Video Shows 3 Texas Teaching Aides Watching As Non-Verbal Boy With Autism Gets Beaten By Another Student
Priority number one is always student safety. Period.
YouTube Three teaching aides at a Texas school have come under fire after a video appeared to show them ignoring an incident in which a child with special needs was physical assaulted.
It is the number one priority of teachers and school staff to protect the health and well-being of the students at their school.
This is doubly true for students with developmental disabilities and small students that are in the same spaces as students that are significantly larger than them.
However, this doesn't seem to be the case at Jones Middle School, where the incident took place.
A video has gone viral showing Texas school staff failing to intervene while a non-verbal autistic student is beaten up.
Warning: This video depicts violence against a child.
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The video was captured in Jones Middle School in Humble, Texas, where 11-year-old Sekai goes to school.
Sekai is a non-verbal 6th grader with autism. The young boy is currently being cared for by his grandmother, Veda Cavitt, who took Sekai in after his parents died when he was only a baby.
Cavitt is Sekai’s biggest advocate and has said that “He is lovable. He is so affectionate. He loves giving hugs and... just passionate, very, very affectionate.”
Sekai is a student with special needs at Jones Middle School and can be seen getting brutally attacked in the video. The attacker is, reportedly, another special needs student.
The video begins when Sekai accidentally bumps into a much larger student.
What follows is thoroughly disturbing.
The larger student immediately launches into a vicious attack against Sekai. A flurry of punches and kicks knock Sekai to the ground but the larger student doesn’t even stop after Sekai is on his hands and knees.
Three school staff members mostly just stood by and watched.
Quanell X said of the attack, “This little boy was three-times smaller than this big kid that was allowed to punch, hit, kick and stump this mother's child.”
In the video, the three staff members just stand by during the initial wave of strikes. Only after Sekai had been thoroughly beaten within ten feet of three separate staff members did the staff members step in, with half-hearted attempts at separating the two.
Working with special needs children can be extremely challenging and requires a lot of patience and a gentle approach. With that being said, once a child’s safety is at risk, there is no excuse for failing to step in.
Even once the staff members stepped in, Sekai was left to continue to crawl along the ground, before enduring another series of kicks from the much larger child.
Even after the final attack, none of the adults put themselves in between the two students. The attack only stopped when Sekai was lying on his side on the floor and the larger student walked away.
Many are shocked and appalled by the inaction of the adults in the video.
Chief among them is Sekai’s grandmother and guardian, who said of the situation, “Those adults in that video stood there. They did not attempt to help my child get up off the ground. They did not offer him any assistance. They didn't even check to see if he was injured.”
The staff members in the video have since been fired and the school released a statement condemning their inaction and promising to work to prevent this type of incident in the future.
"Our district leaders will continue to work together to find solutions which provide a safe, healthy and nurturing learning environment in our schools in order to support academic achievement, respectful interactions and engagement," the statement reads, in part.
Dan O'Reilly is a writer who covers news, politics, and social justice. Follow him on Twitter.