I am so upset right now, I can hardly speak.
My profoundly autistic 13 year old just came home from school with a bruise on her arm that looks like it was probably caused by a restraint. No one from the school called me today to let me know that she had gotten hurt--there was no note, nothing.
And she is not the only special needs child who has apparently been mistreated by the staff of Maury County Public schools in Tennessee--and it seems that these kinds of things keep getting swept under the rug.
A picture of the mark on her arm, taken about twenty minutes ago:
Since I have moved here, I have heard many stories--one child's parents claimed he was tied in a chair a few years ago, and came home covered in bruises. A student told me she saw a teacher hit a high school boy in the face.
My son, who is also autistic, came home from school telling me that he had seen a school district employee hit a special needs child in the head with a ruler, and that they frequently cursed in front of the students. I called Child Protective Services--but no investigation was done--even though I allowed the intake person to speak directly to him and get it straight from his mouth. In addition, I was told that I would receive a letter in the mail detailing my report. The letter never came, and no investigation was done.
He has come home from school several times with his underwear full of crap. He says the teachers won't let him go to the bathroom. When I complained, they said they had noticed "an odor" but did not realize he had messed on himself. (How can you not recognize that a kid has crapped on themselves?) They promised to let him go to the bathroom any time he asked--but last night, he came home a mess once again.
Back in September, a local mother filed a suit against the school district for locking her 9 year old son in a seclusion room. The staff had stripped him down to his underwear, and locked him in the room, alone and unsupervised--and there was no way to open the door from the inside. When the case went to court, the judge ruled that the school district had done nothing wrong. If a parent locked their child in a room with no way out, they could almost certainly be charged with child abuse. Apparently in Tennessee, the state can abuse your child, and it's not illegal.
I am waiting for the police to show up--but will it do any good? What advice do you guys have for me? What do you do when it seems that the local authorities refuse to put this sort of thing to a stop?
UPDATE
Her pediatrician called me a little while ago and had me meet her at the Ambulatory Care Clinic--we didn't even have to wait in the waiting room. They took us back and her doctor was waiting in the room. She said it looked like something that could be caused by a restraint or a belt of some kind. She then measured the bruise, had a nurse photograph it, and scheduled us to come in to see her in the morning for follow-up. She works with many special needs children who attend a private school here--and she told me she would help us any way she could. She got us in and out quick--the whole thing maybe took twenty minutes.
The cops, on the other hand, were a different story. They met us in the parking lot when we came out. The officer said that he couldn't do a police report until I had talked to the school--that I should ask them what happened. He said it looked like she hurt herself on the monkey bars--and kept saying she must have done it before she went to school. Funny--I didn't hear her cry out this morning like she was in pain, or had bumped herself... He also mentioned that his wife works for the school district.
It looks like I am going to have as tough battle ahead of me.