Would you have given jail time to hot sauce sp.ed.teacher/ defendant?

Mmmm.....for me, it would depend on the circumstances.

How much hot sauce did she put in there? Just enough to make it taste bad, or so much that it caused some serious pain?

Did she MAKE him drink the hot-sauce-laced soda (since the article said she put it in there AFTER he stole it)?

And other factors. Not knowing the whole story, I can't say exactly what I think should be done.

I had a bad habit when I was little (3-4yrs old) of taking any drink sitting around. Soda, beer, it didn't matter. My mom cured me of that by putting salt in her soda one night. It's a common thing around here. I don't see the big deal. I mean, I know the boy has problems but he still needs to learn what is his and what isn't. Hot sauce may be a little over the top though. Although, I've used tabasco sauce on certain places I didn't want my pets to chew (mainly the dogs, and my RB bunny). One taste and they left it alone.

That's my feelings on the matter as well. I'd like to have more information before I draw a conclusion.

I think that is horrible! The teacher was WAY out of line.

Perhaps she DID know that this student had a habit of taking things without permission and had spiked the hotsauce soda before hand, anticipating his reaction.

I think they need to elaborate more rather than just making her out to be the bad guy. Children, irregardless of their mental status, need to somehow be taught how to generally act in public. And this means that they need to be taught not to steal.

But how would that teach him a thing? All he knows is that his mouth was burned. It's highly unlikely that he could make the association because cause and effect is a concept mostly lost on children with autism. There are a dozen more effective methods of teaching him not to "steal" as it has been called. At home the behavior may be totally acceptable and children with autism often have difficulty altering their behavior to the setting.

And in conclusion---it was a SODA! It wasn't like he was driving away in someone's car or something! Her actions were clearly abusive as he could have choked, had a bad reaction, etc. What a shame.

Just to clarify---I do not think a teacher (especially those working with special-needs kids) should be doing this kind of thing. She should lose her job for sure, IMO. BUT...the question was whether she should face jail time or not. And for me that would depend on the factors I listed above.

I'm definately not disagreeing that she deserved to lose her job.

I just don't think that hot sauce warrants jail time or even that much probation.

I'm sure that the mark on her record and the fact that she'll never be able to teach again is enough of a punishment. They pretty much ruined her career.

She definitely does not deserve to go to jail over this, but her teaching methods are rather extreme.

It doesn't say what type of autism the boy has - high functioning and asperger's is more common than low functioning, though those types still have problems with recognizing proper social behavior in some circumstances and sensory issues. What if taste happened to be one of that child's senses that was overly sensitive? - it would have caused a meltdown.

As for how much a person with autism can understand, I'm pretty sure we have a member here that is diagnosed.. Unless it happens to be another person with the same type if siggy, same username, and happens to have cat(s), too. Were she more active around here she could probably dispel some myths you might have..

If anyone wants to hear about real abuse against special ED kids, the stories are not hard to find and in many cases what the teachers do is criminal (causing a kid's death, etc).

Children taking things has more to do with impulse control, as many kids do it. Just try leaving an unguarded bowl of candy somewhere around a bunch of kids. Every single one of them would be in it.


I don't think the teacher deserves jail time, but as already stated - probably shouldn't have even been drinking a soda in front of the children. I remember back in HS there were fellow students who whined and complained that they didn't get soda if a teacher had a can and even some who would take unopened (and sometimes opened) cans if they had the chance... Best not to expect anyone to keep their hands off - in a normal school it could even result in things being slipped in the drink to harm a teacher.
She definitely should not be allowed with special ED kids again.
A lot of them can get away with some pretty stupid stuff because of the teachers union.

Yes the teacher deserves jail time!

Even if the kid didn't have autism, she would still be out of line. What was described was an immature way to teach someone a lesson. I'm sure the special ed kids themselves have more common sense than that so called teacher. I think should get jail time because this could have, and possibly was very mentally damaging to the child. If nothing else, it sent him the message that an mentor/educator sort of figure wanted to harm him. So he might have issues trusting other teachers.. I know as a kid that would have hurt me on a personal level, which is a level that I think discipline should never reach and I wasn't special ed nor had any mental problem.
And on top of that, I hated it when teachers broke their own rules- no food or drink in class but yet they were eating and drinking. I said something once when I was in school but got detention.
It is very sad, the kind of people who sometimes are hired as teachers in this country.

I think the main problem I have with this is the same problem I had when we were discussing spanking on here a long time ago. And that is, the message of punishment should not be that the child is bad, but that the behavior is bad. When you use methods like poisoning a drink the kid is going to drink- you are indirectly telling the child that he or she is a bad person and that can be damaging mentally.

And sure, he shouldn't have been taking her soda in the first place but she is retarded if she thinks the kid wouldn't realize that she put the hot sauce there knowing he'd take it and wanted to hurt him.

Jail Time??? Are you kidding me, if these kind of offenses are worthy of jail time, you better start building a lot of big, new GIGANTIC jails RIGHT NOW. ha ha
She should have been reprimanded and not lost her job but a few days off without pay would have done the trick, that and maybe some counseling to decide if teaching is really what she wants to do with her life.