Amanda Delzell Iowa teacher fired for going behind school’s back and telling special needs boy’s parents of the mistreatment of their child, Keaton Petek was enduring at school only to be placed on leave and eventually fired.
A first grade Iowa teacher has claimed a school district ‘retaliating’ against her when they elected not to renew her employment contract after previously reporting a colleague who ignored a special needs child who was banging their head on a concrete floor.
Amanda Delzell, 29, had been on paid leave since late last year following the incident involving a non verbal autistic child, but was only terminated on Monday when the school board of Urbandale decided in a 4-1 vote against hiring her again.
The educator said she was worried about the safety of seven-year-old Keaton Petek because one of her colleagues was ignoring him as the boy banged his head against a hard floor. Detzell claims the un-named teacher stood by and failed to intervene in the episode at Webster Elementary School in May of last year.
Delzell – who said there was blood in her classroom from the incident – said she was consistently rebuffed by her supervisors, being told the child’s self-harm was confidential and being investigated.
It was so confidential that they had apparently not even told the boy’s parents, Cody and Paige Petek, who had not known about it until Delzell notified them herself. The Peteks are now filing a civil rights complaint against the school.
When Keaton’s parents were finally allowed to watch classroom surveillance video of the episode, they were horrified at what they saw.
‘The Special Ed teacher is standing over him with her arms crossed across her chest or with her hands on her hips, not showing any type of empathy or getting down on his level,’ Paige Petek told WHO13.
Back in November, Delzell described what was going on with Petek and what led her to try and report her colleague’s behavior.
‘One of my students who is autistic and nonverbal was harmed by another educator to the point that there was blood in my classroom,’ Delzell told WHO13.
‘The next day I went in and watched the cameras and what I saw was my student’s IEP and Behavior Plan not being followed and the result was serious injury to him.’
Keaton’s parents say that he is generally a ‘fun loving, happy, resilient kid’ but because of what he deals with on the spectrum, ‘any type of disruption in his schedule, either at home or at school, can cause him to be overstimulated, overwhelmed and very confused.’
Delzell then describes similar behavior on behalf of the other teacher as Petek’s mother saw.
‘I saw his teacher standing over him allowing him to self-harm, and using her foot to push him down the hall. He was crying out while in the fetal position.’
Paige Petek said it was even worse: ‘They did nothing to help him and at one point you see the special ed teacher scooting him down the hallway with her foot as he’s screaming and crying.’
‘[Keaton’s] behavioral plan states that any type of situation that Keaton is triggered and is banging his head on any object or the ground, an adult will immediately intervene and block his head with the safety cushions. And that’s supposed to be followed up with a nurse evaluating him.’
Five days later, Petek says ‘another employee’ – presumably Delzell – told her about the incident and ‘they were told not to say anything or speak about it to parents.’
Delzell said she was punished by the school for reporting it to the parents approximately 10 days after the incident.
‘I’m on the leadership team, a model teacher, a mentor teacher and then right after parents found out I got a letter of reprimand saying I wasn’t meeting standards,’ she said.
‘Being a teacher is my favorite part of my life, I love my kids, I love going to school,’ Delzell added. ‘They took that from me when they put me on leave.’
‘I think parents need to know that this can happen in their school district. If you lose sight of kids’ safety, then what are we doing as a district?’
In mid-November, Delzell – who has taught in the school district since 2018 – was placed on administrative leave, which lasted until April’s decision to terminate her.
Cody Petek called it ‘terrifying’ that the woman who tried to do the right thing was being punished while the special education teacher who ignored Keaton’s cries still works there.
‘These kids can’t talk and I feel like there’s nobody there looking out for the best interests of the kids,’ the parent told WHO13.
The family filed the civil rights complaint against the teacher in the video, administrators, and the Urbandale school district and its board, who chose to terminate Delzell Monday night.
‘Leadership starts at the top,’ Cody Petek said. ‘They have to be held accountable for what they have done and the way they’ve handled it. If they’ve done this to our kid, they’ll do it to others. And that’s what we’re after is making sure that never happens again.’
Delzell was fired despite 40 people coming to a school board meeting in December to profess their support for calling out the behavior of a colleague, WHO13 reported.
‘We are deeply disappointed by the superintendent’s recommendation and the board’s decision,’ said Lori Bullock, an attorney for Delzell, in a statement following her firing.
‘We are not done with this fight. We will continue to work to hold the district accountable for the way it has retaliated against Ms. Delzell for doing the right thing.’
Delzell’s attorney has since filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of the ‘exceptional teacher who garnered praise from parents and supervisors before she was placed on administrative leave.’
The Urbandale School Board has declined to comment on Monday’s vote along with the legal complaints against them, citing confidentiality laws.
A Change.org petition to have Delzell reinstated has already garnered more than 728 signatures.
