WHAT? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!! As a mother I would be horrified and enraged if a teacher talked to my child like that, especially a five-year-old. No child deserves to be spoken to in that manner, but especially not by his kindergarten teacher. Suarez’s words and tone are cruel and humiliating.
Escotto was of course, devastated and enraged to hear Suarez berating her son on tape. “For me to hear the things that she was saying to him,” Escotto said. “She picked him out, she singled him out, she humiliated him in front of the whole class. She talked about me in front of him. No 5-year-old should be able to go through that. That affected my family, affected him.”
Escotto’s further meetings with the school and Suarez (who denied she had said what was on the tape) resulted in her son being moved to another classroom, where his grades instantly improved. She also got a lawyer, who notified the school district of Escotto’s allegations against Suarez back in November. Though she received an acknowledgement from Gallagher Bassett, the district’s third-party and self-funded administrator for its workers’ compensation and liability program, which investigates claims and determines liability, nothing was ever done.
Escotto’s lawyer decided to let the case sit for a bit and make sure it was “legally sound,” and then finally went public with the charges against Suarez at a press conference last week. Only then did the Miami Dade school district respond, saying,
“Miami-Dade County Public Schools goes to great lengths to promote a culture of dignity and respect, not only among our students but with our employees. “We work diligently to ensure the well-being of every child entrusted to our care. Any action that runs contrary to the values we instill in our school community will not be tolerated. The district will conduct a thorough review of this matter and, if the allegations are substantiated, we will take any and all appropriate disciplinary actions.”
It boggles my mind how a school district could be so slow to move on this issue when there was recorded proof of the teacher’s verbal abuse as far back as last fall! Perhaps their reluctance to confront the issue is one reason Escotto says she isn’t sure if her son and 10-year-old daughter will be returning to Banyan Elementary this fall, even though she says her kids have had excellent teachers there in general.
“It’s sad that we have to get to this point to get a response from somebody to look into this complaint that I put in a long time ago,” she told the Herald.
I have to agree Mrs. Escotto. It’s beyond sad that your son was in this position and that he was put there by a kindergarten teacher who is supposed to be a caring educator. That she was named “Teacher of the Year” during when all this was happening boggles the mind. I hope and pray this kindergarten teacher gets the proper discipline so she can never inflict this kind of verbal abuse on a child again.
Has your child ever been mistreated by a teacher? What did you do about it?
