Earlier this year, an Osceola County teacher was fired for allegedly force feeding hot sauce soaked crayons to a five year old autistic child. The district has been fighting to keep the teacher out of the classroom. A judge has sided with the teacher and ordered the district to hire her back.
The teacher, Lillian Gomez, denies force feeding the hot sauce soaked crayons to an autistic child. She states that she soaked the crayons in hot sauce to deter the autistic child from eating the crayons. Parents are shocked with the ruling of the judge.
Obviously, the judge and the teacher do not understand autism. If what the teacher claims is true, that she didn’t force feed the hot sauce soaked crayons to the autistic child, she might have well have done so. She knew that the child liked to eat the crayons. This should have been addressed with a behavior plan. Instead, she took it upon herself to soak his crayons with hot sauce. Did she really think that was acceptable? Did she not think about what would happen to the child when he ate the crayons?
Gomez’s former aide claims that the teacher found the hottest hot sauce she could find, soaked the crayons, and hid them from the staff until they were really spicy. Gomez denies this, saying she never meant to punish the child, she didn’t force feed the hot sauce soaked crayons to the autistic child, and she only meant for the child to smell them.
The judge found that Gomez’s behavior was inappropriate, but not grounds for dismissal. I strongly disagree. She took actions that resulted in harming a child. Even if I give her the benefit of the doubt, and believe she did not intend to harm the child, her actions did. She has no business being back in a classroom. The judge made the wrong decision.
In my opinion, she should absolutely be out of a job and have her license revoked. It doesn’t even matter if she force-fed the crayons or if she planted them for the child to put into their mouth, her intent was to harm a child.
Welcome to Florida. My son writes posts about the horrendous things that go on here…it’s a magnet for the twisted and sick.
Oh, WOW … this is absolutely sick.
Rachel @ Following In My Shoes recently posted..Um . . . The First Day of School?
I have a son who isn’t autistic, but he liked to eat crayons when he was little. The Dr said not to worry about it. He said that there was nothing in crayons to hurt him and that he would grow out if it. My other son was a thumb sucker. Someone suggested putting hot sauce on his thumb to break him of sucking his thumb…he grew to like hot sauce and still does.
I married that one, lol. He does love his hot sauce.
It is one thing for someone’s parents to make he decision to maybe try something like this (not something I would personally do), but for a teacher to do it is unexcusable. She obviously does not understand the children she is working with and I cannot understand how they can let her back into a classroom.
Kathleen recently posted..4 Fall Fashion Trends I Plan On Rocking
OMG What is wrong with people?
A Time Out for Mommy- Elaina recently posted..Disney’s Latest Releases on BluRay August 21, 2012
This is outrageous! She absolutely meant harm and she should have been charged and never allowed to teach again!!
Taylor Gilmore recently posted..Rant Of The Day: Stop Hitting That Kid!!!
Unfortunately this didn’t turn out too well – I can’t believe this
Courtney recently posted..Sweet Baby’s First Real Bath
She absolutely took the wrong route to help that child.
Billie recently posted..Furbabies Delectable Delights – Dog Treats Review
Wow! I can’t believe that!!
Anne – Mommy Has to Work recently posted..Smart Home Energy Savers – Guest Post
And this is just the stuff that we are hearing about. Makes you wonder what else goes on.
Jenn recently posted..Progressive #TrySnapshot Giveaway – Ends 9/6
I know that I’m probably in the minority here but adjusting the taste of non-edible items is a common way to discourage people and animals from consuming them.
That said, there are over the counter options which are much safer than home remedies – and if you’re not the legal guardian of a child, you really need to get permission to use that form of discipline/teaching.
Furthermore; chewing behaviours in people on the autism spectrum is often a form of “stimming” rather than deliberate. In that case, it’s actually a less effective form of persuasion with a more appropriate form being redirection (ie: give him something else to chew such as chewelry or a leather strap). Again however; if you’re not the legal guardian of the child, you need to get permission before attempting this behaviour modifier too.
I don’t think that crying for blood from a teacher who obviously lacks experience with children on the spectrum is the answer. Instead, we should all be crying out for easily to follow, enforceable rules about what is and isn’t appropriate teaching methods for children with Autism.
I hope that this particular teacher has learned from the experience and who knows, it may well make her a better teacher.
Gavin Bollard recently posted..Article: Helping Your Special Needs Child to See Past their Own Point of View
Hi Gavin. I took a couple days to think about your comment. You made some good points. But, I still don’t think she should be allowed back in a classroom. I’m very protective of my kids, and I wouldn’t want a teacher back in the classroom that had hurt my child like that. There’s no second chances with me when it comes to my children.
I have to agree with Gavin. While I don’t think it was the teachers responsibility to soak the crayons before consulting the parent, it was actually recommended to me from our pediatrician to put some on my daughters thumb to stop the thumb sucking.
Crystal @ Simply Being Mommy recently posted..X-celeRacers Marvel Spider-Man Shoes by Stride Rite + Giveaway
At the very least, it was incredibly irresponsible and presumptuous of her to do that.
Liz @ A Nut in a Nutshell recently posted..Unidentified and Unwanted – WW
Very disturbing!
HilLesha recently posted..Marriott Rewards Giveaway
Disgusting!! Seriously just not okay!
Emily @FamilyNLifeLV recently posted..DreamWorks Studios Releases LINCOLN Movie Poster!
I definitely don’t think it was up to her to take matters into her own hands that is for the parents to decide and what if the child had an allergy to one of the ingredients in the hot sauce or a reaction to it.
Toni recently posted..Meet Guido #GreatDogContest
I heard about this. It is just awful that anyone would even think of doing something like this.
Lolo recently posted..Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln Movie Poster
I am so appalled by some of the things that go on in schools nowadays.
Leilani recently posted..Dealing with Toddlers
Maybe she shouldn’t lose her career as a teacher, but she absolutely should not be in a classroom with children with disabilities. And I would hope she will be closely supervised. This is awful.
Sheri recently posted..Be a Part of the BlogFrog Influencer Circle #blogfrogrocks