Deborah Bailey - Jacksonville, FL

Duval County Public Schools wants to fire a special education elementary teacher who it says pinned a student against a wall while twisting his arm around his back and, later, locked him in a closet.

Deborah Bailey, a special education teacher at Chaffee Trail Elementary School, faces termination today when the School Board votes on the district's recommendation.

According to the district, on Nov. 18 Bailey pushed one of her special education students into a corner and trapped the student with a chair.

"You also held him on the floor while he screamed and cried for help and you twisted his arm," Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals wrote to Bailey in a Jan. 16 letter. "You subsequently locked the same student in a closet." It is unknown how long the student was in the closet.

http://tcfpbis.blogspot.com/2009/02/fl-special-ed-teacher-faces-termination.html

Rhona Silver - Jacksonville, FL

A veteran Jacksonville teacher has been charged with child abuse after police were told an autistic student in her class was strapped into a toilet training chair for hours over several days.

The student at Kernan Trail Elementary was restrained in the chair with his pants down during a three- or four-day span in September,  according to the arrest report charging Rhona Silver, 55, with child abuse.

The police report said the student, whose name and age were not provided because of confidentiality rules, is autistic and was buckled to the seat with his pants down and only allowed up for lunch. He was placed in the seat at 9 a.m. and released at the end of the day, according to the report.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/crime/2009-03-19/story/teacher_charged_with_abuse_of_student

Jennifer Phillips - Flagler County, FL

A special needs teacher in Flagler County was arrested, accused of abusing a disabled student. Eyewitnesses said the abuse happened in February in the cafeteria of Bunnell Elementary School and the student had to be taken to a hospital.

Police arrested 37-year-old Jennifer Phillips. She is accused of getting so rough with a 3-year-old special needs student that the child suffered a concussion.


Witnesses said, when the young girl became visibly upset in the school cafeteria, Phillips aggressively forced her to the floor, causing the girl to strike her head on a glass door. Several witnesses told police they heard a loud thump when the child's head hit the door.

http://www.wftv.com/countybycounty/22715680/detail.html

Cydney Abrams - Winter Springs, FL

The special-education teacher at Winter Springs High school was recorded last March in a 26-minute tirade during her third period math class.


“I've told you, ***** don't bother me, baby,” Abrams said in the recording.

“What the **** you gonna do?” the student asked.

“I don't have to do a **** thing! What the **** are you gonna do?” Abrams asked.

“Anything you say about me, it goes right back to you! So, ‘stupid’ would be you, your friends and your family,” Abrams is heard saying on the recording.

http://www.wftv.com/news/22857147/detail.html

Kathleen Garrett - Sanford, FL

A severely disabled autistic boy had just come into Kathleen Garrett's classroom, and Garrett was right behind him. Without warning, she laid him across the top of his desk, turned his head to the side and leaned down with all her weight, a witness told jurors Tuesday. The boy's eyes bulged and his lips turned purplish-blue, said teacher's aide Sabrina Mort, and with that, Mort decided she had seen enough. She pulled aside a co-worker, and they went to school authorities, accusing Garrett of child abuse.

***

A judge on Tuesday rejected the claims of a former teacher accused of abusing autistic students in her classroom, leaving standing all five criminal counts against her. Kathleen Garrett, 49, is charged with abusing four children and "caging" a fifth -- placing the child in a school closet. Each of those incidents happened at South Seminole Middle School, where she worked from 2000 until November, when she resigned shortly after her arrest. She is accused of slamming one boy's head against his desk so hard that it broke two of his teeth; striking two children; and bending one child's finger backward.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/keyword/kathleen-garrett

Diana O'Neill - Sarasota, FL

The lawsuit filed Friday by Debbie and Jimmy Hatfield states O'Neill slapped, pinched, poked and shoved the girl, now 13, when she did not respond to O'Neill's commands, and that O'Neill called her "fat ass" and "a waste of air."

The Hatfields also claim their daughter, who had half of her brain surgically removed as an infant because of extensive damage and cannot walk, talk or see, came home from school with bruises that they attribute to the rough treatment handed out by O'Neill.

O'Neill was arrested in 2008 on charges that she abused her profoundly disabled students; she was acquitted after a trial. She also kept her job with the school district and struck a deal with the state that will allow her back in the classroom.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100829/ARTICLE/8291058/-1/sports?tc=ar

Wendy Portillo - Port St. Lucie, FL

[May,2008] Florida kindergarten teacher Wendy Portillo was reassigned to an office duty post in the St. Lucie County School District. Her demotion comes after a controversial classroom activity in which Portillo allegedly had the five year old students in her class "vote out" classmate Alex Barton in a Survivor like game.

Barton, age five, was voted out 14-2 as Portillo allowed the children to tell him why they did not like him. Reasons included that he was "annoying" and "disgusting." He was then sent to the nurse's office where he spent the rest of the day. Barton was in the process of being tested for Asperger Syndrome, a disability which can cause difficulties in communication and social interaction skills.

Portillo claims she had the class share how his behavior was affecting other students in the class. She reportedly instructed the class that the vote was just for the day, not forever. She hoped Barton would better respond hearing the information from kids his age, rather than adults.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/27/earlyshow/main4130288.shtml

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
[August,2010] Now, in the latest case, a report from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights found evidence that Portillo and two other teachers discriminated against a girl with a hearing impairment at Allapattah Flats K-8 School in Port St Lucie.


The teachers were supposed to wear a microphone whenever the girl was in their classroom, so she could hear them. But the girl claimed sometimes they did not wear it.

http://www.examiner.com/special-education-in-national/teacher-who-kicked-5-year-old-autistic-out-of-class-now-refused-to-wear-mike-for-deaf-child