Parents of children with autism push for cameras in classrooms after teacher arrested for punching student

TAMPA, Fla. - Parents of children who are non-verbal worry their kids wouldn't be able to tell them what's happening at school if something were wrong. It's why there's an effort to get cameras in the classroom. 

It comes after a teacher in Hillsborough County was arrested for punching a 9-year-old student with autism. The student, who attends Eisenhower Exceptional Center, was non-verbal, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. 

"How can a parent send their child to school expecting them to be safe if they can't come home and tell them what their day was like or what happened to them at school," said Stacey Hoaglund, the president of the Autism Society of Florida.

RELATED: Hillsborough County teacher arrested for punching student with autism: HCSO

Roughly 25-30% of children with autism are minimally verbal, meaning they speak fewer than 30 words. Some don't speak at all. 

It's why Hoaglund worked with lawmakers to come up with HB 1655 which, if passed, would have required cameras in classrooms where 100 % of the students are students with disabilities, but Hoaglund said the measure didn't get a committee hearing it needed to move forward.

"We have cameras everywhere we go. We go to the grocery store, we get gas, we go to the gym," Hoaglund said. "We, as human beings, we alter our behavior. We make better choices when the cameras are in place, and we suspect that teachers would do the same thing."

As Hoaglund explained, the not knowing can be frustrating for parents with non-verbal children like Carla Warren. When her 9-year-old daughter came home from school with bruises on her arm, she said the school told her she did it to herself, but Warren wasn't convinced and wanted to know more about what went on in class. 

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That's when she said she sewed a digital recorder into her daughter's coat and heard the unthinkable.

"I heard the teacher and the aides having a conversation in front of Zoe talking about how they would slam her on the ground if she tried to hit them, and if it were them, they would beat her with a switch or an extension cord," Warren said.

No criminal charges were ever filed in the case. As it stands now, teachers are not required to have special training for dealing with kids with autism, but Hoaglund encourages every teacher to take the course.

"It's up to you as the hopefully competent adult to be able to give that kid the tools so that the kid doesn't react to a confusing situation that they don't know how to handle and hit someone," Hoaglund said.

FOX 13 reached out Hillsborough County Schools to find out if this teacher who punched the student had any level of specialized training to deal with children with autism, and we are still waiting to hear back.

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