Posted on 09/23/2007 7:43:27 PM PDT by Graybeard58
A six-year-old autistic boy has been charged criminally after an incident inside his school where he allegedly assaulted a teacher's aide.
It's a story you saw first on 9News.
The incident happened earlier this month at Taylor Elementary School in Brooksville, Ky., located in Bracken County.
He is in kindergarten at Taylor Elementary, but 9News was told that due to his autism and other conditions, his mental capacity is the equivalent to a child half his age.
But despite that condition and his age, it still hasn't stopped a school employee there from holding him accountable: criminally.
Whether it's playing outside with his parents, or coloring SpongeBob Squarepants pictures, Nathan Darnell isn't much different than other kids his age.
But two things that do make him different from many other six-year-olds is his autism – and his criminal rap sheet.
"We are not denying that he did what they are saying, but we are denying he is culpable," said Tony Darnell, Nathan's father.
It was just last week when Nathan's teacher's aide, Glenda Schiltz, filed a juvenile fourth degree misdemeanor assault charge against him.
"What human being with a heart would do that to a six-year old?, asked Cathy Darnell, Nathan's mother. "Seriously, who would do that? I know I wouldn't."
According to the affidavit which 9News obtained, Schiltz alleges that on September 5, Nathan grabbed her by the shirt, pulled her backwards and began punching and kicking her.
"He admits to shoving her down, but he says he didn't pull her backwards," said Tony Darnell.
"She is no small person, she can defend herself," said Cathy Darnell.
So what does the school have to say about the matter?
Superintendent of Bracken County Schools Tony Johnson would not appear on camera but did say in a statement, "I believe we followed proper procedures and I have full faith in my staff".
Despite being autistic, Nathan is integrated with all kindergartners at Taylor Elementary.
His parents believe Schiltz and other teachers there are ill-prepared to handle special needs students.
His mother openly questions Schiltz's credentials.
"[She believes] you need to take him behind the woodshed and teach him something," Cathy Darnell, said. "That is her mentality, beat it out of him."
"Most of the time it [Nathan's behavior] is whining and screaming. I am sure that is hard on teachers and stuff, but we find a way to deal with it," said Tony Darnell.
On Wednesday the family went to the county courthouse, where an inquiry was held and it was decided the criminal case against Nathan will indeed move forward.
It's likely then that Schiltz will have to be there.
But until they get a chance to tell her personally, Nathan's family, in the meantime, does have something they want to say to her.
"She is a cold-hearted woman, that she has made every teacher look bad," said Cathy Darnell.
Repeated attempts to contact Glenda Schiltz were unsuccessful.
9News also was in communication with several school board members and none wanted to comment on the matter.
This is all heading to a proceeding scheduled for next week in which six-year-old Nathan will appear in juvenile court as a defendant.
Not sure if this update has been posted. Glad to see the criminal charges have been dropped!
“As for our plans we plan to seek the best possible outcome for our son’s future,” Cathy Darnell wrote in an e-mail to WCPO-TV on behalf of her son, Nathan.
“Sadly, that probably means by civil action,” Darnell said in her e-mail. “We understand that may bring a more political aspect to the matter.”
http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=81ee2ce5-9fd6-46a6-b18f-882f29ace8ed:
Did you consider for a second some parents may actually be getting their own money they put in back to care for their child? I know I paid in an awful lot before my kids hit the school room doors and I’ll pay even more when they leave. We also got hit with penalty this and that as we depleted our retirement accounts caring for our child. Not to mention extended family without children who pay into this system and don’t begrudge their share going for their relative. This isn’t about money, but your assertion that seems to imply that special needs kids suck the system dry is absurd. There ar ea lot of people who are reaping much more directly what they have paid in. Perhaps you should work to see that you see more direct results of your tax dollars instead of begrudging me mine. IN the end, I’d trade all that money paid in and cut it out to the rest of you from it all to have my son be able to enjoy life as a typical person. I think that gets missed here. Nobody got an autistic child because they laid about or were unmotivated. To treat that group like one would treat a welfare queen who can’t pry herself away from Dr. Phil long enough to make breakfast for her kids is just insulting.
