Parents of a Georgia special needs student speak out after son was locked in bathroom for hours

ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. — The parents of a special needs student at General Ray Davis Middle School are speaking out for the first time after he was forced into a bathroom and locked in by himself for two hours.

The student’s parents got to see video of how two paraprofessionals and a teacher got physical with their son.

They tell Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes the video was worse than they thought it would be.

Both said they were glad the three educators are now facing a criminal investigation.

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The parents had to compose themselves to walk into the Rockdale County School District to watch the video because they knew it was going to upset them.

They saw what happened on video, then they learned it had happened not just on one day, but two different times.

They told Channel 2 Action News it was infuriating.

Jordan Akins is 13 and has autism. He’s considered non-verbal. On the first week of school, the principal of General Ray Davis called his parents, Jennifer and Rodney Akins, and said there was an incident with him that needed to be investigated.

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Jordan’s parents demanded to see the video.

In the footage, they saw three men, two of whom were paraprofessionals and one who was a teacher, manhandling their son.

“Jordan was on the floor, and he was trying to pick him up, he couldn’t pick him up, so he took his arm and he just drug him, drug him into the bathroom,” Jennifer Akins said. “What’s so crazy is, from day one, I haven’t had emotions, but yesterday I came home, I just cried.”

She said the video shows that all the training went out the window, because there was no way a non-verbal child with autism should be treated that way, especially when there was a sensory room Jordan could have been placed in.

The incident the parents learned about was the same thing as what was on video, but the day before.

The Akins said the educators locked Jordan in the bathroom four different times in one day.

“Get in the bathroom, you’re not listening - get in the bathroom. Put him in the bathroom! That’s all we heard,” Jennifer Akins said.

After the video, she said she told her husband it was like the teacher and paraprofessionals just didn’t like their son.

“For a mother to know someone doesn’t like their child, that broke me,” she said in tears. “There was force again, on the first video and on the second video - a chair was placed in front of the door, a student sat in the chair, and when the student got up, the paraprofessional sat in the chair, so he couldn’t get out.”

The school district is doing its own investigation, and when asked to comment, they said they expect their employees to conduct themselves professionally and ethically.

The Rockdale County Sheriff’s Department also said they’re investigating the incident, and all three staff members are under criminal investigation.

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