My Worst Fear: Child Endangerment Charges Filed Against NY School Staff
May 5, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Four staff members of a public school special needs program in Carmel, NY, were arrested on Thursday; the other eight members of the staff have all been put on administrative leave. As reported in the May 5th News Times Live.com (CT), a teacher, two aides, and a speech therapist have been charged with child endangerment. The teacher, Tammy Card, 41, has been charged with 11 counts of child endangerment that are alleged to have taken place in the Mahopac (NY) school district where she has been a teacher since 1999. The program in which she and the other staff worked is The Bridge, a full-day program at the Mahopac Falls School for autistic children aged 5 to 7 years old. Superintedent Robert Reidy noted that “investigation began when ‘adults’ came to the principal of the public school about some alleged incidents about which they were concerned about.”
One of the issues the case underscores for me is the difficulties of running such an autism program in a public school district. In the New Jersey town that we used to live in, my son Charlie was in a public school special education program that proved ultimately unable to address his needs, from teaching him academic and communication skills to addressing his behaviors, which worsened over time. Some of the techniques that are alleged to have been used in the Mahopac program recall some that were used for my son. Adequate training and supervision, along with regular opportunities for staff to consult with those who truly understand how to address difficult behaviors that autistic children can have (often because of frustration and boredom, as in the case of my son), are essential.
This is some of what happened in the Mahopac school district.
[Keith Harriton, Card's lawyer] said Friday the third-degree assault charge against his client involved a child who was injured while lining up for the bus.
“She [Card] had her hands on the child’s shoulder, on the backpack straps,” Harriton said. “The child playfully indicated that he was going to lurch forward and run forward. She gently held him back.”
When Card couldn’t hold the child back, he said, the child fell and got a bloody nose.
Harriton said Card treated it with a cold wet compress and made sure he was OK. She then told the bus monitor and the bus driver and called the mother, he said.
“Somehow that has become an assault charge,” Harriton commented.
Harriton claims the child endangerment charges run the gamut from “nicknames” that someone found inappropriate to restraining a child so that he or she doesn’t get hurt.
“I hesitate to mention the nicknames but those nicknames were employed in a family-type atmosphere,” Harriton said. “Some children giggled and enjoyed their nicknames.”
He said in another case, there was a child whose only form of communication was screaming, “to the point of becoming disruptive and scary to the other children.”
Harriton said Card used a “wearing out the behavior technique,” wherein she took the child to a bathroom and encouraged him to scream until he was able to return to the classroom.
Harriton said it is likely that disgruntled aides filed the complaints. He called the charges “utter nonsense” and “the product of a witch hunt.”
“None of these complaints come from the students or the students’ parents,” Harriton said.
He said another complaint stemmed from a child who wouldn’t eat away from home. His mother encouraged Card to teach him to eat at school with food brought from home.
Harriton said she used “touch, smell and taste” for this child, who has a hypersensitive gag reflex.
“The child would gag even touching PlayDoh. He would jerk away and had violent physical movements,” Harriton said.
Sometimes, Harriton said, his client would have to hold the child’s head so he wouldn’t get hurt.
Another charge involves teaching “time-out” by holding a child’s head down on the desk while the child counts to 10. That forms the basis, Harriton said, for at least three charges.
Other charges allege that Card saw staff members engaged in inappropriate activity, Harriton said, adding, “I don’t know what that’s about.”
Harriton said Card “has devoted 20 years of her life to these challenges.” He said she has been spit on and beat on and seen children becoming a danger to themselves and others.
“Her personnel files are filled with complimentary reports from parents, teachers, administrators and other professionals,” Harriton said.
Card was Disney Teacher of the Year nominee in 2005.
Joyce Emmett, director of special services for the Danbury public school system, is quoted as saying:
………. said most children with autism aren’t any more difficult to educate than “any other youngster,” while a small percent can be very challenging.
“It’s very labor intensive,” she said.
But once you’ve figured out how a child responds, the behavior should be easier to deal with.
