An Indianapolis teacher has come under fire after it was revealed that she may have tried to harm a special needs student in order to prevent him from attending a class trip.

“Maybe he could get sick enough not to attend and we won’t have to deal with it,” the teacher told a classroom aide, according to court and state documents.

This is what teacher Trinda Barocas said when referring to one of her students, a little seven year old boy with autism. Why? All because she didn’t want him to be part of a class trip to the zoo.

In an interview with Child Protective Services (CPS) afterwards, Trinda said that she didn’t want the boy to be part of the trip because she thought he would act out.

The state report says teacher’s aides also described Barocas as dragging Young’s son and another student across the floor by their arms, pushing them, pinching Young’s son and flicking the other student on her lips.

On the day the class was heading on the field trip, the teachers aide, David Holder told investigators that Trinda said:

I wonder what would happen if (the boy) had peanuts? I could touch it, and then touch him.

Not long after, she allegedly tossed him a Mr. Goodbar that was full of just that. Peanuts.

The Mr. Goodbar allegation came to light when school officials called in state child welfare investigators after teacher’s aides alerted them about concerns that the teacher was abusive.

As you can imagine the young boy’s mother, Anita Young was shocked when the school alerted her to what had happened. She believed she was sending her son somewhere safe when he went to school everyday and has since realized that this was not the case.

The boy’s peanut allergy, which was discovered when he was small, is so severe, doctors told his parents he would asphyxiate within minutes if he were to ever come in contact with them again.

According to her, he probably didn’t eat the candy bar because he won’t eat foods that are “unfamiliar” to him, a character trait common to kids with autism.

Mrs.Young has filed a suit against the district and she wants criminal charges filed against the teacher, something that has yet to happen.

“I think she’s sadistic,” Young said. “I think there’s something wrong with her mind. She shouldn’t teach. She shouldn’t be allowed around kids.”

Barocas’ attorneys did not respond to calls seeking comment Thursday, but according to the CPS report, the teacher told the agency “she did not want (the boy) to attend the field trip to the Indianapolis Zoo because of his behavior. She stated that he did go and did many things that he was not allowed to do. Trinda compared (the boy) to an 18-month-old child several times. Trinda denied that she did anything or said anything to stop (the boy) from coming on the field trip.”

It has also been revealed that back in 2007, this teacher was placed on administrative leave after a nurse saw her force feeding, slapping and restraining a child.

Before these accusations came to light, the district was planning to fire Mrs.Barocas for poor performance. Before that could happen, she resigned.

This story just makes me want to cry. Our kids are supposed to be able to go to school to learn, to make friends and to have fun. We as parents are always confident that our children are safe in the school system. This is just scary.

As the parent of a special needs child, stories like this really make me worry about how the school system will be with my son once he is old enough to be there. I already have issues with trust and things like this are just going to make it that much more difficult.

NO child deserves to be treated in such a horrible manner. No child deserves to miss out on class trips because of a disability. I have learned over the years that some people just don’t understand kids that have special needs. They are just like everyone else, but deal with problems that are NOT their fault.

I am disgusted with this teacher. I hope that she gets what she deserves and I sure hope that they do file criminal charges against her. This was totally uncalled for and she needs to be punished.

The fact that back in 2007 she was put on leave because of mistreating another child makes me even more angry. She should have lost her license THEN as a teacher. If so this boy would not be in the position that he is in.

My heart goes out to the little boy and his family. – Shannon Strohm, Staff Writer

Related Articles:

• Shocking Report Finds Special-needs Kids Abused in Schools
  
• Is This Is How Families Of Special Needs Kids Are Treated?

SOURCE

Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley released 4 pictures of their newly adopted daughter Naleigh.

In a statement on the foundation page for Katherine’s brother reads:

Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley have adopted a 10 month old baby girl from Korea. Katherine and Josh have named their daughter Nancy Leigh and she will go by the nickname Naleigh. She is named after Katherine’s mother Nancy and Katherine’s sister Margaret Leigh. Katherine, Josh and Naleigh are together and doing well.

