Brooklyn Educator Deserves Jail Time For Punching Autistic Student After Spilling Water

Sadly, you are reading this correctly. A Brooklyn paraprofessional at Public School 225 actually punched an 11-year-old autistic student who didn’t clean up the water he spilled.

Milton Parker, 58, was charged with felony assault and deserves to see jail time for this horrific act.

A grown man punched a young special needs boy in the face for a simple mistake. I can’t even wrap my mind around this. According to The Daily News:

Milton Parker, 58, a paraprofessional at Public School 225 in Brighton Beach, attacked the youngster last Thursday after he had spilled water on the floor, according to the boy’s father, Anatoly Veltman.

Parker ordered Anatoly, Jr., to clean up the spill, but the boy apparently did not understand what he meant ”” further enraging the supervisor. He grabbed the boy and punched him in the face, according to court papers.

”The police officer told me Mr. Parker said my son said ‘something racial’ to him,” Veltman told The News. ”I spoke to my son and all he could say was he told (Parker) to ‘keep your hands to yourself.’”

This is just unbelievable. Even if there was a slight possibility that the boy allegedly said ”something racial” to the paraprofessional, there is never, ever, ever any excuse for a grown man to punch a child in the face. There is never any excuse for an educator to assault a student.

Fortunately, school security camera footage of the incident allowed the police to charge Parker with menacing and harassment, endangering the welfare of a minor, and felony assault. Parker is currently suspended without pay, and in my personal opinion, should never be hired by an educational organization again. Ever.

According to the boy’s father, his autistic son Anatoly Jr. has the cognitive and social skills of a six-year-old and requires one-on-one paraprofessional supervision at school. Though Parker was responsible for this terrible assault, he was not the paraprofessional assigned to Anatoly Jr. during summer school.

I am no expert on the legal system, but I hope that these charges are not pled down in any way. Parker 100% deserves to see jail time for punching an innocent child in the face at school. Another glaring issue is the fact that paraprofessionals are supposed to be trained to protect children with disabilities, not assault them. Though the school could not have foreseen this incident, it highlights the fact that higher standards for paraprofessionals may be needed.

(Image: Tyler Olson/Shutterstock)