“Restraints (holding a child) aren’t something you use frequently,” Emmett said. “It means you haven’t figured something out.”
Restraints were used to “address” self-injurious behavior in my son in the program in the town where we use to live; not only were these not effective in stopping the behaviors, but it is possible that the use of them exacerbated things. My son is currently a student in an autism program in a different town in New Jersey. He has been thriving—the teachers and staff in his current program receive a lot of training (including sessions that are specifically about how to deal with challenging behaviors like screaming and head-banging), and have regular access to outside autism consultants. In addition, we have a home consultant and I make sure that she observes Charlie regularly in his classroom. (My son is minimally verbal, and hence unable to communicate little to us.) As a parent of an autistic child, the charges against the teachers, aides and speech therapist in the Mahopac school district are the stuff of my worst fears.
But I have one more fear: Will cases like this one result in public school districts being more unwilling to have in-district programs for autistic students? My son’s current program, and his doing so well in it, attest to the fact that it is possible for students with the numerous challenges he has to be educated in an in-district program. The case in the Mahopac schools is a difficult wake-up call to how crucial it is to provide more than adequate supports and training for such programs, at the very least.
It should be a call to properly train teachers with autistic students, and to provide them proper support, properly trained aides, and proper access to outside consultation. Also, the big problem we have here is teachers not allowing access to the classroom, or restricting it to the point that it is, in effect, impossible to get in and see what is really going on, even to help with a challenging behavior or situation. Teachers need to allow parents and their specialists in to see the child’s day, to help with techniques and individualize the program to the child’s needs.
On the other hand, I am also concerned that we don’t have all the information here. My Joey got off the bus the other day, and apparently walked into a pole (he was “sidelooking” at the time, so he didn’t see the pole.) With six other kids to corral, not everyone can be looking at the time. Should I sue the school for negligence?
The only thing I didn’t like was the restraint used on the one child, other than that, I’m not sure what the complaints were about if Card is being honest. These type of situations can get out of control. Often times, my experience has been that there is a personality disagreement between staff. I don’t like the fact that the police chose such an insensitive way to release the complaint information and the accompanying commentary on a particular child. That to me seems to be objectifying those children and should be between the school, teacher and parent and shouldn’t be out in public.
This gives me shivers — in so many ways. I have been accused of using “inappropriate language” in class. It turned out I was teaching an anatomy lesson in a growth and development(sex ed) science lesson (complete with signed parental permission in advance). A parent didn’t like me, and took this as her cue to attempt to harm my reputation.
We may never know if the child was truly at risk of injury at the hands of the staff. I sincerely hope not.
Joeysmom: Being able to observe Charlie’s classroom has often been something we have had to negotiate about—ironically, it was when he was in a private school that we had the most access (I was able to visit whenever I wanted to, and for however long). In Charlie’s old school district, one time my husband had stopped by the school for some other reason and happened to glance in Charlie’s room—-and one of the aides shut the door. Christschool, I could see how the incidents described could happen in regard to some behaviors I have seen or known that happened with Charlie. What puzzles me a lot about this case is that (as reported) the parents have not been the ones to bring charges, but some “adults” (in the words of the Superintendent).
Daisy, this whole case has been giving me shivers too—-One of the teachers in our district who is now teaching middle school students told me that she insisted that there be a male aide to help students using the bathroom. (Most of her students are male and have entered puberty.)
I think communication and working together is essential between school and home—-not that that is always easy, or possible. But it’s the best for a child.
On the one hand, I can completely understand the staff’s response to these behaviors….ages 5 to 7, right?….there are ways to deal with behaviors in that age range (and size). I guess that this is, again, one reason I only let Ely ride TO school on the bus, but I make sure to pick her up from school so there is that communication time with the teachers/aides. I can let them know what we have been seeing at home with Ely.
And, yet, as she gets older and larger, I can see where some of this comes into play. Fortunately, she doesn’t tend to be violent toward other people, it is mostly toward herself (not that that is any better).
