A teacher and two teacher's aides at a Texas elementary school disciplined their special-needs fifth-graders by soaking some cotton balls in vinegar and shoving them into the kids' mouths. Some of the kids couldn't talk. If they can't talk, they can't complain.

But a witness complained, and so the teacher has been "public response. "This isolated occurrence is very unfortunate and we want parents to know that there is no evidence that such techniques have been used in other classrooms or by other personnel," the statement says. "It saddens and deeply concerns the district that such techniques could have occurred." Or that such techniques were used. /Fixed.

The National Autism Association claims that the kids were also forced to exercise on a treadmill "faster or longer than they wanted." The association points out that many such "aversive behavioral interventions" are 100 percent legal in many of the nation's prison-schools (including schools in New York state). Which might be something you parents out there might want to change, considering that these techniques amount to child abuse and do more harm than good. Meantime, Katy police have conducted an investigation and forwarded their findings to the local DA.

[KPRC]