Teachers Secretly Recorded Mocking Autistic Boy

Two teachers have been fired after they were caught on tape mocking a severely autistic boy at their Louisiana school. Camden Davis, aged 12, had starting acting out at home and his mother’s concerns began to grow. She finally sent her son to school with a recording device in his bag after the school denied any problems and she was told her son was lying. Camden’s device captured a teacher and a teaching assistant at Greater Baton Rouge Hope Academy in Louisiana bullying him, and his mother Milissa said the audio clip made her “want to cry, scream and do everything I could because it was so bad. To think that I had sent my son there every day, and what had happened before that I don’t know about.”

Milissa had noticed Camden’s behaviour changing after the bullying started, he grew aggressive, started wetting his bed and had increased anxiety. There’s no way to tell how long the cruel taunting had been going on for, but in one of the recording a teacher can be heard saying: “You’re just writing the word. What is hard about it?” Camden began to respond with a noise, and the teacher imitated him before saying: “Camden, why don’t you have anything written down? That’s why you can’t sit with everyone. Tell your mommy that.” Another teacher can then be heard saying: “Let’s see what they do with him in f***ing public school. He was going to go to Live Oak Middle. Uh ah, he wouldn’t make it for a minute.” Milissa published the audio clip on Facebook and the two teachers, who remain unnamed but who specialise in teaching children with learning difficulties, were fired.

The head teacher of Hope Academy, Linda Stone, called the incident ‘horrible’, saying: “This is incredibly unfortunate, and we sincerely apologise to the family. We continue to welcome a meeting with the family.” Milissa plans to file complaints with the Department of Education, and her lawyer has spoken out to say that concerns had been repeatedly raised with the school but were ignored, “none of those issues were addressed prior to her going and getting the evidence of abuse that was going on with her child.” Milissa has transferred her son to a different school and said he’s doing better, but is still affected by the abuse.