Update: 2/16/09-Diana O’Neill was found not guilty on four charges of child abuse. More info at end of article.
… little Special Ed. kids, even.
Sarasota, FL - SpecialSpecial reviews
education teachers are hard to come by. That’s the only reason I can think of that Diana Z. O’Neill was allowed to continue teaching the most vulnerable students at Venice Elementary School for so long. O’Neill is now charged with four counts of aggravated child abuse by “torturing, punishing, or caging” four of her five students in the last few months.
Last week, two teacher’s aides couldn’t take it anymore and filed reports with the school district. The incidents they recount are so heinous that any single incident would be chargeable – and yet these abuses continued for over two months. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when O’Neill allegedly backhanded a little girl with areas of bone missing in her skull, potentially causing further brain trauma to a child who was already missing half her brain.
Other acts of which O’Neill is accused include ripping a washcloth out of a child’s mouth so hard that it took a tooth with it, slapping, hitting and kicking special needs children, and pushing kids down and laughing at them. Several of the incidents involved head injuries to kids who really do not need to be hitting their heads.
O’Neill’s attorney says that the teacher’s aides were “not trained in specially handicapped children. [O'Neill] adamantly denies these charges.” Because twisting a boy’s arms behind his back is accepted educational technique, right? And force-feeding a child so hard her gums bled onto the spoon is just a science lesson.
O’Neill is out on bail after her FridayFriday reviews arraignment. Too bad- I would have liked to see her trip while wearing handcuffs, you know, just for laughs.
Update: It took the jury three hours of deliberation to find O’Neill not guilty. This verdict did not sit well with the parents of the abused children, they have hired attorneys and intend to sue the school district.
O’Neill acknowledged on the stand that she called the children names… calling one child named Olivia ‘Oblivia,’ and another child ‘tons of fun.’ She also admitted to ‘bopping’ the children on the head with water bottles, boards and other objects to get their attention.
Because the children involved are so severely disabled and unable to speak, it was difficult to prove whether or not O’Neill’s actions could have caused physical injury or mental harm to her students. Although some of the children received bumps on the head, bruises and scratches in O’Neill’s classroom, the defense said that those do not qualify as injuries.
The school district must decide whether to give O’Neill her old job back and the state could still revoke her teaching license. I for one hope they do revoke it…not guilty verdict aside, I don’t believe the woman should be around children.
11:31 am on February 25th, 2008
More detail on the “tooth incident”
Aides told of an incident when O’Neill was cleaning the victim’s mouth with a cloth(due to recurring food regurgitation.)
The witness said, “O’Neill would take her finger and cram it all the way down as far as she could get it…”, on this date the victim ” bit down on the wash cloth and she yanked it to where his bottom tooth went flying over her right shoulder.”
lol! Not laughing about the kid as, well, that sucks..but goddamn, this woman is like a villain out of a movie. Whenever I am reading some of the stuff she has done, I cannot get the vision out of my head of an even more drunken Carol Burnette as Miss Hannigan in Annie.
11:35 am on February 25th, 2008
OMG!! This women is horrible!!! I’m glad the aides came forward, but how long did this go on before they said anything, I wonder? Those poor kids, disabilities or not, they are still human with feelings.
11:35 am on February 25th, 2008
“You’ll stay up ’till this dump SHINES like the top of the Chrysler Building!”
Scuse me, my bathtub gin is ready or the article woulda been longer.
I think i’m scared you saw Annie, Morbid.
11:39 am on February 25th, 2008
Jesus fucking christ. How could no one know this was going on
???? The parents didnt notice a child’s tooth was missing? What the hell, this is like some other alternate universe???
12:13 pm on February 25th, 2008
Poor kids. Here’s another group of people who should be required to pass an exam to determine their competency in the psycological area. You know, a test to find out if they’re bat-shit, or likely to become that way. Police aren’t the only ones who need checks and balances anymore.
Reason number 6,412 why I don’t need to be a teacher at a public school. I might go off on one of the other teachers! She needs to have a can of whoop-ass opened up on her pos self.
12:19 pm on February 25th, 2008
I thought you had to pass a background check and have lots of training to work with special needs kids. Oh, that must be in my fantasy world, where children are protected and cared for. How silly of me.
