Teacher Takes Heat for Putting Boy in Bag

A Kentucky teacher accused of inappropriately disciplining a special needs student is under fire as many call for her termination.

More than 120,000 people in all 50 states have joined a popular campaign on Change.org calling on the Mercer County, KY, school board and Mercer County Intermediate School Principal Dana Cobb to terminate a teacher accused of putting an autistic fourth grader, Chris Baker, into a “therapy bag” as punishment.

Lydia Brown, an autistic 18-year-old Georgetown University freshman, launched the campaign on Change.org following allegations that the teacher told the 4^th-grader to climb inside a “therapy bag” for punishment to "control his autistic behavior" in mid-December. The autistic boy was allegedly placed in the cloth bag with the drawstring tightened and left in the hallway of the school.

When the boy’s mother, Sandra Baker, was called to the school to get her son, she discovered Chris in the bag and demanded he be removed immediately. Sandra claims she was then informed by Chris’ teacher that he had been placed in the bag several times over the past year.

“You know there are problems with our educational system when a teacher can claim that stuffing an autistic child inside a bag and pulling the drawstring shut is a form of therapy,” said Lydia Brown, who launched the Change.org campaign, which has garnered more than 120,000 supporters in a matter of days. “What happened to Chris is a reflection of deeply institutionalized attitudes toward people with disabilities. It’s time for the Mercer County School Board to take responsibility for its inadequate professional training and to fire a teacher whose judgment is clearly flawed.”

Within hours of the campaign’s launch, Lydia Brown had recruited thousands of supporters on Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing platform for online campaigns. Lydia and Sandra Baker plan to continue demanding action from the school board in January.

“Lydia is a powerful advocate for the rights of the autistic community,” said Change.org Director of Organizing Katie Bethell. “By starting a campaign on Change.org, Lydia was able to take immediate action to help this child and his family and hold Mercer County Intermediate School accountable for its actions. Lydia’s campaign has reached tens of thousands of people and generated massive support for better treatment of autistic children nationwide.”

The campaign on Change.org has been covered by major news outlets across the country, including CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC and Huffington Post. It has been widely shared on social media sites Twitter and Facebook, and a Facebook group with several hundred members has taken a stand against the inappropriate use of restraint by teachers.


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