In a clear moment of physical abuse leading to a $5 million lawsuit and the loss of his job (thank God), a Brooklyn teacher was captured on tape punching his autistic student hard enough to give him a concussion.
The video, released by the New York Daily News, shows the teacher, Milton Parker, hitting his 11-year-old student Anatoly Veltman, Jr. inside the cafeteria at school PS 255. The physical abuse was reportedly so traumatic for the boy that he is now being home schooled because of it.
So what exactly happened? Allegedly, Parker was reprimanding the student for spilling some ice onto the floor when the boy responded, “This table is for whites only,” and hit Parker. This initial hit was captured on the video. Parker’s return swing was just a reflex, he claims. Parker says:
“Who gets hit and doesn’t respond? The kid punched me in the eye first and as a reflex he got hit back.”
Does that give him a free pass for smacking a student who is only 11 years old? Of course not. The worst part was that he wasn’t even apologetic about the situation, which basically showed how he really felt about it. Parker claims the incident “destroyed” his life, but he never did show sympathy for the child. In fact, he had this horrible thing to say:
” I knew it was on camera. If it was intentional, I would have taken him to another room and beaten the snot out of him.”
I think that quote is sufficient enough to paint a picture of Parker as a person. The school is surely better off without him there harassing the students. Hopefully his life has in fact been destroyed, and I can only pray that he will never work with kids again.
Watch the video of the incident below:
h/t to Raw Story
Featured image is from Colin Davis, available under a Creative Commons 2.0 license.
