Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Therapy Bag? Oh That's A Paddlin'


"A 9-year-old autistic boy who misbehaved at school was stuffed into a duffel bag and the drawstring pulled tight, according to his mother, who said she found him wiggling inside as a teacher’s aide stood by.

The mother of fourth-grader Christopher Baker said her son called out to her when she walked up to him in the bag Dec. 14. The case has spurred an online petition calling for the firing of school employees responsible.
“He was treated like trash and thrown in the hallway,” Chris’ mother, Sandra Baker, said Thursday. She did not know how exactly how long he had been in the bag, but probably not more than 20 minutes.

Walking toward his classroom, Baker’s mother saw the gym bag. There was a small hole at the top, she said, and she heard a familiar voice.

“Momma, is that you?” Chris said, according to his mother.

A teacher’s aide was there, and Baker demanded that her son be released. At first, the aide struggled to undo the drawstring, but the boy was pulled out of the bag, which had some small balls inside and resembled a green Army duffel bag, Baker said.

“When I got him out of the bag, his poor little eyes were as big as half dollars and he was sweating,” Baker said. “I tried to talk to him and get his side of the reason they put him in there, and he said it was because he wouldn’t do his work.”


"Mama is that you?" is going to replace "Don't taze me bro." as the t-shirt slogan of choice for hip people in the know. I wonder if the kid got in the bag voluntarily. I can't see how you can just stuff him in it if his feet were on the bottom. I have this vision of his little fingers poking out from the knot at the top of the bag.

As a teacher I find the rule - "Get your work done or you go into the bag" to be a bit on the harsh side. Can I try to bribe him to do his work with a shiny colored pencil first? Or a couple of Spider-Man stickers?

4 comments:

Belle said...

I'm a little radical. I don't think it is natural to make kids sit still in desks all day bent over paper. I think they should be outside riding horses, growing things, learning trades until about 13 - then go to school.

They found a 13 year old boy in the mountains who had never been to school. In six months he had learned the basics.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

That would be a great childhood. I was lucky to be one of the ones who liked school but who got to do a lot of other things as well.

Nathan said...

No one has any problem when the Krampus does it!

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Well Krampus has the best attorneys money can buy.