Verbal Abuse of Student Prompts Reform Calls

CHERRY HILL, N.J. -- When harsh words flew in a classroom for autistic children here, the school employees who spoke them likely thought no one in authority would ever hear.
“Shut up,” shouted one staffer, unaware that a digital recorder was hidden in the pocket of 10-year-old Akian Chaifetz.
“Go ahead and scream because guess what? You’re going to get nothing until your mouth is shut.”
“Oh Akian, you are a bastard.”
But after the boy’s father, Stuart Chaifetz, released excerpts of the tape in an online video last week, millions of people learned what was said at the Horace Mann Elementary School.
Now, educators and others are trying to figure out what the incident means.