Alabama parents arrested for recording staff abuse of their autistic child

The parents of a middle-school girl in the Talladega County School System were arrested because they provided their autistic child with a recording device so that she could secretly capture staff verbally abusing.

From what the family says, they captured 28 instances of abuse, but there's one problem.

Apparently, the school district's policy prohibits the use of recording devices at school.

Read this nonsense and tell me you've heard anything more asinine.

The charges stem from their daughter Jessalynn’s use of a hidden recorder to document her treatment at Childersburg Middle School, part of the Talladega County School System, the couple claims. Jessalynn is severely learning-disabled and autistic, and she suffers from seizures, anxiety and depression.

[...]

According to her parents, in November, Jessalynn turned her recorder over to the school. Jones, the principal, then wrote a warrant for their arrest.

The McEwens say they were driving down the street in front of their house when they were pulled over and arrested by several school resource officers from Childersburg Middle.

“We were surrounded by three county cop cars like we were murderers,” said McEwen.

The Alabama Department of Human Resources also launched an investigation into the couple.

DHR records show the department removed Jessalyn and another minor daughter from the family’s home last fall for five weeks while they obtained a psychological evaluation that concluded there was not sufficient evidence to support mental abuse or neglect.

Did you know school principals can issue warrants and their school resource officers can arrest parents for something like recording staff abusing their children?

Me either.

For all the talking we do about the school-to-prison pipeline, and schools that fail to serve students with special education needs, we don't hear so much about it when it happens in traditional public schools (at least not as much as when it happens in charter schools).

In this case, the parents are facing real consequences:

If convicted, they each face a $100 penalty or 90 days of hard labor. The truancy law not only governs the enrollment and attendance of children, it also says parents can be charged with a misdemeanor if they fail to “compel” their child to behave “in accordance with the written policy (or) school behavior adopted by the local board of education.”

This is a story that should make anyone see the benefits of school choice.

Read the whole story here.

h/t to Jason Bedrick for posting this story.