NJ school district fires 5 employees after child was tied with painter’s tape

🔵 Mom says child bound with blue tape
🔵 NJ school fires 5 staffers
🔵 Worried residents pack meeting

BARNEGAT — After hearing from concerned parents for nearly two hours, the Barnegat Board of Education voted to fire a teacher and four support staff caught in an incident involving a special needs, non-verbal child being bound with painter's tape.

Of the board’s nine members, all eight who attended a special meeting on Wednesday night voted swiftly to terminate the five staff members, as well as to reassign the administrator who had been in charge of special services.

“We are here to ensure our kids are safe, every day from the minute they step on that bus, walk into our schools, get off that bus and are in your arms again,” Board President Scott Sarno said, as the panel wrapped up an emotional night.

“This was just the beginning of the things we plan to do. As you said, we can do better and we are going to demand better from all those that work in this district,” Sarno added.

Mom says child was bound with blue tape

The packed meeting came after the mother of a child allegedly targeted in the incident shared her story with her attorneys in a video posted to YouTube.

Montgomery Law Group is representing Kasi Spinelli, whose 8-year-old daughter was bound with blue painter’s tape on her mouth, wrists and ankles.

She says the incidents happened on at least two days in March.

Spinelli said her first call from a school official was that “inappropriate use of tape” was being investigated.

Within a few days, Spinelli said, she met with a Barnegat police detective,who showed her three photos of her non-verbal daughter bound with blue tape while under the care of the “Academics, Communication, and Essential Skills (ACES) program.

Read More: Barnegat school suspends 5 staffers over student incident

“I was told it was a joke and not used for restraint purposes,” the mother said. She said she was told that a prosecutor determined this was not a criminal offense “because it wasn’t duct tape, but blue painter’s tape.”

The ACES program operates at Russell O. Brackman School, the district's middle school for 7th and 8th graders.

Spinelli was at Wednesday’s meeting along with Samantha Soto, the mother of another 8-year-old student in the ACES program.

Her son was also photographed with similar blue tape restraints, JerseyShoreOnline reported.

Spinelli and her attorneys also claimed that one of the paraprofessionals fired for the taping incident is the daughter of a principal at a different Barnegat school.

"I do think some people might have been discouraged to come forth and speak up about what's happening due to the relation she has to other people in the school district," Spinelli said in the video posted online this week.

Worried residents pack meeting

Wednesday’s board meeting was held at Barnegat High School, where parent after parent was given five minutes to share their concerns.

Many have special needs students of their own, like one father who spoke of his young daughter and the urgency of keeping these kids from losing valuable time.

“If we disrupt them and change their schools and change their routines, we end up going backwards,” John Uhlak said. “These elementary school kids, at this age, where they’re learning, this is all we get.”

“Please, go beyond the accountability of the people that were in the room, look at the administrators. Please consider the fact that there is a systemic problem here, and it starts at the top,” another Barnegat father, Pete DeSarno said.

After an executive session, the school board emerged and voted 8-0, with one absence, to terminate a teacher and four support staff.

They also voted to reassign Daniel Gundersen from director of special services to district vice principal.

In the meantime, Superintendent Brian Latwis will serve in both capacities.

“We have some work to do, clearly, to rebuild that trust” Latwis said, adding that parents will have the opportunity to share input on what they want the ACES program to be, ahead of next year.

“Special education parents are some of the smartest, most tenacious, resilient people you will ever meet in your life,” Cindy White, of Manahawkin, said. “We live and breathe every day to get our kids the things that they can’t ask for and shouldn't have to ask for.”

White also applauded the school board’s quick action, saying, “I want to commend you on doing what you did as a board. So many districts sweep abuse under the rug.”

Gary Weitzen, executive director of POAC Autism Services and a Toms River dad of a child with autism, shared that when his now 31-year-old son was just 5, he saw him being restrained in a chair and then left to lay on the ground by a teacher in Howell, which prompted a special school meeting.

“Never thought I would be at another one. 26 years later and it’s still happening,” Weitzen said.

He added that what is needed is “ongoing support, ongoing training — not a Band-Aid. We have to build a new emergency department.”

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