Spec Ed Teacher Charged With Intentional Cruelty to Persons

by Kristina Chew · 2009-01-25 19:33:00 UTC
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When a 6-year-old autistic girl was "fixating" on her striped shirt and scratching herself, her special education teacher had her take off her shirt. As reported in the January 25th Connecticut Post, the girl then "sat in the classroom naked from the waist up" for about 15 minutes, after which a paraprofessional told the principal what was going on. The incident occurred on October 6, 2008, at Dwight School in Fairfield, Connecticut. The teacher, Elizabeth Valeriay, was arrested earlier this month and charged with "intentional cruelty to persons," and will be back in court on February 13th. She is no longer employed by the Fairfield school district.

The Connecticut Post article focuses on the teacher's removing the "source of distraction"---the girl's shirt---and noted that this is an "an accepted method of handling a child with autism." Sara Reed, the executive director of the Autism Society of Connecticut, and Karen Cubbellotti, director of children's services at the Kennedy Center, are both interviewed; both note that removing an object that a child is fixating or distracted by is (in the words of Reed) a "'technique that is often used in dealing with fixations.'" Both women emphasized, though, that each autistic child is different and needs different teaching methods and approaches, and suggest that, while a certain technique might be effective with one child, it might not be with another.

That's certainly true and yet, it just seems a little puzzling that the child was in a public school classroom without a shirt on for 15 minutes and, indeed, "naked." Perhaps she could have been given another shirt to wear? It's noted that Valerlay has been a special education teacher for 30 years and has a master's degree in special education, but was there anyone else on hand---a behavioral therapist, perhaps----to consult with about what to do?

There's no cookie-cutter approach when teaching autistic children, and that means you have to know when it's necessary just to change what you're doing and forget about technique----and go with common sense.

Photo by seamark.

Kristina Chew
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