Special place in Hell for educator accused of hot saucing autistic kids (Opinion)

Imagine having a mysterious neurological condition that keeps you from being able to tell the people you love most in the world how much you care about them. Prevents you from being able to tell anyone what’s hurting when you’re sick. Makes regular sounds seem as loud as explosions. Makes the tag inside your t-shirt feel like a knife.

This is autism. Imagine you have it.

Now imagine you’re five or six.

According to reporting by NJ1015.com, an individual who was working as a substitute teacher with kindergarten-age nonverbal, special needs children allegedly disciplined them with hot sauce on their tongues in a Paterson Public School District special needs classroom. On Jan. 13, the school district said a substitute teacher had been fired, but did not directly address the accusations.

Read More: Paterson substitute teacher fired amid hot sauce accusations

We don’t know who did this.

We don’t know just how many times this might have been done or to how many different children with autism. We don’t even know if the police are involved.

More disturbing, parents of the victims are not even being allowed to know the name of the alleged aggressor.

“The District is aware of the allegation regarding an incident at Dale Avenue Elementary School and immediately initiated an investigation in accordance with established protocols,” according to a written statement sent to New Jersey 101.5 on Tuesday. “We are committed to ensuring that every student feels safe, respected, and supported.”

Is that good enough? Whoever is alleged to have done this needs to be reported to the police, not protected and held in anonymity by the school. If they did it, they belong in jail. Period.

This is a heinous assault.

Don’t tell us you’re committed to ensuring every student feels "safe" and "respected" if someone hired by you could assault the most vulnerable children there and not be handed over to law enforcement. Do I need to remind the Paterson Public School District that if abuse were happening at home and a teacher got wind of it, they would be legally required to report it to law enforcement?

You cannot convince me this alleged hot saucing punishment could have happened multiple times without other adults in the room witnessing it. Those who did are complicit and should also suffer consequences.

I am the father of two boys with autism, one of them non-verbal.

These children are helpless to speak up and report an assault. It enrages me that this could be swept under a rug. Special needs children aren’t there to be a punching bag. If you don’t have the skill set and extreme patience necessary for this role, then don’t take the job.

What scares me most is not only the psychological damage already done to these already vulnerable children, but also wondering if this accused educator will fly under the radar and land in another district and harm more of these kids.