LISTEN: Spy camera in EVSC classroom captures what parents describe as a ‘day from hell’

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - At the start of the 2023 school year, Evansville parents were looking forward to sending their children to Culver Early Learning Center. Culver is part of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation. Victoria Ford was one of those parents that was excited for her daughter Scarlett.

“She loved going on the bus, no extra behaviors, was her normal happy singing self,” Ford says.

What started as excitement quickly changed to concern when her daughter started acting out.

“My husband and I would sit there and would try to wonder why,” Ford explains.

Around the same time, Tara Gore, another mom of a Culver student had a gut feeling that something with her son Brady was off. She says he came home with a bruise on his hand.

“He started collapsing to his knees and having meltdowns he never had before. He was crying, he was just showing signs of depression,” Gore shares.

Ford says that children with autism that are non-verbal have different ways to communicate when they are triggered.

“They may non-verbal and not be able to communicate verbally, they communicate with behaviors,” Ford says.

Gore decided she needed to look deeper into what was going on with her son.

“With the America with Disabilities Act that a parent of a child with special needs, especially parents with a child that is non verbal, we have more rights than the average person so if we suspect abuse, we have every right to stick a camera on them,” Gore shares.

Gore decided to take drastic measures to ensure her kid was safe. A spy camera that looked like a key fob was attached to her son’s backpack.

“I caught a day from hell,” Gore describes. They were incredibly horribly mean to our children.

After listening to the videos from the spy camera, Gore sent out a message to the parents of the classroom simply mentioning that she wanted to connect with them. When Victoria Ford saw the message, she knew there was something more to the story. She sent Gore her email address.

“I was sent the videos and I stayed up all night, listening, over and over and over again and I was completely devastated. I feel like I let my kid down by sending her someplace that I was told she would be protected,” Ford shares.

Haley and Jeven Keding have a daughter with rare genetic disorder that only 250 people in the world have.

“My daughter I think is the only one in the classroom that has a physical disability and you can hear her in the audio recording calling her lazy,” Haley Keding explains.

Ashley Turner, another parent of a child in the classroom listened to the videos. She decided to call the school to confront them about what she just heard going on in the classroom.

“That was all in one day, you don’t just have a rough day like that. It shouldn’t happen at all. You shouldn’t sit there and yell at non verbal children for crying,” Turner says tearfully.

“My son was crying over and over and over and nobody helped him. They just yelled at him and the whole time he was just crying and he got yelled at for it,” Turner shares.

Gore said what was documented on the camera throughout the day was triggering. But she hated to watch how her son was talked to by his teacher.

“You can hear it time and time again when I play them back and play them back when there’s so much negativity in that room and it’s not healthy. I wouldn’t say some of the things she said to a grown adult let alone 3 and 4 year olds who can’t defend themselves,” Ford says.

‘It’s not that we’re just saying this and we think it’s happening, we’ve heard it,” Ford explains.

These parents made the decision to pull their children out of the classroom.

“In today’s society, sending kids to school in general as parents is scary. And then you add being special needs and non verbal kids on top of that, it adds a whole new level of fear and you expect our teachers and administrators to protect our kids and they dropped the ball,” Ford shares.

The parents say their children are now thriving.

“He’s a lot better now. Unfortunately Culver is the only EVSC school for kids with special needs so I don’t have anywhere else for him to go unfortunately,” Turner shares. “There is another option but it is too expensive for me to be able to afford it.”

The parents I spoke with say that Evansville doesn’t have a plethora of options for early learning center to send their children with special needs. Applied Behavior Analysis, also known as ABA therapy is one option offered in Vanderburgh County. A parent shared a bill from a center that offers this therapy for over $3,000 a month for part time care. Many of these parents can’t afford the cost of that.

We reached out to EVSC for an interview to talk about this situation. The request was denied and instead sent this statement:

“The EVSC is aware of the situation that occurred at one of our early learning centers last fall. We conducted a thorough review of the incident and have taken the necessary actions to rectify the situation. We are not at liberty to provide further comment on any details regarding matters involving students or employees.”

We read the statement from the school to the parents and they were not surprised by what was said.

“None of us felt that way, that they truly care about our kid because they’re not normal. They’re neurodivergent. They’re not normal kids you see running around town. Our kids are special and they’re perfect and they’re amazing and they don’t deserve this,” Ford shares.

It was impossible to show and depict the entire school day in this story. The videos from the classroom show moments throughout the day that the children were treated with kindness by the adults.

One of the parents in the story contacted the superintendent of EVSC about the situation and he responded “Thank you for reaching out. We will process this information and get back to you.” They have yet to hear back.

House Bill 1073 which passed through the house would require schools that have the funds to have a recording device in areas of the classroom by July of 2025. That bill is now referred to the senate.

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