Teacher Diana O'Neill abuses the neediest of our kids

[sassymom08]

Oh, this one just pisses me off! This teacher was getting her jollies by abusing handicapped kids, and she felt so superior she did it in front of the classroom aides!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23297915/

Venice police say Diana Z. O'Neill hit students on more than one occasion, kicked a child and twisted a child's arm behind his back.

Girl, 7, Punished With 'Body Sock'
Autistic Boy Allowed To Bump Head
Girl Backhanded, Reports Say
Boy, 8, Came Home With Bruises

[impqueen]

Any ONE of the incidents in the linked article are enough for a legally mandated report to authorities. Unbelievable. How did this go on for so long?

Oh yeah, it's in Florida.

[skeptical]

Speaking as the mom of a special needs child, if that were my child, she better be grateful that the police got to her first. I would have gone to that school and ripped her limb from limb. These type of children don't deserve that kind of treatment. I made one teacher's life so miserable a few years ago that she elected not to return the following school year. And how could the parents not know something was going on? When you witness unusual changes in your childs personality and behavior or find bruises on them you need to say WTF is going on at the school?

[impqueen]

it's up on the front page now: http://www.dreamindemon.com/2008/02/25/diana-oneill-picks-on-little-kids/

[Dakota Valkyrie]

She is now on trial:

http://i41.tinypic.com/mx20pz.jpg
No one involved with the court case against Diana O'Neill disagrees that the teacher hit her severely developmentally disabled students in the head with water bottles, boards and binders.

Two classroom aides who say they witnessed her do it call it abuse.

But O'Neill's attorneys say she was trying to get her students' attention and condition them to know when they answered questions incorrectly.

The question of whether O'Neill's actions qualify as abuse has become one of the central issues in the trial against the former Venice Elementary School special education teacher.Full Article: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090213/ARTICLE/902130355/-1/NEWSSITEMAP

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A well-spoken and assertive Diana O'Neill spent nearly four hours arguing her innocence Friday before a jury found her not guilty of four child abuse charges.

The former Venice Elementary School special education teacher sat with her hands folded as the clerk read off each of the counts and the jury's not-guilty decision. After jurors left the room, O'Neill cried and hugged her husband.

The parents of the students she was accused of abusing sat on the other side of the courtroom Friday holding hands and hugging each other before the jury announced its verdict.

Some of them sobbed after the jury left the courtroom. One grandmother asked whether the verdict meant O'Neill could keep teaching. They all declined to comment.

Friday's verdict closes the criminal case against O'Neill, but not everything has been resolved.

The school district must decide whether to give O'Neill her old job back and the state could still revoke her teaching license.

Additionally, the parents of the children O'Neill was accused of abusing have hired attorneys and said they intend to sue the school district.
[...]
While criminal courts must prove beyond a reasonable doubt a defendant's guilt, the standard is much lower for school districts or the state to revoke a teacher's license.Full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29198606/