Katherine and Josh began the adoption process for little Naleigh – who was delivered on 23 November (08) – six months ago.
The Grey’s Anatomy actress revealed earlier this month to Ellen, the couple’s applications were quickly processed, because their daughter has special needs.
She explained,

“She is a special needs baby and because of that it all moved so much faster. They wanted to get her to us as quickly as possible.”

Photos By Cheyenne Ellis

Last month my girlfriend told me about an autistic boy who had been locked in a solitary confinement room for a whole day at his Catholic School for being disruptive during class. The story was so shocking to hear, I would never have believed that this could happen anywhere else.

A Government Accountability Office report scheduled to be released today, documents the problems with the way children with disabilities are being treated in public schools, including cases of children being held face-down on the ground.

The GAO report was prepared for the House Education and Labor Committee, which is considering new laws governing what actions teachers can take to rein in disruptive special-needs students.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, found that state laws governing the treatment of the more than 6 million children classified as having “special needs” — conditions including autism and Down syndrome – are patchy at best. Teachers and school staff frequently lack training in correct restraint methods, and in some cases, where improper restraints led to injuries, teachers often kept their jobs.

Only five states keep track of incidents where special-needs students are separated or restrained. Parents contacted by CNN commonly said they were not told their child was being disciplined until he or she began to behave badly at home — a sign of trouble at school.

Some of the most disturbing reports concerned the use of seclusion rooms. Experts have long recommended that children should only be isolated when they posed an immediate threat to themselves or others. But CNN found that isolation was often used as a punishment by teachers to compel the students to follow instructions.

State investigators in Utah found a teacher left 7-year-old Garrett Peck in an isolation cubicle for at least two and a half hours after the teacher said he told her to “shut up.”

While the boy was in the cubicle, the teacher taunted him by playing his favorite video and telling him what he was missing. His parents, Joshua and Becca Peck, said the child has an attention span of about 10 minutes, and they believe that after the first few minutes, he had no idea why he was in the cubicle.

“It was so sad. We felt it was a form of torture for him but he, being autistic, he had no way to express it,” Joshua Peck said. “He couldn’t tell.”

And Becca Peck said her son had been left in the cubicle with nothing but a magic marker — which he used to scrawl all over himself. When she came to school to pick him up, “He was covered in marker — on his eyelids, on his hair, face, clothes, arms, eyelids — everywhere.”

“I started thinking, ‘What was he thinking?’ Was he thinking, ‘Why is my mom letting this person do this to me? Why am I here? I trust no one now.’ ”

In one case, a New York school confined a 9-year-old with learning disabilities to a “small, dirty room” 75 times in six months for whistling, slouching and hand-waving. In another, a Florida teacher’s aide gagged and duct-taped five misbehaving children to their desks; and police say a 14-year-old boy died when a special-education teacher in Texas lay on top of the student when he would not stay seated. Police ruled it a homicide, but a grand jury rejected criminal charges.

The findings from the GAO stop short of attaching a hard number to how many children are subjected to the practices, but investigators say they found “hundreds of allegations” of abuse involving restraint or seclusion at schools from 1990 to 2009; in Texas and California, they say, public schools recorded a combined 33,095 instances in the past school year alone.

The report goes on to detail 10 children’s cases, four of which ended in death. Unlike in hospitals or residential treatment centers, there’s no federal system to regulate such practices in schools — and teachers are often inadequately trained.

I am saddened and horrified by these reports. It is hard to think that a child who already has so many confusing things happening in their head has to add this abuse to their confusion.

My son currently receives treatment from a facility that has needed to cutback on a lot of their support staff because the government did not increase their funding this last year.

At the end of my post, I appealed to some of the companies that our website has relationships with to donate new developmental toys to his facility.

