Mom’s anger over autistic 3rd-grader put into duffel bag at Kentucky school

The Kentucky mother of an autistic boy, 9, who was stuffed in a duffel bag "as therapy" for misbehavior wants the teacher responsible to be dismissed.

Sandra Baker, of Harrodsburg, said she heard her son, Christopher Baker, calling out to her from inside the bag when she arrived at the at Mercer County Intermediate School on Dec. 14.

“He was treated like trash and thrown in the hallway,” she told The Associated Press. 

She said her son had been withdrawn and uncommunicative since the incident, The Guardian reported. 

State education officials said they were investigating, the AP reported, however Baker said she had not received an apology from the school.

At a meeting with school district officials soon after the incident, Baker said the bag was described as a “therapy bag,” without further explanation.

"You do not put a child in a bag like that for any reason," The Guardian quoted her as saying. "If I did that to him, I'd be put in jail. We have not heard anything from the superintendent and we have not had an apology."

The Baker case sparked a national campaign condemning the actions of the teacher — believed to be a special educational aide — as abuse, The Guardian reported.

More than 18,000 people have reportedly signed an online petition to the Kentucky board of education calling for the teacher to be sacked, or "at the very least to be properly educated in de-escalation and crisis intervention techniques for special educational needs students."

Lydia Brown, an autistic 18-year-old Georgetown University freshman from Boston, told the AP she started the petition after reading a story about Chris.

“That would not be wrong just for an autistic student. That would be wrong to do to anyone,” Brown said.

A similar petition in the recent case — that of Alabama non-verbal autistic girl, Emily Halcombe, 14, charged with a felony assault after slapping her teacher — led to the charge being dropped.

According to the Guardian:

Christopher Baker's case has also drawn attention to the lack of federal and, in many cases, state laws banning the use of restraint or seclusion in public schools. Kentucky is one of several states in which no laws exist preventing the use of restraint or seclusion in public schools, according to a document on the Department of Education website.