School accused of putting autistic student in bag

A 9-year-old autistic boy who misbehaved at school was stuffed into a
duffel bag and the drawstring pulled tight, according to his mother, who
said she found him wiggling inside as a teacher's aide stood by.

The mother of fourth-grader Christopher Baker said her son called out to
her when she walked up to him in the bag Dec. 14. The case has spurred
an online petition calling for the firing of school employees
responsible.

"He was treated like trash and thrown in the hallway," Chris' mother,
Sandra Baker, said Thursday. She did not know how exactly how long he
had been in the bag, but probably not more than 20 minutes.



Mercer County schools Interim Superintendent Dennis Davis said confidentiality laws forbid him from commenting.

"The employees of the Mercer County Public Schools are qualified
professionals who treat students with respect and dignity while
providing a safe and nurturing learning environment," Davis said in a
statement.

State education officials said they were investigating.

Chris is a student at Mercer County Intermediate School in Harrodsburg
in central Kentucky. The day had barely begun when his family was called
to the school because Chris was acting up. He is enrolled in a program
for students with special needs.

Walking toward his classroom, Baker's mother saw the gym bag. There was a
small hole at the top, she said, and she heard a familiar voice.



"Momma, is that you?" Chris said, according to his mother.

A teacher's aide was there, and Baker demanded that her son be released.
At first, the aide struggled to undo the drawstring, but the boy was
pulled out of the bag, which had some small balls inside and resembled a
green Army duffel bag, Baker said.

"When I got him out of the bag, his poor little eyes were as big as half
dollars and he was sweating," Baker said. "I tried to talk to him and
get his side of the reason they put him in there, and he said it was
because he wouldn't do his work."



Baker said when school officials called the family to pick him up, they
were told he was "jumping off the walls." Days later, at a meeting with
school officials, Baker said she was told the boy had smirked at the
teacher when he was told to put down a basketball, then threw it across
the room.
Story: Autism can be an 'advantage,' says researcher

At a meeting with school district officials, the bag was described as a
"therapy bag," Baker said, though she wasn't clear exactly what that
meant. She said her son would sometimes be asked to roll over a bag
filled with balls as a form of therapy, but she didn't know her son was
being placed in the bag. She said school officials told her it was not
the first time they had put him in the bag.



So far, almost 700 people have signed a petition on the website
change.org. Lydia Brown, an autistic 18-year-old Georgetown University
freshman from Boston, said she started it after reading a story about
Chris.

"That would not be wrong just for an autistic student. That would be wrong to do to anyone," Brown said.

Advocates for the autistic were outraged.




Landon Bryce of San Jose, Calif., a former teacher who blogs about
issues related to autism, said the school's treatment of Chris was
"careless and disrespectful."

"A lot of the damage that we do to students with all kinds of
disabilities is by treating them as though they deserve to be treated in
a way that's different from other people," Bryce said.

Baker said she heard different accounts about her son's behavior that day.

Baker stopped short of calling for the dismissal of school employees,
but she said they should be suspended. They also need more training, she
said.




In Kentucky, there are no laws on using restraint or seclusion in public
schools, according to documents on the state Department of Education's
website.

A July letter from the state agency to special education directors said
the state had investigated two informal complaints this year.

In one, "a student (was) nearly asphyxiated while being restrained," and
in the other, a student vomited from panic attacks after spending most
of an academic year "confined to a closet, with no ventilation or
outside source of light," according to the letter.

Baker's case was first reported by WLEX and WKYT.

Source

dont what way to take this.
The teachers shldnve locked him in the bag.

Dumb fuckin teachers...hope they all get fired