Pennsylvania Mom Catches Teachers Mocking Disabled Child On Tape

WEST ALEXANDER — The Pennsylvania mother of a special needs student is suing Washington County’s McGuffey School District after a trio of teachers mistakenly left her a voicemail message mocking her daughter's disability.

According to the lawsuit filed by Beth Suhon, her daughter's fifth-grade teacher left her a voicemail message in 2015 but forgot to hang up at the end of the call. Three teachers - Mr. Neundorf, Mrs. Papson and Mr. Wolf can then be heard saying cruel things about the child as well as another student with a disability, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit cites a special education hearing officer who concluded, "The educators mock the students' mathematics ability, physical appearance, and classroom behavior, punctuating these crass comments with derisive laughter,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

The officer, Michael McElligott, issued a split ruling, calling the comments on the voicemail "nearly unfathomable, and frankly heart-breaking," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. In his ruling, he found the district discriminated against the girl but denied Suhon's claim that the district acted with deliberate indifference. But in her suit filed Sunday in the U.S. District Court, Suhon is pursuing both allegations, claiming the school district violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act. Patch was unable to reach a representative of the school district for comment Monday.

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Suhon alleges the school district discriminated against her daughter by improperly terminating her special-needs teaching plan. According to the lawsuit, the district also retaliated against the family for complaining that their child was being bullied by her teacher. Suhon's daughter has Turner's Syndrome, which causes developmental delays, and according to Suhon, the child has long been bullied by other children. However, hearing such cruelty from teachers was absolutely heartbreaking.

“It was very difficult for me to tell my child, who has been bullied by her peers for years, that she was now being bullied by her teachers,” Suhon told ABC's Eyewitness News.

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