Therein lies the rub. Most people who benefit directly from government programs (or court rulings) tend to feel the same way.
Schools are funded a set amount, usually based on a per-pupil basis. At the same time, the legislatures and the courts continue to add to the responsibilities of these schools, often with unfunded mandates. So, if a school's total funding is say $8K per student, and a specific student costs the school for physical therapy, speech therapy, an additional aid assigned to that child, etc. - the cost to care for that child in the school can rapidly climb to $50K-$100K per year. That money comes from somewhere. It comes out of the same budget that pays to hire teachers, to repair facilities, to buy textbooks, to purchase computers, to fund music and art programs, etc.
My contention is that the schools now are required to do far more than public schools should ever be responsible for. As a result, not only have the academic standards been screwed up, but the schools are just plain stretched thin just trying to keep up with the law.
There are certain procedures that are followed by competent personnel for physical outbursts which place the entire situation under control immediately.
I know this because I have seen them, and I have been given training in them. My son goes to a private school for autism. The 1:1 teachers who work with the older students (teens who are over 6 feet tall, 200+ lbs) can diffuse a meltdown or physical altercation immediately, effectively and with no assistance — and they are on average about 120lbs soaking wet.
I don’t need to be in this classroom to know the staff was ill suited, untrained and just incompetent with working with autistic children.
Not quite, or actually — not even close. The costs to secure these individuals’s services is added to the budget. It is not taken away from the “typical” children’s budget. Special education has its own accounting within the school budget as it is subject to various levels of reimbursements from the state and federal governments.
Also note, the cost to education a special education student is roughly about $12-15K to the typically student $8-10K, so your $100,000 figure is way off.
There is usually about 1% of the student population which is severely disabled, and as such require costly out of district placements. Those placements are cost shared however with other state and federal agencies.
Sigh.
First, it is “typical” children, as in typically developing children, or very specifically neurotypical children. Not “normal.” My child is not abnormal, he is autistic.
Second, my son has a diagnosis of Autism. This diagnosis manifests itself in attempts at social relationships, delays in the development of comprehension and expression of spoken language, engagement in stereotyped motor responses, and difficulty in attending to social and environmental cues. Taken together, these characteristics often preclude my son from making effective use of typical educational materials and curricula. This makes it necessary to develop individualized educational protocols to facilitate learning.
My son is provided an IEP team, which includes a general education teacher, a special education teacher, a BCBA, the team chair (who is usually a principal or a party who has the authority to authorize services), and a speech, occupational, and physical therapist, if he requires those services. My husband and myself are also members of his team. We meet once a year to review his progress, evaluations, and discuss his present level of performance to determine what his needs are.
Obviously, the team who is placing children into your sister’s classrooms are failing those children by not providing the necessary supports they need during the team process.
I don’t want your sister to spend all her time with one child. I want that child to have the supports they need so they can access the general curriculum. Someone dropped the ball, and you can look to the team members to determine who that party is.
To claim that mainstreaming does not work based on the experiences of children who are placed in full inclusion settings without supports, is just very flawed reasoning.
The crime was in the mainlining, and I’m sure the parents insisted upon it. They and the obliging PC administrators are the cold and heartless, not the teacher who has a absolute right to her physical well being.
I am not getting that from these articles at all whatsoever.
“obliging PC administrators” — BAHAHAHAHA, are you kidding me right now?
Many of these people who look down upon special needs children and their families have no idea what day to day life is like. The stares, whispers, or full blown effort to ignore us or our children when we are out in public is disgusting. There is no compassion anymore. Just a filthy look of contempt or snobbery because those damn "Special needs kids" suck up all of the money and are taking "Scholastic Food" from their kids mouths. Pitiful.
I wouldn't wish any of these conditions on those here are want to segregate our kids, but a little empathy, understand, and kindness go a long way.
All of our children are special but some are placed with special parents who are meant to travel a different road. One paved with God's blessing with extraordinary rewards with many uphill battles. Along the way lessons will be learned and it is our duty to pass these on to those who do no tknow the beauty of being the parent of a special needs child.
[It is a neurological disorder, not a mental disorder]
Where does one end and the other begin?
I agree, we will do the heavy lifting.
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