This is the video from #TobinWorld School in Antioch that shows a young student being punched by teacher aide. pic.twitter.com/sphoA2y09U
— Laura Anthony (@LauraAnthony7) January 6, 2016
“After conducting interviews and reviewing the cellphone recording of the incident, officers determined that a felony child abuse had occurred,” police Cpl. Powell Meads told the newspaper.
Authorities and school administrators said the boy did not sustain any visible injuries and has returned to school.
The video appears to show the teacher’s aide roughing up the boy — first slapping him in the face as one person held his arms and another held his legs, and later attempting to restrain him and wrestling him to the ground.
A 23-year-old, who was identified as a friend of the person who shot the video, told the Contra Costa Times that she saw the footage and was so upset by it that she posted it on social media Tuesday and then alerted authorities and school administrators.
“This is the third time this kind of thing has been recorded by him,” the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the newspaper. “It was so unbearable to watch, I had to do something about it.”
Tobinworld founder Judy Weber told the Contra Costa Times that school administrators learned about the incident late Tuesday afternoon and later notified police.
The school released a statement Wednesday to KRON-TV, saying:
Earlier this morning, the District was notified that a video had been posted on social media involving Tobinworld 2 staff and students. Tobinworld 2 is a non-public school that contracts with school districts throughout the East Bay to serve students with Special Needs. AUSD has confirmed that Tobinworld 2 notified Law Enforcement and an investigation is currently under way. At this point we have determined that the student at the center of the video is not an AUSD student. Upon learning of this incident, Antioch Unified School District sent our staff members to Tobinworld 2 to provide support to our students and parents. We have also contacted the Contra Costa County Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) and asked that they look into the matter. We take all instances of student safety seriously and will ensure that appropriate and decisive steps are taken as determined by the outcome of the investigation.
School administrators said two employees have been suspended while police investigate.
The student’s grandmother told KRON-TV that she was outraged.
“That shouldn’t have happened at a school that I had trust in,” said the woman, who was not identified by the station. “I sent him to that school for the trust and everything I had investigated.”
She added that her grandson “has had a few issues, and again, he’s a special-needs child, and he shouldn’t be treated like that at all from anyone.”
Weber, the school founder, told CBS San Francisco she was “devastated” by the aide’s actions.
“Maybe she was trying to get a child under control, but that’s not how it is done,” Weber told the station. “I have been doing this for 30 years. I am the mother of an autistic child. We give our employees plenty of training and resources. I don’t want to say any more because the case is being investigated.”
After the incident, parents of other Tobinworld students started to express concerns. One said she pulled her child out of the school.
Alyson Boyd told told CBS San Francisco that she was disturbed — particularly when she learned the incident occurred in the classroom next door to her son’s.
“At that point, I told her my son would no longer be attending the school and I would be contacting the district as soon as they opened up,” she said.
Other parents say they want the school and its employees to be held accountable for what happened.
“What they did, that’s thugs,” Tim Sickler, a parent at the school, told Fox affiliate KTVU. “That’s something that happens out on the streets when you get jumped. So those aides … not only do they need to be terminated, they need to go to jail.”
“I was very upset, disheartened,” Damon Amey, another parent, told the news station. “I was disturbed.”
MORE READING:
