wrote, adding that
McVey later showed the video to fellow teachers and staff members.
Messages
seeking comment were left Friday with McVey’s lawyer, William Young,
who wrote in a filing that his client "did not take the video of the
student for malicious purposes."
In the letter, sent to the school board in January, Bogner recommended that McVey be fired.
"Teachers are not to humiliate and ridicule students, particularly special-needs students," he
wrote.
Six
days later, the school board voted 5-1 to remove McVey through the
state’s teacher tenure process, but the teacher appealed. Some students,
parents and fellow teachers spoke at the Jan. 13 school board meeting
in support of McVey and criticized board members for voting to dismiss
her.
But the boy’s parents, upset that McVey was lauded by people
who hadn’t seen the video, authorized their lawyer to release the video
to a local TV station — and the airing in February generated uproar in
the community, about an hour’s drive northwest of Detroit. The school
board changed course on May 8, suspending McVey for a year without pay
or benefits.
In a letter given to the boy’s parents and the school
board, McVey, who has taught in the Goodrich district for 13 years,
wrote that she was "truly sorry" and acknowledged that she "made a very
bad series of choices on that day."
But the board’s choice not to fire McVey angered the boy’s parents.
On
Friday, the family’s attorney, Patrick Greenfelder, said he had
submitted a lawsuit to Genesee County Circuit Court. He said it was
"their only recourse."
That lawsuit names as defendants McVey,
then-Principal Michael Ellis, the school district and Terri Oliver, a
paraprofessional assigned to assist the child. It seeks more than
$25,000 in damages.
The suit alleges negligence, intentional
infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy. The incident
caused the boy to suffer broken blood vessels in his eyes, crying
spells, fear of school and loss of appetite, the lawsuit says.
Messages
seeking comment were left Friday with Ellis, who resigned his position.
Messages also were left with Oliver and Barbara Ruga, a school district
lawyer.
The AP is not identifying the parents or the boy because of his age.

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