3 Louisiana School Aides Caught on Video Abusing Blind, Autistic Student

A Louisiana family is outraged after learning how their teenage son, who is both blind and autistic, was treated by aids at his middle school.

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Zander Ferris, 13, is assisted by his teacher and paraprofessionals on a daily basis at Gayle Sloan Middle School in Mandeville, Louisiana. Three of those paraprofessionals, who were meant to assist Ferris since he has a vision impairment and autism, turned on him at school, and everything was caught on surveillance video.

Louisiana Family Files Lawsuit To Obtain Surveillance Videos From Middle School

The Ferris family had to file a lawsuit to obtain this video footage that they were originally told didn't exist.

Their Attorney, Chris Edmunds, describes what was captured in those videos, explaining, "For reasons that I really don’t understand, one of the paraprofessionals just started pushing him out of the classroom, and they push him out of the classroom and into the hallway."

Edmunds continues telling Fox 8 WVUE, "He’s swinging the walking cane around, and it accidentally makes contact with the leg of one of the paraprofessionals. And rather than step back and just say, ‘Oh Zander, watch what you’re doing with the walking cane,’ she comes over and kicks him in the leg. And another one comes over and takes his walking cane away.”

That's when one of the aids starts pulling him down the hallway, despite Zander resisting and pulling back, "When he pulls forward, she has a walkie-talkie in her left hand. And she reaches up and hits him in the side of the face with it."

Unfortunately, the abuse continued at lunch, a few minutes later, now involving a third faculty member, "5-10 minutes later, a third paraprofessional, a third person at this point, is sitting him down. And after he’s seated, she pushes his head into the cafeteria table.”

Abuse Was Allegedly Downplayed By the Principal

Principal Sherri Barton was notified by a school employee that they witnessed the abuse. Barton contacted Zander's parents, but according to his family, the incidents were downplayed: "It was kind of explained to us it was a very minor incident."

They were told there was 'some sort of altercation' involving Zander and one of the aids and that she 'accidentally hit him in the shin'.

However, Principal Barton filed a police report saying "Tiffany Bourgeois kicked a special-needs student during an altercation," and admitted under oath that she never informed Zander's parents that she was contacting the police.

All Thee Aids and The Principal No Longer Work For the St. Tammany Parish Public School

Parents from the school started contacting the Ferris family about the situation and notified them that all three aids had resigned the same day.

At that point, Zander's parents knew there was more to the story and sought legal counsel. According to FOX 8, a federal judge demanded the school board turn over the footage.

Now, the Principal is no longer working at the school, and the three aids face charges but plead not guilty and say they were 'acting in self-defense.'

The sheriff’s office issued criminal summonses for all three paraprofessionals.

Wednesday, the former paraprofessionals appeared in court; however, we have not obtained the details of that hearing yet.

The Ferris family wants transparency when accidents happen and for their son, who can't speak up for himself, to be safe.

This is an ongoing investigation.

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