Ely’s in-home trainer teaches an autism/behavioral class, and he regularly comes over here with a black eye or a cut…having known him for so many years, I know that he simply “takes it” from his SIB students. And his success rate of diminishing the SIBs is huge!
I don’t think I’m naive…I know there are teachers, aides, schools, districts….not well-trained, not prepared to deal with these children. But I really do have faith that this is not happening with my two ASD kids…and that, should it, they know how to deal with it. My son has had to be “restrained” one time in seven years….and their explanation of what caused it and how it happened satisfied me. I think I would have handled it exactly the same way.
The other side of me gets the shivers, too…especially with my son moving into Middle School (*gulp*) and my youngest going into Kindergarten….the prayers are prayed nightly.
We have also ran into an “us against them” mentality in regards to being able to observe Buddy Boy in his school. If things are going well, I can understand some reasonable restrictions, in order to not disturb the flow of the class.
On the other hand, if they are having problems, then I would think that they would welcome any help. Unfortunately I think the policies stem from an attitude that says “We are the professionals, and you’re only the parent”. The fact that we spend three times as much time with our kids and are much more personally invested in having them succeed is lost on them.
I don’t think I could handle Patrick being in a situation where I was not welcome in the classroom. I volunteer one afternoon a week (as I did with my NT son when he was in kindy) and if I happen to be in the school I ALWAYS pop my head in the door (making sure Patrick doesn’t see me) and watch for a minute…not always to check out how he’s being treated but to watch him play and feel the warmth in my heart. I have never been told I couldn’t come to the classroom any time I wanted.
I don’t know if the complaints in the case you showed are valid or not but I did shiver a bit when I read that the kids’ heads were being held down for time out.
Any time I want to stop by Sam’s school, I’m welcome. (And the office staff seem happy to see me any time I go in.) I don’t do it very often, but I’m welcomed by everyone when I do.
I don’t think the program he’s in is a perfect fit, but the attitude of the people working with him is a perfect fit, in that they respect him as a person in his own right, and one who is cherished.
That counts for a lot!
Yeah and to think this case is still on going! The worst of it all is they are still here working in the district!
If I was to tell anyone this in todays day and age they would think that it was a story made up on t.v.. I know first hand because I am a parent of one of the abused. I will tell you all the media coverage is that on the family and friends of the ones going on trial. The school district were not honest and offered little help to these children and the parents are living with the aftermath and the costs that came from the abuse. Do not believe Mrs. Cards attorneys words because it is only one side of the storey and the parents were asked and abliged to restraining from comments and from telling about all of the alligations to protect the children from the media. We as parents are all suffering and have to live with the guilt of not knowing and sending our children everyday for the rest of our lives. They are due back in court on November 20th @ 6:00 and hopfully a trial date will be set. March 23 will be a year since the alligations, and the parents still do not have justice. Not from the school district and not from the court system.
If I may ask (and I can contact you via email, if you’d prefer), who asked parents not to comment publicly?
This story was more than painful to me. My son simply could not tell me if any sort of abuse or something like that happened to him. He was physically restrained regularly to “manage” his behaviors at a previous placement; he is in a school that he really likes now and whose staff know how to help him at difficult moments, but he still communicates about those memories of being restrained.
Lots and lots of parents are ready to listen to you and all the families and your children.
Tammy Card was my very best friend growing up.We grew apart over the years.On a day off from work I tried to find her on line and found this.I have read the blogs and the comments. Tammy is a wonderful person. A devoted mother.Her life long dream of becoming a teacher was something she worked very hard for.I will never believe the accusations against her.It is truley a shame that everyone has had to wait so long to find out they are wrong.Tammy my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
kristina chew Nov.26th 2009
I am a parent as well send me your contact info I will call and tell you all that we know this case still has not gone to trial the date for the net court apperance is Dec 2nd at 5:30
Kristina my email is kop7736@gmail.com