Cruel Teacher Shows True Colors to Student, Has No Idea Mom Strapped Secret Recorder to Him
As a child, I was one of those unfortunate kids who got bullied — a lot. My peers loved to poke fun at my bookish ways and general lack of athleticism.
It wasn’t really a surprise. According to a study published in 2016 by the U.S. Department of Education, 20.8 percent of students report receiving some kind of verbal abuse while at school.
But most of us expect that such bullying comes from, you know, other children. But a report out of South Florida has shown that it isn’t always the case.
Kandy Escotto knew her five-year-old son Aaron was having problems when his grades started to sink and he began to complain about school. “Mommy, I’m a bad boy,” he finally told her one day.
“I said, ‘Why do you say something like that?’” Escotto reported to the Miami Herald. “He said, ‘That’s what the teacher tells me when I don’t do my work.’”
Escotto didn’t choose to sit on the news. Instead, she went directly to the principal of Banyan Elementary where Aaron attended.
There was just one problem: Aaron’s instructor was Rosalba Suarez, a 33-year veteran and recent recipient of a teacher of the year award.
The principal explained to Escotto that he couldn’t act without proof. So the wrathful mother secreted away a tape recorder in her son’s backpack and captured 32 hours of audio.
What she heard chilled her. “She picked him out, she singled him out, she humiliated him in front of the whole class,” Escotto said.
“She talked about me in front of him. No 5-year-old should be able to go through that.”
One particularly nasty exchange involved Suarez chastising little Aaron over him using an incorrect technique to bubble in answers on a pre-filled test sheet. “Raise your hand if you know how to bubble,” the recording caught Suarez saying.
“Aaron doesn’t know. … I still don’t know what to say to your mom. She’s driving me crazy.”
Suarez also criticized Escotto on the tape, calling her “a little lost.” Yet the award-winning teacher denied ever saying such things when confronted directly by Escotto.
But rather than fly off the handle or make rash accusations, Escotto took her time. She hired an attorney, who told her that her recordings were legal since a classroom was a public place.
She also had the attorney send a certified letter to the school district as part of a liability investigation. Finally, she also transferred Aaron to a different class.
“I transferred him out of the class because I didn’t want him to keep suffering,” Escotto said. “He went from having F’s to having excellent grades.”
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