Allen, Texas (June 30, 2009) - Susanne Means, a special education teacher at Lowery Freshman Center, an Allen ISD school, was charged earlier this month with knowingly causing serious bodily injury to a 14-year-old boy with disabilities in early 2008 by using a cooking pan to burn his buttocks. As reported in the Dallas News:
An Allen police affidavit filed on July 9, 2008, says Means caused burns to the boy, and describes him as "mentally challenged."
The affidavit says the boy's father became aware of the boy's injuries in early March 2008 and took him to a physician.
The physician found a 12-inch diameter "scald" in a circular pattern on the buttocks.
The boy later told an interviewer that the teacher applied a hot pan once to each of his buttocks, the affidavit says.
The investigating officer found her classroom included a kitchen that had a stove and "various cookware," the affidavit says.
According to the report, Ms Means, 45, who posted bail after being book into the county detention center on July 30, 2008, had worked for Allen ISD since 1997. She resigned from the district earlier this month. A police spokeswoman said she did not know why it took almost a year for the grand jury to return an indictment.
2 comments:
I have known Susanne and her husband for almost 15 years and she is a compassionate and dedicated wife, mother, and teacher and a Christian woman.
I feel this mentally challenged student was abused outside of school and coached to name her as his abuser.
Susanne weighs all of 100 lbs, and what this article fails to address is she would have had to pull the student's pants down in a classroom with 2 aides and other students.
All Life Skills classrooms have kitchens, so there is nothing evil in this...they are built and designed that way BY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT to teach mentally challenged students "life skills" such as cooking, doing dishes, etc...and surely a student receiving 2nd degree burns to the buttocks would cry out, sending half the school running to see what was going on. And by the way, about 99.9% of U.S. homes have a kitchen and pans, too, so why isn't that considered sinister?
Anyone, especially a dedicated teacher, accused of this crime and dragged to a police station would be a nervous wreck and probably fail a polygraph.
Susanne COMPLETELY PASSED a subsequent polygraph with one of the most respected technicians in the U.S.
My thoughts and prayers are with this wonderful woman who has devoted her life to teaching special needs students most teachers do not want to teach, and I hope whomever was so evil as to coach this vulnerable and suggestable student to name her is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Dawn, thank you for this. I will pass on your comments to the school district.
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