commentary by Patrick H. Moore
We’re used to our teachers getting arrested for having sex with their students, and we’re used to our students getting abused at home by their twisted parents, but what we’re not used to is what happened to a 7-year-old special needs child at Viking Elementary school in Fresno, California.
It seems that last May Ledelldra Brooks, the mother of the special needs child in question, paid an unanticipated visit to her daughter’s school. Perhaps she had a premonition or perhaps she simply wanted to make sure things were proceeding apace. When Ledelldra arrived, however, she was appalled to find her daughter “sitting in a soiled diaper while locked in a makeshift cage.”
The cage was allegedly constructed out of a toddler gate and a crib gate, which were both attached to bookshelves. Based on the picture, the cage doesn’t look nearly as unpleasant as the homemade cages we’re used to seeing in the dungeon-like residences of the twisted folk who all too often viciously abuse their children at home. That being said, however, we assume (perhaps naively) that our school kids are not going to spend the day whiling away their hours in cages. Hell, it’s un-American, isn’t it?
After making her awful discovery, Ledelldra called the police and hired a lawyer. At this point, her attorney has filed two claims against both her child’s former teacher, Teresa MonPere, who now teaches at another elementary school, and against the elementary school administrators. (The filing of these claims is a necessary antecedent to bringing a lawsuit against the offending parties.)
One of the things that is really aggravating about school districts is that whenever something terrible happens at one of their campuses, they come up with the same tired pronouncement that always sounds the same. Dominic Kelly of Opposing Views writes:
“We take these situations very seriously,” Micheline Golden, spokeswoman for the Fresno Unified School District, said. “We conducted a thorough investigation consistent with our personnel procedures. I can’t share any outcome of that investigation because it is a personnel issue. Fresno Unified is committed to providing the best education possible for our special education students and being their advocates.”
CYA! CYA! CYA! (I don’t mean Catholic Youth Organization)
The offending teacher, Teresa MonPere, was put on administrative leave shortly after the incident which occurred in May. Considering she now works at Addicott Elementary, she apparently found a new position without too much difficulty.
At present, no criminal charges have been filed, but Ledelldra Brooks is biding her time pending the outcome of a school board meeting next week at which the issue will be discussed.
Naturally, there are two sides to this issue (though they are not necessarily two valid sides):
Special education expert Joe Bowling believes that what Teacher MonPere did to the child was “totally inappropriate”. Mr. Bowling explained his position to the Fresno Bee:
“This is not something I would put a child into and claim this is for their own protection. It’s a cage, this is what you would put a wild animal in. Obviously there are people in the district that need training. I can’t believe that somebody, an administrator walking in that room and seeing it, would allow that.”
Some people on social media, who could perhaps be considered to be of a decidedly “practical frame of mind”, seem to think that what Teacher MonPere did is no big deal, and that Ms. Brooks are the outraged media are over-reacting:
“What I’m going to say is not politically correct, and I’m sure I will get a lot of hate for saying it, but I am so sick of hearing whining parents complaining because their disruptive special needs children are not treated like the other kids,” said a commenter on the Fresno Bee’s Facebook page. “This enclosure is hardly a dungeon and I find it hard to believe that the child was traumatized by spending time in there. The teachers have their hands full with “normal” kids, and now they’re expected to take care of these kids also. When did changing a seven-year-old’s dirty diaper become part of a teachers job description? And, I notice it certainly did not take long for the mother to call the cops and then a lawyer.”
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Now I’ve always been under the impression that school districts have special education teachers who are experts in dealing with special needs children, and one would think that this particular special needs child, who still is apparently wearing diapers at the age of 7, would receive that special help. Fresno, however, is an economically depressed area, and for all I know, the significantly handicapped children in its elementary schools are being “mainstreamed” along with the regular kids due to lack of funding and/or the lack of training of special-ed teachers. It’s possible that this is what happened in this situation.
Whatever the facts of the matter are, my heart goes out to Ledelldra Brooks who must have sh__ when she walked into that classroom and found her handicapped child in that “makeshift cage”.