The very next day I was contacted by Kushies, who generously offered to donate some of their toys from their Zolo line.

This line of toys was created with many purposes in mind. Kids will only see the bright colours and exciting characters, but parents will love some of the developmental benefits.

Kushies toys encourage many developmental skills including dexterity, flexible thinking, explorative play and independent play.

Some of the toys the facility received were:

Stacrobats – Magnetic Stacking Acrobats($52) – Build your imagination, balance, and dexterity while you play! The magnetic figures, balls, and base are easy to attach. Connect them in zillions of ways!

Pupa Musical Caterpillar($60)- Stick balls together to create & build! Squeeze to hear musical notes! Full 8-tone scale lets you play tunes, including color coded songs.

Play Garden Magnetic Activity Garden($74) – Magnetic creatures stick to the garden and the magnetic plant pieces stack and build! This unique garden window box doubles as a zippered carrying case for toddlers on the go!

Growing Your Baby thanks this amazing company for their generosity and we encourage our readers to support companies, like Kushies who give back to the community.

I guess I have never seen their issues as anything more that a consequence from being born at 24 weeks and I appreciate every milestone that they reach.

With that being said, there are many people in this world that do not understand why a child needs to be in a wheelchair or on oxygen to survive and they paint all children with special need with the same brush.

Last night I was SHOCKED to hear what happened to my girlfriend and her 3 year-old son (pictured right) while out for their first walk in his new wheelchair.

Here is the e-mail she sent me:(not edited)

Okay as you all know we just got Ashton’s trial wheelchair YESTERDAY.

Well I always take him for a walk at night. I usually go the same route so people in certain houses know us and say hi.

I walk past this one house and their son is in the yard with their dog. The mom is out there on the porch. As I walked by I heard the kid say “mom, that kid is retarded”.

WHAT?!?!?!?! ?!? I was just saying how one day I am going to snap. I felt my face go red and I just wanted to scream at him!

I stopped and turned to him and said, “What did you say?”

He said, “I just said he was a retard”.

I said, “He is not a retard. Why do you say that?”

He said, “Cause he is in that chair.”

I said “That doesn’t make him a retard. You are a little brat.”

It was THEN that the mom said to me, “Just keep walking”. She didn’t say ANYTHING before this!!!!!!!! !!!!!

I said “Ya, I will keep walking but you should teach your kid some manners”.

“He has manners” she said….

I just wanted to punch her. I kinda did a little laugh and said “Well if those are manners he has a lot to learn”.

She stood up and seemed to be getting as angry as I was and said to me “He has nothing to learn, you just can’t handle the truth”.

WTF!??!?!?!? ?! I had to start walking. It was gonna be nasty if I didn’t. I started to walk….about ten feet later the tears came. I was sobbing by the time I got home. I cannot believe this. I have seen this lady and her kids MANY nights and it wasn’t until tonight that he said that. I was having a hard enough time with the whole wheelchair thing but now I just feel like crap. Ashton is NOT a retard. I am just so emotional about this whole milestone of getting a wheelchair.. ..it sucks.

Why can’t people see these kids how we do!??!?!

This mother should have marched her little monster down to the sidewalk and made him apologize to Ashton for referring to him as anything but an adorable little boy who has a flashy new chair, but instead she justified his crummy comment by sticking up for him. Now he will always think that it is okay to talk about kids like this because his crappy mother didn’t correct him the first time he did it.

This family know nothing about what my girlfriend has been through with her son and the lengths that she has gone through to make sure that he is here with us today.

The part that saddens me the most about this story is that this is the mom that slept in a ‘toy room’ at the hospital for 4 MONTHS because she couldn’t bare to leave her sons side while he was recently hospitalized.

She has pushed for every specialist and every doctor to see her son because she desperately wants him to lead a normal life and hopefully walk on his own someday.

After what she goes through daily, she doesn’t deserve to have her son ridiculed when all she wants to do is get him out for some fresh air.

