Assault Charges Filed Against PA Teacher
June 29, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
61-year-old Jane Forgione, a special education teacher in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, has been charged with assaulting three of her students. According to WNEP, teacher’s aides reported that Forgione punched a child in the back, twisted a child’s ears, and bit a child’s fingers. 12-year-old Colby Van Horn, who has autism and who is non-verbal, was a student in Forgione’s special needs class for two years; while he is not one of the three students whom Forgione has been charged with assaulting, his parents and sisters say that he changed while in Forgione’s class:
“He was so aggressive. We knew something was going on. He could tell us with his body language. There was just something wrong,” said John Van Horn. “He was more aggressive toward my wife, and the other two kids.”
“He was throwing things, knocking things over, breaking things, hitting everybody and then stopped when he got transferred out of the school, yes,” said the boy’s mother.
Forgione was suspended without pay in April and has retired from the district. In 2006 she was voted teacher of the year by a support group for parents of autistic children.
Whatever really happened at Carbondale Elementary School, or at Mahopac Falls Elementary School in New York where child endangerment charges have been filed against a teacher, two aides, and a speech therapist—-maybe we won’t know. And thinking about that is one reason I have a problem with the basket hold.
Whoa, I think I know her–yep, just googled, she lives in my hometown, her husband is a school principal. (His picture is in my high school yearbook, he was athletic director way back then.) Her middle son Brian died from cancer in 2002, just out of college.
Yikes. Always bizarre to see a familiar name in the crime columns. Especially for something like this.
Yikes, yes!
I have always been “over-protective” of all 3 of my children. Taking John to school full-time at age 3 was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Precisely b/c he couldn’t talk. How does anyone ever figure out what these people have done to these poor kids? It’s hard for me to trust and I’m a little nervous about our cross-country move b/c of this. It’s just tragic!
Another parent suggested in some posts back that there ought to be video cameras in classrooms…..
Great Resource Site for Autism. More parents need to unite and share their experiences and issues.
I don’t think we can ever be too protective of our children. My daughter was physically abused by a teacher that I did not think was capable of doing anything like that. We just don’t know what people are capable of. I do wish that they have cameras in every classroom.
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A special education teacher assaulted my son then lied about it. This TA is not certified and acted aggressively with my son. He punched, pushed, twisted his arm and picked him up and body slammed him, causing a knot on his head and a bruise on his arm.
The assistant principal and principal covered it up, by putting an emergency expulsion on a staff against my son. They wouldn’t give me the man name or a statement about what my son did. The next day I went to the school to get more information, but they continue to lie and said my son assaulted the teacher’s assistant.
I found out this mans name and was told he was justified, because my son hit him.
I told the authority a grown up can’t beat up a child, for any reason.
Aiisha