What a troubling story:

Two Alabama teachers were caught cruelly taunting and abusing a 10-year-old boy who has celebral palsy after the boy's mother attached an audio recorder to his wheelchair.

…Determined to be sure of what was happening herself she attached a bugging device to Jose's wheelchair and left it recording over three days.

The recording revealed that her son was being cruelly taunted about his disability and ignored for the majority of the day with no-one giving him instruction.

…After listening to the tapes. which she said 'broke her heart', Salinas immediately pulled her son out of the school.

'I could not believe someone would treat a child that way, much less a special needs child,' Melisha Salinas told ABCNews.com.

'The anger in his voices ... and the thing he was getting angry about, [Jose] just can't help.'

She played the tapes to the school board and the teachers were placed on administrative leave.

And Jose, who is known as Little Joe to his family and friends, was able to return to school.

But within days the teachers were returned to their positions so Salinas and other parents took their children out of the school in protest.

The reason I highlight this isn't to bash teachers or because I believe anything more than a small fraction of teachers behave so reprehensibly. Rather: A) How much do you want to bet that these teachers are given a slap on the wrist rather than instantly fired (which is what would happen in any sane organization)?; and B) While this is certainly an extreme case, I think special needs children of all sorts, especially poor and minority ones, are very poorly served by our schools.

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