Teacher Accused of Public Humiliation of Five-Year-Old Autistic Child

In Port St. Lucie, the family of nine-year-old Alex Barton are exploring a lawsuit against teacher Wendy Portillo and the school district of his humiliation in front of his class. Alex is in the process of being diagnosed with autism, but Portillo still reportedly punished him by making him stand in front of the class as students were invited to list the things that they hate about him — then led a vote to throw him out of class. This apparently comes from the Lord of the Flies school of teaching.

The vote by his classmates was to toss him out of class by a 14 to 2 margin — there appears to be no superdelegates in this particular election with the teacher leading the vote.

Melissa Barton found her son in the nurse’s office where he had remained for the rest of the day.

He is being diagnosed with Asperger’s autism. which leads to such outbursts. It sounds like the district needs better training on the handling of autistic children and, if these allegations are true, some reinforced principles of common sense and compassion.

This could be a good lawsuit for not just negligence but intentional infliction of emotional distress.

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