Three Aldine ISD aides are fired after an 11 year old special needs boy is beaten as the teachers aides watched on and failed to intervene. Teacher training brought in to question.
Disconcert has come to the fore after video captured a 11 year old special needs boy mercilessly beaten by another student as 3 teachers aides with Texas Aldine ISD stood by and watched on.
The video, obtained by KHOU, shows the boy, identified as Sekai, getting thrown to the floor by a much larger special needs pupil after he appears to bump him into a line at Jones Middle School in Humble, Texas.
After Sekai — a non-verbal autistic boy who has the intellectual capacity of a 4- or 5-year-old — gets up, the student punches him to the floor again and repeatedly kicks him as he crawls along, footage shows.
At least one adult can be seen in the video looking on. At one point, the school staffer taps the student on the shoulder, but the boy continues to kick Sekai without the adult intervening.
Three school aides were actually present at the time, according to KPRC, but none of them inexplicably stepped in to stop the assault.
‘I need them removed’
The incident occurred on Jan. 25 but only came to light after Sekai’s grandmother, Veda Cavitt, decided to make the video public this week.
‘Those adults in that video stood there. They did not attempt to help my child get up off the ground. They did not offer him any assistance. They didn’t even check to see if he was injured,’ Cavitt, who has custody of Sekai after both his parents passed, told KHOU.
‘I need them removed,’ Cavitt continued. ‘I need them removed. They serve no purpose here. They serve no purpose here. They cannot do their job.’
Cavitt said she simply can’t pull Sekai out of Jones Middle School because it would be too disruptive.
‘Change is not good for him. It’s not easy for him,’ Cavitt said.
Cavitt and advocates called on Aldine Independent School District to fire the aides.
‘How can other special needs mothers send their children back to this school knowing the same paraprofessionals are standing in the same classrooms,’ advocate Quanell X told KHOU.
In a statement Thursday, the school district announced the three school aides were let go.
Aldine ISD said employees receive training for ‘nonviolent crisis intervention’ at the beginning of every school year. They will reinforce the training during the remainder of the school year, the district said.
It’s not known if the 11 year old boy suffered any physical injuries.
