While the political battle over charter schools rages on between hedge funds and Senators, a damning report by the city's Special Commissioner of Investigation alleges that disciplinary abuse has been going on at one such school in Manhattan. The report states that students at Opportunity Charter School in Harlem were punched, thrown to the floor and dragged around by their hair, in what "could be considered condoned assaults and abuse of schoolchildren," that was covered up by school officials.
According to Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon's report, the academically-struggling Harlem school initialized its own internal investigation of the alleged abuse that "excluded or minimized incidents of ‘physical intervention’ or ‘physical restraints.’" Among those incidents the school did not report were:
- A team of "specialists" put a 12-year-old student in a headlock after he became "disruptive" during a science class in May 2008. He ended up with a bloody nose and black eye.
- One specialist pulled a 15-year-old girl's head off her desk and dragged her out of the classroom by her hair.
- Another specialist pushed a 15-year-old student into a door jam head-first.
- A 14-year-old boy was thrown to the ground and pinned down after he refused to remove what staff referred to as "gang beads."
The report comes on the heels of similar allegations of abuse at a charter school in Houston, Texas, where video of a special education teacher at Jamie's House Charter School beating a 13-year-old student was leaked. (Video below.) The two-time "Teacher of the Year"-winning Sherri Davis was fired swiftly, and appeared on ABC to defend herself this morning. She didn't excuse her behavior, but did go on to give a fuller context of the chaotic nature of the school: "Clearly I do not justify my own response, but what needs to happen—there needs to be a system designed that protects the kids...I should not be the protector for the child that was in immediate danger."
