NOT the Teacher of The Year...

Found this via Drudge;

MIAMI LAKES

A Miami Lakes special education teacher was sentenced today to two years of probation after she was found guilty of putting hot sauce in an autistic student's soda, WFOR-Ch. 4 reports.

Sylvia Tagle also was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.

The boy's parents said they were outraged at what they call a "lenient" sentence. (Wonder if they could utilize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to push for private tutoring funded by the school. Sounds like their kid might not be safe where he's at.)

"It's really sad and you know what? It really, really sends a bad message to everyone," the father told the judge.

Last month, Tagle was convicted of abuse after she gave a soda with hot sauce in it to the Bob Graham Educational Center student to teach him a lesson.

Tagle says the boy grabbed the soda from her desk when she was with other students. (What is she saying here, that she spiked a soda on her desk knowing the kid would grab it? Or did she actually give the kid a spiked soda in retaliation for him grabbing hers when she wasn't looking? Either way, it stinks. Her job isn't teaching autistic kids not to grab what isn't theirs, that goes to the parents. As a dad of two autistic boys I know teaching them ANYTHING can be a chore but
spiking a drink is WAY out of line. It's sadistic, plain and simple. Wonder if this teacher was the class nerd who liked pulling wings off flies?)

Tagle could have faced up to five years in prison.

Jurors found Tagle not guilty of three other charges, including pulling a student's hair and not changing soiled diapers. (So it appears this jury wasn't filled with self-righteous parents of special needs kids, the type of parent who thinks the world should be remade for their little darlings. Had that been the case these charges would have found different outcomes. They evidently applied common sense to their findings. This makes the guilty verdict of the teacher for the hot sauce trick more damning and the judge's lenient sentence more reprehensible.)

Elated the case had come to an end with no prison time,Tagle said she loves her job and the children she teaches. (Noted. Victims who can't easily articulate their sufferings are always loved by their tormentors. Is that statement a bit extreme? I'll give a bit of background after this story.)

"I love all my autistic children," she told WFOR. "That's why I've done it for so many years. It's not an easy task but I love doing it. And whatever happened was not done intentionally." (My ass, how do you "unintentionally" set up an autistic child to swallow hot sauce?)

Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

I'd suggest a career change for this twit, McDonalds is hiring.

My strong feelings stem from incidents over the past few years. The one front and center in my mind happened at a public park I take the kids to. During one session my oldest son had climbed up to an enclosed area atop a slide. There were a few other kids there as well as some young twit of a mother in that same enclosure.

Being hard of hearing, it was lucky I happened to be directly under the enclosure when "Mom" asked my son what his name is. Autistic kids can have a problem with questions like that one, especially coming from complete strangers. They'll freeze up and (in my son's case) stare at you and giggle. Which is what happened here.

The "adult" then said, "You don't talk much do you? Well you can't use the slide until I know your name." Then to the other three kids in the enclosure, "Don't let him by, I want him to tell me his name."

As the War Department can attest, I've a loud voice and know how to use it. So everyone in the area probably heard me when I read the riot act to this dipso little split tail, asking her just why she needed to know my son's name, informing her of his autism and telling her to back off. As an add on when she gave the reflexive, "Well, I didn't know." response I wondered aloud (very aLOUD) if he needed to wear a sign.

By this time some of the other moms were giving me worried looks and I could see a future conversation with the local police forthcoming if the incident didn't end quickly. To this point I'd not used vulgarity or profanity but the term, "sperm belching white trash gutter slut" was rising to my lips so I beat a hasty exit with the kids in tow. Gotta work on that I guess.

Regardless, as a parent of autistic children I've learned to be very aware of the surroundings my kids are in. Seemingly simple interpersonal reactions are beyond them and their low frustration level almost insures a major trauma if adult supervision isn't there on their side. As an add on to this story, there have been a few occasions at this same park when my son would come up to me with tears in his eyes. I'd ask what was the problem and he'd be so internally jammed up he couldn't answer. I'd then just brush it off as him having a bad day (that can happen too). It's entirely possible this wasn't the first incident with some jerkoff harassing him.

So I can only imagine what it would be like if my son was fed a spiked drink because some twit was exasperated with him. Gotta admire the restraint of the parents in this article.