Louisville mother Tiphanee Lee grew concerned and confused after receiving several calls from Field Elementary School claiming her autistic seven-year-old son, Semaj, a student there, had been behaving erratically.
Suspecting that his behavior may have been a response to neglect or mistreatment by a teacher, Tiphanee investigated the matter by hiding a camera in his locks on May 13.
Highlights
- A Louisville mother hid a camera in her autistic son’s hair after growing suspicious of complaints about his behavior at school.
- The footage confirmed that her son was being mistreated at school, including being physically attacked and called the N-word.
- Social media users have demanded strict penalties for the offending staff member.
Footage from that day confirmed her worst fears, as she discovered her child was physically attacked and called the N-word.
“I told you my son is a good boy. I had to put a camera in his hair to see if he was a**sed in the classroom,” Tiphanee said.
A mother’s investigation exposed a teacher’s aggressive behavior towards her autistic child
Image credits: AmericanCrime01
According to Tiphanee, Semaj is nonverbal and is usually calm at home. The school’s complaints about his behavior, therefore, raised a red flag.
In a press conference on Friday, May 15, the mother said what was recorded on the camera she sent Semaj to school with is something “no parent should ever have to see or hear.”
“Our child was put in a situation where he was scared, overwhelmed, and powerless. And while this was happening, there were adults in the room who did nothing to stop it,” Tiphanee said. “This is unacceptable.”
Image credits: AmericanCrime01
According to Tiphanee, her son’s primary teacher briefly left the classroom, leaving an assistant teacher in charge, who became aggressive towards him.
In the video reviewed by WAVE News, an NBC-affiliated television station based in Louisville, the assistant teacher could be heard making statements like “get off me, boy” and “go away.”
As the staff member maintained his hostile tone, Semaj began clapping and then screaming, something Tiphanee claims he does only when he becomes agitated.
Image credits: CubaAmerican
Image credits: AmericanCrime01
“We trusted his school to protect him, to care for him, to treat him with dignity. Instead, he was harmed, silenced, and failed,” Tiphanee said.
In addition to the comments directed at her son, Tiphanee said another portion of the recording captured staff talking about consuming marijuana and edibles.
A confrontation video involving the mother and staff members at Field Elementary brought even more serious allegations to light
In a video posted on Federal Civil Rights Attorney Lee Merritt’s Instagram, Tiphanee can be seen confronting the school staff for allegedly allowing an assistant teacher, whom she identified as Robert Ransdell, to call Semaj the N-word.
She claimed the footage also recorded him pinching and strangling the child as soon as his primary teacher stepped out of the classroom.
Image credits: cmkittycat
Image credits: AmericanCrime01
Tiphanee repeatedly insisted that police were on the way and that justice would be served; however, no details about what went down after the authorities arrived are available as of this writing.
She called for the staff members involved to be terminated and for a thorough investigation to be conducted.
Netizens backed her demands, with many also sharing personal accounts of schools failing children with special needs
Image credits: Wendyfrigeri
Image credits: AmericanCrime01
“There is literal proof. I can’t believe the teacher hasn’t been arrested yet,” one person expressed.
“There is no telling how long this child had suffered. My son has special needs, and I stand by the mother. I hope this child and mother get justice,” added a second.
A third called the teachers at the center of the fiasco “rotten” and “lowdown monsters.”
Image credits: Mikhail Nilov/pexels (not an actual photo)
“The whole administration should be fired, not just the teachers in that room,” asserted a fourth, while a fifth said, “The school’s license needs to be revoked.”
A mother from Australia said she has been in the news for weeks for the same reasons as Tiphanee. She offered her “a virtual hug.”
WAVE reported that the offending staff member is currently not being permitted inside the school and has been reassigned.
A similar case was reported from Texas in April, with several employees of an elementary school placed under investigation
Image credits: TexCorker
Image credits: fox26houston
A special education teacher and his assistants at Burton Elementary School in Fort Bend, Texas, were accused of misbehaving with students last month.
Image credits: fox26houston
They were fired between April 29 and May 4, as confirmed by the concerning school district, with the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office saying, “Our investigators are actively working this case and are reviewing all students who were under the supervision of these staff members.”
Image credits: ford_georgeanne
One of the alleged incidents reportedly involved a six-year-old nonverbal autistic student, according to Houston TV station ABC13, which spoke to the student’s mother.
She told the news outlet that her family found unexplained bruises and injuries after the student came home from school in mid-April.
Image credits: RDNE Stock project/pexels (not an actual photo)
Crystal Mendez, another mother of a special needs child, said she spotted marks on her child’s body as well, but attributed them to innocent factors like playground injuries. She now suspects they could have been signs of a hostile classroom environment.
"This is horrific," a netizen said about Tiphanee Lee and Semaj's case
Image credits: MorettiLips
Image credits: Castingwithbean
Image credits: annticki
Image credits: duanepoole
Image credits: ritabaxley1
Image credits: DiannColeman
Image credits: KudzuWood
Image credits: Bemi713
Image credits: rae0lyte
Image credits: AlexJaxson2