Wednesday, 06 October 2010
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Teacher Breaks 5 Year Old's Arm
57 year old teacher Jackie Bennett, a teacher at J.W. Coon Elementary School, has been suspended from his job for breaking the arm of a five year old special needs student. Bennett told investigators that he was using a “therapeutic hold” on the child when it happened. Jackie Bennett has been with the Cumberland County school system since 1995. The young girl’s mother, Tarsha Gunn, told reporters that “There’s no doubt that sometimes they have to restrain children. But there shouldn’t be a restraint that results in a broken arm.”
I have contacted both the Sheriff’s Office and Tarsha Gunn, requesting an interview. I used to live in Cumberland County, so I feel a connection to this mother and her daughter. My son attended two different Cumberland County schools when we lived in Fayetteville. In my experience, I found that the teachers needed more training in dealing with behavior issues. I also felt that the classrooms were overcrowded, and that more assistants were needed.
I ended up pulling my son out of school and home schooling him for the first time, because of inadequate services offered to him in Cumberland County, classroom size, poor staff training. To be fair, I will tell you that I felt that one school, Alma Easom Elementary, had a great Principal, and my son had a great teacher and classroom experience. Unfortunately, he was only there for a year, and then was transferred to another school. It was the second school that was completely unacceptable. I tried to come to an understanding with his new team members, but no one seemed to truly understand autism or my son. I also observed my son’s classroom, and found that the children were often enclosed in a circle of furniture. It was like a jail cell in the classroom.
I also observed that the assistant was often left alone with the students. During my observation of the classroom, the assistant left me alone with the students several times. I observed children hitting other children. Children left corralled in the “jail,” doing nothing, while one student was pulled out to work on his/her IEP. Soon after that, I pulled my son out and began home schooling him.
I will continue trying to obtain an interview with the Sheriff’s Dept. and Tarsha Gunn. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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- From: autismlearningfelt
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Comments (14)
I live in North Carolina and my previous job had their headquarters in Fayetteville and I have to say, I would not feel comfortable putting my child in Cumberland County schools. I live about 1.5 hours away in another military town called Goldsboro. And here, we actually have a school specifically for special needs children [my mom works there] and they don't use "therapeutic" holds. They use other techniques, that I think prove more useful. I've had the training to use these, though, I have to say, I have NEVER seen one executed in which it calmed the child down successfully. If anything, it aggravates and frustrates them more.
It sickens me whenever I hear of these things. I, unfortunately, don't have any words for things such as this other than disgust, feeling the need to protect children, fear, and an overwhelming feeling of being heartbroken.
they should be issued tasers
lol Coon Elementary and it's a picture of black people.
shit fucking happens...kid might have twisted wrong or something you never know. give them the botd if they got a clean record.
i find the name of the school ironic, based on the photo.... suprised no one has had a fit about that yet.
WTF
How sad. If you can't handle your job, get another job! Especially when dealing with children! I hope this person loses their job, but I doubt it seeing people are getting away with this sort of thing more and more these days.
Breaking a child's arm - seriously, wtf?
Very sad that some people came here to make racist jokes as well. What goes around comes around.
I live in Fayettehell currently. This doesn't surprise me at all. I too would NOT want my children to attend school in Cumberland County. This town is horrible.
I wonder if the kid had extremely weak bones. Not saying that's necessarily the case, but I don't want to blame the teacher for something he may not have been able to predict. He's probably at fault, but there's always other possibilities.
@SupperMick@xanga - xD omg..
Ok, i have heard of incidents where someone has to restrain a particularly raucous child & the child is screaming, twisting, hitting, biting, or whatever they can do to get away, & it never ends well. Usually someone gets hurt. A lot of times it's the person doing the restraining, but kids are squirmy & i can totally see a kid freaking out, twisting this way & that. As long as the guy has no past histories of injuring kids or no complaints against him, let him be. It could have been a simple mistake on this guy's part.
No offense to your child because i don't know his behavior, but i used to babysit this kid with autism & he was pretty bad. When he was upset, he'd fly at me, screaming & hitting. If i tried to restrain him using a bear hug like tactic he'd bite me. Usually i'd have to grab his arms & just stand there bewildered while he tried his damnedest to get away & attack me again. You know nothing about this child & how he was acting at the moment.. really, no one has any right to judge until they know the full story.
Alright. The people who are saying, "shit happens" can't possibly have a child. A teacher puts a damn sleeper hold on ur kid and breaks his/her arm and shit happens? Ughhhh, this is infuriating. I would have raised holy hell until justice was served. And if justice isn't served, I'll serve it myself. This is ridiculous. Children are people too, not pets or animals. Just disgusting.
@Xbeautifully_broken_downX@xanga - i was just about to say something about Cumberland County schools. i, too, live in NC, but am a high school student in Onslow County, but know about the conditions over there.
I feel awful for this child, and i do agree that teachers who deal with special needs children should have more training for restraining a child. teachers at my school often blame the child for their fault, and on more than one occasion, i've seen a student calm down a mentally disabled child quicker and easier than a teacher could.
@UpperEastSideDream@xanga - I agree. If you think about it, these restraints should only be used when the child becomes a serious DANGER to themselves or others. I mean, do these teachers not think about it? If you have a child that has a disability and is not necessarily aware of things we take for granted, and then they become upset....how would restraining them to the point where they can't move make them calm down? It would just aggravate the situation. The teachers blaming the kids are basically them just trying to cover their own asses.
I've learned these restraints and I'm licensed to use them and handcuffs, however, I've only had to do it ONCE...and I did everything else I possibly could to calm the kid down. That's, in my opinion how it should be. They should not be used to intimidate or threaten children...in ANY case.