The Pittsburgh station WXPI has a story, “YouTube Video Shows Teacher Slapping Autistic Boy“.
This is one of every parent’s worst nightmares–abuse behind closed doors in school. Without the video, this incident may never have come to light.
WXPI has their story video on their page, and the YouTube video is here. Sorry, I just can’t bring myself to embed it right now.
From the WXPI story:
Lori Davis is the teacher accused of hitting the boy. In the video, Davis can be heard shouting, “Stop moving your chair back. Move it, and you stay up there. I’ve had it with you.”
The criminal complaint against Davis alleges, “During the March 14, 2008 special education session, without warning or provocation, the defendant suddenly and violently struck (the victim) on the left side of the head.”
She is no longer employed by the district.
This teacher was immediately removed from the classroom and she is no longer employed with the district. We take these types of things very seriously. This is the only incident we were made aware of involving this teacher. When we found out, we immediately took action. She was removed from the classroom in June 2008.
Again, the idea of teacher or aide abuse is just a nightmare. Let’s face it, many autistic kids who can’t self-advocate or won’t be believed if they try.
Left Brain Right Brain 
“the idea of teacher or aide abuse is just a nightmare. Let’s face it, many autistic kids who can’t self-advocate or won’t be believed if they try.”
Yeah, and what compounds the nightmare, is that there is no actual organization to assist those kids who do come forward with abuse allegations. [No, really, there’s not]. It’s bad enough to be physically abused; to be struck in the face; to be told you’ll be ‘jailed’ if you ‘tell’; but then to have virtually no one aside from your family–not the police/law enforcement; not any number of self-purported advocacy orgs–be willing to lend an ear and offer aid is a near-never-ending nightmare.
Because of things like the the single-slap technique (cf. the orig. ‘ME Book’), all autistic classrooms (most esp. those using any form of aba) should be monitored via real-time, on-line cameras accessible to parents at all times.