SKIATOOK, Okla. — Multiple parents of special needs children in Skiatook are keeping their kids home from school after a teacher is accused of physically abusing them.
Parents and staff have come forward saying a special education teacher has been physically harming their kids and the school has done nothing about it.
FOX23 spoke to two families and also two staff members who worked in that classroom about what they say has been happening.
"How sad is that to think that the most vulnerable type of child has been abused in a public school system, and grown adults know, and they've done nothing,” Aimee said.
Two families of special needs children at Skiatook Elementary are scared to send their kids to school.
"We don't have anywhere to send our kids to school right now, because it's not a safe environment,” Kelly said.
After several claims of physical assault were made against one special education teacher, "We were never notified that our kids are being exposed to an abusive environment,” Aimee said.
Aimee, Kelly and Sarah are all parents of special needs children at the elementary school. They said they were first told about this by their children.
Those fears were confirmed to them by staff. One of them, just minutes before the interview FOX23.
"I mean I started crying because that has always been my fear is somebody hurting my child because he's special needs, because he can't talk for himself,” Sarah said.
Marissa and Tiffany worked at Skiatook as paraprofessionals and caretakers for children with special needs while they went through school.
They worked in the classroom with this teacher.
"When I go into a classroom with kids that can't speak, I take that as I need to be their voice,” Marissa said.
Despite the children having special needs and sensory issues, they claim this teacher repeatedly lost her temper with the kids yelled, yanked, threw, and physically hurt them.
"She grabs him by his arms and throws him into a chair and he hits his head on the wall,” Tiffany said.
“She just reactively shoved him,” Marissa said.
"She grabbed him and threw him onto the ground,” Tiffany said.
They said despite reporting these issues, the school district has done nothing and the teacher is still there.
"I immediately went to the principal and just felt very blown off,” Marissa said.
"Nothing was done about any of these instances, so we met with the superintendent and told him everything and he said he wasn't aware of anything,” Tiffany said.
"Nothing was being fixed, she was still in the classroom after we had reported these instances,” Marissa said.
"I don't understand how you have a grown adult, a para or another teacher telling you this is what going on in this classroom I've seen it, and then pretend like it didn't happen,” Kelly said.
Before FOX23 sat down with those families and paraprofessionals, they said they all filed police reports and the two staff members resigned.
"It wasn't the kids, we loved those kids so much,” Tiffany said.
They said there are eight children in this class and the teacher oversees other classes as well.
FOX23 asked them what they would want to tell parents of these students, who may be unable to voice that they've been hurt.
"Get their kids out of there as quick as they can. The exposure has been there for over two weeks, our kids have been exposed to an abusive classroom environment, they didn't have to be,” Aimee said.
FOX23 is keeping the identity of this teacher private as well as the last names of everyone who spoke out of respect for privacy during this investigation.
FOX23 did reach out to Skiatook public schools to hear their side of the story and they sent the following statement.
"The district recently became aware of the issue relating to allegations against a teacher employed by the Skiatook Schools. We have begun an internal investigation and due to the nature of it being a personnel matter no further comment can be made at this time."
Local News
