Mother of South Bend student allegedly assaulted by teacher speaks out

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- A South Bend mother, who wants to remain anonymous, spoke out two weeks after a Muessel Elementary School teacher allegedly “slammed” her autistic son to the ground.

“I just don’t feel comfortable with my kids going to that school anymore,” the mother said.

The incident occurred two weeks ago, after the teacher claimed her son was out of control and she could not get him to stop.

The mother said that teacher left her the following voicemail in-part after it happened:

“He has really gotten out of control today and he’s out of line and I tried to make him leave my room and he had fake plastic Freddy-knive things and I had to take him to the floor to get him to stop and he would not stop.”

The boy’s mother also claimed that the teacher never reported the incident to anyone else.

The South Bend Community School Corporation since confirmed that the staff member has been placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation.

“She’s the only one that called me. And why was I notified at the end of a school day?” questioned the mother.

The following day after the incident, she visited Muessel to speak to faculty, but said no one was available to speak with her.

That is when she made the decision to pull her two children who attend Muessel out of class and take them to daycare instead.

“It’s just put a toll on our family,” the mother said. “You know they want to be in school, they don’t want to go to daycare.”

The boy’s mother said she just wishes she would have been notified before things got physical.

“I wish that she would have just kept calling me, I wish the principal would have been notified,” the mother said. “They could’ve called me and said, you know, if they could reach me to keep calling me so that I could’ve came down there and got my son. It shouldn’t have gotten to the point where you had to physically put your hands on my child.”

Now, she is searching for a long-term solution.

“For the well-being of my child, when he leaves the house, I just want to know that he’s learning and he’s actually safe,” the mother said.

There is a meeting scheduled with the South Bend Community School Corporation and Special Education Board on Friday to discuss what is next for her son and his future in the South Bend school system, according to the mother.