My question is why didn’t these aides come forward sooner? They should have come forward at the first sign of any abuse. I think some action needs to be taken against them as well.
1:03 pm on February 25th, 2008
My thoughts exactly – had I been an aid working with her – the first act against any of these children and I would have went to her ass right then and there. Why didn’t the aides at least call someone else in charge, at the FIRST incident? Are the not required by law to report abuse the FIRST time its noticed – not after repeated events?
They need to kill the O’Neill bitch and give the aides a nice long sentence in jail to grasp the full understanding of “sitting on your ass and doing nothing” while helpless children suffer.
1:39 pm on February 25th, 2008
Diana O’Neill has taught in the district for something like 18 years. I think that people become complacent when they’ve worked with someone a long time, and also, nobody’s really paying attention to those kids during the school day except the teacher and the aides.
I’m wondering how many kids this woman has hurt and over how long. This kind of abuse doesn’t just start happening over a course of a month or so – she’s been at this a long time. I think the aides who reported were fairly new, which makes me wonder what happened to the old aides.
2:24 pm on February 25th, 2008
Given the story I would put it past O’Neill to have threatened the other aides and maybe even these aides. My Fiancée is almost done college to become a teacher for K-5 classes. I know if she saw any of this she would be nuts! I think someone should take O’Neill and put her through the same things she put the kids through. Then tell all the people in jail that she was a child abuser. Criminals can punish her further…
3:57 pm on February 25th, 2008
My daughter (22yo) is a special ed teachers aid…she has tons of love for these kids who have tons of love to give back…this biatch just makes me sick!
4:27 pm on February 25th, 2008
Well thank fucking god for that!
8:38 pm on February 25th, 2008
I think she should be sent to this house as a punishment:
http://www.dreamindemon.com/2008/02/21/melissa-dean-went-on-strike/
I’d really love to see what would happen with that scenario!
8:40 pm on February 25th, 2008
Me too! Let her get knocked around by a couple of smart-ass kids. Serve her right!
7:43 am on February 26th, 2008
She’s got ‘Cloris Leachmen’ eyes, and a Nurse Rachett pimp’n backhand. Goodness, this site does unravel the threads of sanity somewhat, hmmm? (giggles incoherently)
9:23 am on February 26th, 2008
The aides did report her in the end. They could have just gotten other jobs and moved on and let the situation continue. While I wish the aides had reported this MUCH earlier (like Day One), I think it’s worth remembering that they did take the right course in the end. And look what’s happened? They are being attacked for not having a professional educational background — as if one is needed to assess what is torture and what is not.
11:29 pm on February 6th, 2009
I’m in 9th grade now. When I was in 5th grade I worked with Mrs. O’Neill for an hour a day. I helped Adam Sherknus, a student in her class, learn how to walk. She broke his shoulder blade. Even though that was never released, I know the two aides who reported her. I knew everyone of those kids, hell, I baby-sat some of them, and she, an adult, had the nerve to hit them? I attended one of the hearings and when she saw me, she started crying. I was in 7th grade then. It just kills me that a woman i worked with for a year hit all of those wonderful kids. If you want to know anything else about the case, let me know.
MrsCullenX@aim.com
8:18 pm on February 16th, 2009
ohhh hellz no! the justice system had it’s chance, me and ms o’neill would be meeting in the school yard at 3pm. I’d beat that bitch bloody.
9:13 pm on February 16th, 2009
a little school yard justice-sounds good
I will bring washclothes and water bottles.
Like school isn’t hard enough for these kids.
11:24 pm on February 16th, 2009
Wow, this bitch is a special breed of asshat, isn’t she? Just add her name to the “Floridiot” list. Seriously, there are too many damn people down here and the stupid is spreading.
12:16 am on February 17th, 2009
I just want to know WHY?? WHY would she do something like this? Why didn’t the jury come back with a guilty verdict? Why hasn’t the state already revoked her license? The minute she was arrested for abuse her license should have been revoked, period. I would not want my child being ‘taught’ by someone who was arrested for abuse whether they were found guilty or not. Law enforcement and the DA obviously had enough evidence to bring her to trial…. that should be enough for the school district to not only fire her ass but for the state to take that damn license away. I mean, what’s the point of keeping her? The parents are going to sue the school district and it will only fuel the fire by reinstating her.
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