Five staff members at an Indiana school are facing criminal charges after allegedly forcing a seven-year-old special education student to eat his own vomit.
A teacher and instructional aide at Brown Elementary School in the Indianapolis suburb of Brownsburg have been charged with neglect by the Hendricks County Prosecutor’s Office after an investigation into video of the February incident. Prosecutors have also charged another teacher, an aide and a behavioral technician of failing to report the incident, ABC news reported.
The investigation revealed that 27-year-old teacher Sara Seymour and 63-year-old instructional aide Debra Kanipe stood on either side of the child as he ate his lunch in February while three other members of staff looked on. “And at some point he goes to stand up and it looks as if he’s gagging,” Brownsburg Police Capt. Jennifer Barrett told WTHR News, describing the video.
After the boy was seemingly instructed to sit back down, Barrett explained, he vomited on a tray provided by 48-year-old teacher Julie Taylor, WTHR reported. “Within a few seconds of that we see Ms. Kanipe…provide him a spoon at which point he’s compelled to eat several bites of his vomit,” Barrett revealed to the outlet. The child was then reportedly given paper towels to clean up the rest of the mess, the outlet stated.
5 school staff in Brownsburg have been charged after allegedly forcing a special needs student to eat his own vomit. https://t.co/YE2q4fqFPu
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“Anybody who watches the video, it’s going to be a pendulum of emotions. You first see it and you are in disbelief and shock and then you move to anger and outrage and then you go back to disbelief and shock,” Barrett stated.
Though the incident reportedly occurred in February, administrative officials at the school were not made aware of the incident until earlier in April at which point they contacted authorities.
“This actually came forward for another party. There was an internal process going on within the school corporation about a completely independent issue and it was during this process that this information was discovered, and the school contacted us immediately,” Barrett told the outlet.
“At the end of the day, they failed. They failed our children, they failed that child and they failed all of us,” she continued. (RELATED: Police Arrest ‘Teacher Of The Year’ On Child Sex Abuse, Pornography Charges)
The seven-year-old student reportedly has a cognitive disability that affects his memory. “He is verbal but again with the memory being affected, he wasn’t able to tell us this happened back in February,” Barrett told WTHR.
“As educators, protecting the safety and welfare of our students is at the core of who we are. We are deeply saddened by the actions of these staff members and will work in conjunction with our local law enforcement as they move forward with possible criminal charges,” Superintendent Jim Snapp said in a statement, according to WTHR.
The five staffers were removed from contact with students and placed on administrative leave as soon as school officials were made aware of the incident, WTHR reported. It is expected that Seymour and Kanipe’s termination will be made official at the next school board meeting on May 8, the district told the outlet.