When I see someone with a child who has special needs, I have nothing but respect for them because I know that they are probably on-call 16-18 hours a day looking after their child’s basic needs.

Whether we like it or not, this is how some kids are treated when they are in a wheelchair. I hope that this story will help parents realize that education and awareness goes a long way.

While he is not a child with traditional special needs, he is behind developmentally in some areas about a year.

With the help of a occupational therapist and a speech therapist we have been attacking every issue that he has one week at a time.

In just a few short months he has gone from barely being able to speak to knowing his full alphabet and spontaneously putting together 7 word sentences.

Knowing all this, you can imagine how surprised I was to read that the our government had frozen the funding for this great center.

Reading this made me realize how important it is for communities to support their children’s programs.

No one really ever knows if they will have a family member that will need the specialized care provided by the therapists at these facilities, but it certainly does feel good to know that your support could help a child get a good start at life.

Ways To Help:

1. Funding donation – The easiest and quickest way to make a difference is to support fund raising efforts. Many special needs facilities have a big fundraiser twice yearly. Buy tickets or donate during their campaigns. An amount as small as $5 goes a long way if enough people do it.

2. Toy/Book Donation – Part of what makes these centers successful is the tools needed to help move kids forward. I wish that more corporations would help out. Lord knows they gift enough stuff to celebrities, why not give some of the new toys they’re launching to selected children’s programs.

It really is the best advertisement. After all, the therapists always find every imaginable way to teach a child with the simplest toys.I can’t tell you how many times I have left a session and went right to the toy store because my son liked something we played with.

Parents who have toys, books or DVDs that their children are done with can also drop them off for use by other parents or the therapists.

3. Volunteer Your Time - While many of these places rely on their specialized staff to teach and improve children, there are always things that need to be done that don’t require a Masters.

I bet if you had a couple of hours to spare a week, many of these programs could find some way for you to help.

Every community has a center that offers a variety of rehabilitation services to children with disabilities and they should be supported. Our Facility serves almost 4,000 kids in our region alone.

*We have contacted some of the companies that we have relationships looking for any toy donations. In the coming weeks we will be profiling those companies that step up and offer to send developmental toys to my son’s or any facility that offers this specialized treatment.*

Would you pay a premium to know that if your baby arrives with a congenital defect, your family will receive money, which could help offset medical expenses?

The insurance company ING has devised a baby policy for women aged 16 to 40 which will deliver payouts of up to 50,000 dollars (46,640 US) for babies born with Down’s syndrome, spina bifida or a cleft palate, the Sun-Herald said.

A stillborn baby could get a 10,000-dollar payout while women who suffered complications during pregnancy or birth could also be awarded a pay-out, it said.

ING spokesman Mark Vilo said the new policy allowed the company to match up with “social trends and advances in medical technology,” the paper said.

“Every woman in the process of having a child knows the risks,” he said.

“We don’t make people undergo genetic testing to find out things they don’t want to.”

“With the median age of new mums now nearly 31, (up from 27 in 1985), the risk of pregnancy complications and birth defects increases dramatically,” ING said on its website.

“For a women aged 35 or more the risk of stillborn is 1 in 440, as opposed to 1 in 1,000 for younger women.”

If this became available to North America women I would do it. Knowing that there could be a fund that would help contribute to the needs of my baby if he/she was born with issues is reassuring.

One of the biggest stress factors that parents of special needs kids have is trying to finance all of the gear their child needs.

The New South Wales Midwives Association, believes that this policy plays on the fears of pregnant women.

“It is marketing fear and uncertainty when women are vulnerable during pregnancy.”

I disagree with this association because I think that this insurance company is just being practical. Babies are born with special issues everyday.

At some point the parents will be out of pocket for a lot of extra expenses (special food, nursing, strollers, seats, equipment and alternative forms of travel). Having this would ease that stress.