Mom wants cameras in special needs classrooms - Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com

A local mother is on a crusade to get cameras in classrooms of special needs students after she said her son was physically abused by a teacher.

Bregett Rideau's son Terrence is 17 years old, but he still has the mental capacity of a baby. He cannot speak and cannot walk.

"At 4 months he had an adverse reaction to a DPT shot. It damaged his brain," she said.

Several years ago she noticed him coming home from Keller Middle School with injuries.

"Each injury, no one knew how it happened," Rideau said. "It's a knot on his head this big. They said he got bitten by a mosquito. That's some serious mosquito."

Terrence came home with a broken thumb one day. Four months later Rideau got called to the school because he was screaming. It turned out he had a dislocated right knee.

"When you baby comes home with broken stuff you can't tell him not to touch it. You got to fix it so he can't touch it," she said.

In 2010 the Rideaus filed a lawsuit against the Keller Independent School District. In it they alleged the teacher frequently dropped Terrence, slammed his head against a hard plastic swing and forcefully kicked him onto a mat.

The family's attorney, Michael Hurst, said some of the claims are documented. Other school staffers saw the abuse, including the teacher eating some of his students' lunches.

"The witnesses say that and he admits that on occasion he'd do that," Hurst said.

Keller ISD declined to comment.

Rideau said her lawsuit is not about money.

"I want cameras in the classrooms of special needs kids, that's all," she said.

She asked the district to install cameras in those classes six years ago. Now she's on a mission to make sure it happens across the country so she and other parents don't have to worry when their kids leave for school.

The family also started a petition aimed at putting cameras in special needs classrooms. To sign it, visit http://www.change.org/petitions/they-can-t-say-stop-run-or-tell-what-happened.