A veteran special ed teacher who taught at the same school for 36 years wept in court today as she was jailed for 93 days for assaulting two young students. This is beyond sickening:
Shirley Thoen, 59, of Marysville, Michigan, pleaded guilty in December to two counts of assault and battery and was sentenced on Thursday.
According to a police report, she was seen dropping a child and then kicking him in the head. Footage also captured Thoen pushing a child over and stepping on children’s hands and feet.
She openly cried as she apologized to the parents and children she hurt and insisted she was not ‘a monster’.
Thoen, who worked at Thomas Edison Elementary School in Port Huron, taught children aged between four and six and many of them had issues with their development, with some unable to speak.
Surveillance cameras were installed in the classroom after teaching assistants told police they had concerns with the way she treated children, the Detroit Free Press reported.
‘I lost my patience and let the frustrations of the classroom situation get the best of me,’ an emotional Thoen said at her sentencing.
‘I should never have allowed myself to lose my patience with the children. I am not a monster, but a person who made terrible mistakes.’
According to a police report, Thoen was seen dropping a child and then kicking him in the head
Thoen was originally investigated for child abuse but was instead charged with assault and battery because the abuse charge required clear intent to injure, which the authorities felt was not apparent.
Lindsay Schneider, whose son was one of the two Thoen was accused of hurting, said her boy did not want to go to school but could not communicate this to his parents.
‘I never got to know my child was hurting all of those months,’ she said at the sentencing.
Crying as she spoke, the mother added: ‘I kept him in an environment that I assumed was safe because people around me – principals, administrators and the defendant herself – gave me a false sense of security.’
Prosecutor Mona Armstrong said children who witnessed the assaults were also victims, saying that the police video showed a little girl going silent and slowly walking away after one of her classmates was kicked.
Thoen’s attorney Matthew Lozen said his client had admitted what she did was wrong and said she had no other problems during her 36 years working as a teacher.
Judge John Monaghan said the long-term impact on the vulnerable students would be ‘tremendous’.
She was sentenced to 93 days in jail, with 73 days suspended on completion of probation. Not that it is enough, because anyone who harmed MY special needs child would not only answer to my entire family, but they would be in a WORLD of hurt.
Written by Katie McGuire. Send your hate mail to the author at katiefmcguire@gmail.com, or feel free to mean tweet me at @GOPKatie, where I will be sure to do very little about it.