Teacher's Cover up Bullying of Special Needs Children

Teacher’s cover up bullying of special needs children

By Callen Guillory and Allen George period 3 Media Literature

In Hopewell Middle School, many special needs students were bullied by Melanie Pickens who threw them into lockers and locked them in dark, isolated rooms.

Jake with angelman syndrome enjoying a boat ride

The parents of the special need students were unaware of all this going on for years.The victims of the abuse are Jake (20), Alex (19), and some other special needs kids. The parent of a special needs child being abused, Judy Marshall, Said “I never, in my wildest imagination

Hopewell Middle School. The scene of the crime

would have ever thought anything like this would have been going on in a public school”. Another parent, Lisa Williams was completely shocked when she heard that her child, Alex, had been bullied for three years without her even knowing. Jake has Angelman syndrome and autism and Alex has cerebral palsy.

The teachers at Hopewell Middle School knew about the things going on and were too threatened to do anything. They were afraid of losing their jobs, because of the principal who was intimidating to the teachers. Susant Tallant was brave enough to stand up and speak out.

Melanie Pickens, the bully, denied she abused the children even when Susan Tallant said she saw Melanie Pickens screaming at the children. Susan Tallant is a teacher that decided to do something when things got out of hand. Tallant says she saw Jake strapped to a chair and covered with feces. This is when she wrote a complaint and that triggered an investigation by the Fulton County School District. In the investigation, it was found out that these children had been bullied for 3 years. The special needs children did not even have the physical ability to tell anyone they were being bullied. The bullying included many violents things to the children. Slamming boys into their faces head-first almost every day, yelling at them, pressing her breasts into their faces, hitting them, calling them vulgarities and even spraying lysol on a girl who passed gas. These things even caused many of the children to refuse to do things and the parents said they seemed to be un-learning things rather than learning.

The parents of the children found out about the abuse indirectly when they were interviewed. This is when they started a 2 year journey to get school documents to see what exactly was going on. In court documents it was said that they actually were documents of the abuse going on and there was no action on it. The principal, Francis Boyd, was required by Georgia law to make action upon this case and failed to do that so she will get charges as well. She also knew about the abuse for a long time until Susan Tallant wrote a complaint to the district. The Principal and the abuser have both lost their teaching certificates.

Medial Lit interviewer Callen, Guillory interviewed many people on their opinions and they said Melanie Picken should be arrested. One person even thought that the teachers who discouraged Tallant should receive a punishment, but The interviews all had one thing in common and it was that Melanie Pickens is completely heartless and America feels the same way.

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