THE CHRON:
A teacher’s aide in Deer Park schools whose concern about the mistreatment of special education students led to the resignations of two teachers last month has quit her job, citing the school district’s refusal to fire the teachers, a school district official confirmed.
Whitney Bertrand, the former special education aide at Fairmont Junior High School, turned in her resignation March 21, said Matt Lucas, spokesman for the Deer Park Independent School District.
Bertrand’s reports of mistreatment of special education students at the hands of a teacher prompted that teacher to resign, as well as another teacher who failed to report the incident to officials.
Bertrand told Houston’s Fox 26 News that she quit in protest of the district’s refusal to fire the teachers.
I’m not going to work for a district that does not have the best interest of the kids. I just won’t do it. … When I heard the screaming and the crying, I just couldn’t listen to any more of it. … It ripped me apart. I just couldn’t handle it.
Parent Sheri Graham said that she and her husband were shocked to learn of how the special ed teacher treated their 13-year-old son at Fairmont.
“We were notified by three aides in the classroom that on Dec. 5 (2011), the teacher taunted, mocked and put my son in time out almost all day long,” said Graham, whose three children attend Deer Park schools.
Graham said the teacher sprayed her son in the face with a water bottle and forced him to fold towels repeatedly. The mother also accused the teacher of ridiculing her son for not being able to tie his shoes and told him he could not come out of time out until he could.
Lucas, of Deer Park ISD, said the school district conducted an investigation that included input from the teacher’s aide and the teachers. “Ultimately,” he said, “the (Deer Park Independent) School Board ruled in favor of the district, which affirmed the decision not to terminate those two teachers.”
Bertrand told Fox 26 that district officials launched a cover-up when news of the incident was reported in the media. Lucas sees it another way.
“She (Bertrand) was asked not to speak to anybody at the beginning of the process because allegations were being made and it’s important for people not to talk to other people while the investigation is taking place,” he said.
“Later on, as it broke in the media, she was told that we have a district spokesman,” Lucas said. “There was never any kind of retaliation or drawbacks from talking to the media.”
Meanwhile, several parents have filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency against the school district in the case.
