Special Ed Teacher Charged With Abuse

[Miss Anthrope]

APPLETON — Police are investigating whether Appleton school officials followed legal protocol in reporting suspicions of child abuse by an elementary school special education teacher.

Mary C. Berglund, was charged Tuesday with nine felony child abuse counts and one felony count of strangulation stemming from classroom incidents that occurred from 2009 into January. She resigned from the school in early March and was on administrative leave prior to her departure.

The criminal complaint shows three weeks passed from the incident that prompted an educational assistant to report it to school officials to the day Appleton police initiated their criminal investigation.

[…]

"There are other facets of the investigation that are still continuing," he said, "and that includes possible deficiencies in the reporting of the incident to proper authorities."

Wisconsin's child abuse reporting law lists teachers, school administrators and school counselors among those mandated to report child abuse suspicions. The law requires that they "shall immediately inform, by telephone or personally" their applicable child welfare or law enforcement agency of "the facts and circumstances contributing to a suspicion of child abuse or neglect."

[…]

Berglund, who had nearly 27 years of experience, was reported to police after an educational assistant gave school officials documentation of incidents involving five children. In the last incident, which police say happened Jan. 6, the educational assistant said Berglund lay across a 9-year-old child, grabbed his throat and pushed his head back.

In other incidents, police say Berglund grabbed children by their heads and necks and forced them to put their heads down during "time out" punishments. In a 2009 incident, Berglund twisted the arms and bent back the fingers of an 8-year-old autistic boy, which caused him to scream in pain, the complaint says.

[…]

Officials interviewed several classroom employees. The school then placed Berglund on leave.

[…]

The six-page compliant filed Tuesday included information from a school employee who worked with Berglund from September 2006 through June 2008. She told police it was common for Berglund to grab children in the back of the neck with sufficient force to make them cry. She also recalled an incident in which Berglund dragged a child across a carpet by both of his feet while the student was on his back. After dragging the child three to five feet, Berglund picked him up and he was "roughly slammed back into his chair," the complaint says.
[…]

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/...yssey=nav|head

If this had happened to one of my children, this bitch would still be sitting in my basement getting water boarded !

[AngelFire]

@Miss Anthrope, me scared of you and your basement.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A judge held off on accepting a plea agreement today that would result in no jail time and eventually no felony conviction for a former Appleton teacher accused of child abuse.

Judge Donald Poppy said he needed more information before determining whether the agreement reached in the case of Mary C. Berglund is appropriate.

“This is much more than the simple-type plea agreement that is routinely approved by the court in relatively short order,” he said.

Berglund, 54, appeared in Calumet County Court, where she planned to plead no contest to a felony child abuse charge and five misdemeanor battery counts.

Berglund also was scheduled to receive her sentence.

A deferred judgment agreement was proposed for the felony charge, meaning that charge would be dismissed if Berglund completed terms of the agreement.

Berglund, who taught at Janet Berry Elementary School, was charged in March with nine felony counts of child abuse and one count of strangulation stemming from classroom incidents involving cognitively disabled students in 2009 and in January.

Poppy, a reserve judge who recently retired from the Calumet County bench, said he needed to exercise discretion in deciding whether to accept the plea agreement in light of “significant concessions made by the state” and “significant interest in this case from the community.”
[...]

Dist. Atty. Jerilyn Dietz said she understood Poppy’s caution.

Reasons for the agreement include the inability of the children to come in and testify, she said.

Dietz said she would work with defense attorney Gregory Petit to provide the court with information on the basis for the deal.

“This has been a long negotiation with a lot of input from the families,” she said.

The plea agreement recommends a three-year probation term on the five battery counts.

Under the terms of probation, Berglund would need to undergo an anger management assessment and counseling.

She’d be prohibited from having contact with children younger than 12 to whom she is not related.

The agreement also calls for a one-year jail term to be imposed and stayed, meaning Berglund would only serve jail if she would violate the rule of her probation.
[...]

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/...pleton-teacher

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Former teacher gets probation for student abuse
Defendant must take anger management counseling

Mary Berglund's voice broke as she listed the names of special needs students she worked with at Janet Berry Elementary School.

"I miss watching them learn new skills … I miss teaching, because I wanted to be a teacher since second grade," she said, brushing back tears in the Calumet County courtroom on Wednesday.

The Appleton teacher's 37-year career in education came to an abrupt end in January after she was charged with physical abuse of students in her classroom.

Berglund, 54, was placed on probation for three years after she pleaded no contest to five misdemeanor battery counts and one count of felony child abuse on Wednesday.

Judge Gary Sharpe deferred judgment on the felony charge, but found her guilty of the misdemeanors.

Berglund faces one year in jail if she violates her probation.

She also has to undergo anger management and any other recommended counseling and participate in 100 hours of community service. She can't have unsupervised contact with any children under age 12 who are not family members, while on probation.

In March, she was charged with nine felony counts of child abuse and a felony strangulation count.

The charges were amended before the sentencing.

The amendments took into consideration that Berglund lost her job and permanently lost her teaching license, said Assistant Atty. Gen. Karie Cattanach, who prosecuted the case.

"This defendant ultimately will be punished far more severely long-term than most people charged with physical abuse of a child," Cattanach said.
[...]

In court, Sharpe walked through some inappropriate moves by Berglund, including grabbing a child by the back of the neck, pinching another's cheeks and slapping one's hand.

"This was a severe violation of trust. Families place their most treasured possessions, their children, in the hands of the school district with the expectation they will be treated with kindness ... and nurtured in their environment," Sharpe said.

Berglund failed to use the methods she had been taught when handling tough situations and "resorted to what many of us might do for a child that was non-compliant," Sharpe said.

The judge said he considered the fact that Berglund has no criminal record in his decision to place her on probation, and while her actions were not appropriate for a special education instructor, they did not warrant her going to prison.

Sharpe suggested Berglund offer to talk with other educators in the district about the pressures that led to her disregarding her training and harming children.

If it helps prevent a similar circumstance in the future then "something good would come of this tragedy," Sharpe said.

At the sentencing, Berglund told the court she missed her job, students and the income that helped support her family. She said she's felt shame and humiliation over media coverage of the case.

Defense attorney Gregory Petit said the district didn't give Berglund sufficient resources to handle her classroom.

"It's easy to calm down when you have sufficient time and resources to do so," Petit said.

There's nothing to indicate that Berglund continues to pose a risk to children or the community, Cattanach said, and agreed that probation and stayed jail time is appropriate.
[...]

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/art...-student-abuse

[Waiting4theEnd]

Gotta love our Judicial System! It never ceases to amaze me!

[Pete Bondurant]

This woman has done nothing wrong. What is one supposed to do with these monsters? Electro-shock therapy has been outlawed...I think. They should simply be euthanised. I cannot see the reason such creatures are allowed to exist at all. I simply do not understand.