Camden’s 12-year-old son, Melissa Davis, has severe autism which prevents him from speaking, reading and writing. To help with her disability, Melissa Camden enrolled at Greater Baton Rouge Hope Academy, a school known for helping children with disabilities or special needs.
Camden has recently started behaving strangely, becoming very aggressive and starting to wet his bed. Melissa tried to find answers to her son’s sudden change in mood and spoke to the school. When she tried to discuss her son with his teachers and school officials, she was ignored. This left Melissa feeling unsettled. She had to know why.
The worried mother made a plan and sent her son to school with a voice recorder in his bag. She was unprepared to hear the terrible things said to her son and in his presence.
Melissa explained that Camden was always trying to explain to her what was going on at school, but because of his speech impediments, he could never find the words. But now Melissa has realized the truth.
Melissa listened to the tapes which confirmed her suspicion that the teachers were hiding something from her. They scolded and made fun of her son for no reason, and the two teachers overheard on the recording acted like a sort of tag team going back and forth mocking Camden.
Professor: “Camden, why haven’t you written anything down? That’s why you can’t sit with everyone. Tell your mom that.”
Melissa was very sad and wanted justice for her son. I took the recording to school officials, who acted quickly. Both teachers were fired.
