Teacher Wrestles Autistic Child For An Hour And A Half, School Board Won’t Discipline Her [Video]

After a teacher named Tracey Newton was caught on video wrestling an autistic child for an hour and a half, the reaction from school administrators immediately called for her firing. But the school board believes Newton did nothing wrong, and in fact was being a good teacher.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, one Florida school is running an experiment where students are forced to stand all day at standing desks instead of using chairs. Another school has a different problem, with one teacher slamming a 6-year-old into a wall only to yell, “I will rip you apart!” For this, the only action taken was to suspend the teacher for 10 days… which just happens to be the number of days left in the school year.

Tracey Newton is a school teacher at Maplewood Elementary. This past September, three days into the school year, classroom surveillance video shows the 10-year-old struggling with the teacher. She is trying to pin his arms behind his back, but school policy says that this should only be done in order to protect a child from hurting themselves or others. It’s also supposed to be done by two people, not just one.

The video also shows Newton dragging the child across the floor, kicking his backpack, and using her own smartphone to record his reactions. Kevin Christian, a Marion County School Spokesperson, says the video proves that school administrators were correct to suspend her:

“The video speaks strongly as to what the teachers actions were. The Superintendent feels the student’s safety was in jeopardy not once but on several occasion. We’re looking at what is available to us because the Superintendent feels this teacher shouldn’t be in the classroom with any student.”

But when the decision to fire the teacher went to the school board they decided that it was the school administrators who were at fault, not Newton. Board member Nancy Stacy says the autistic child had known behavioral issues and the school decided to have Newton attempt to correct his problems.

“We aren’t going to punish this teacher for being a great teacher, had she been a mediocre teacher this would have never happened because the student wouldn’t have been assigned to her classroom. She never lost control she was in complete control.”

Newton has been working in the district for eight years and has never had any problems or complaints before this issue.

Do you think Tracey Newton should be fired for her handling of the autistic child? Or do you think she was just doing her job as best as possible considering the circumstances?