Heartbreaking Details About A Teacher In Miami Who Was Secretly Recorded Bullying A 5-Year-Old Boy — After Being Awarded Teacher Of The Year
A secret recorder caught the teacher calling him a loser.
Facebook A South Florida woman claims she caught her 5-year-old son's teacher calling him a "loser" on a secret recording device and has hired an attorney.
Kandy Escotto was worried something was going on with her 5-year-old son, Aaron, at school.
"He was behaving super weird," Escotto told Local 10 News. "He didn't want to go to school. He would cry when he knew he needed to go to school."
When Aaron told her he was a bad boy while she was helping him with homework, she became concerned, the Miami Herald reported.
"I said, 'Why do you say something like that?'" Escotto said. "He said, 'That's what the teacher tells me when I don't do my work.'"
Escotto said she complained to Banyan Elementary School Principal Cheri Davis about Aaron's teacher, who was named "Teacher of the Year" this year at a school in Westchester.
Davis said there was nothing she could do unless Escotto provided proof that 33-year-old veteran teacher Rosalba Suarez was bullying Aaron.
The mother bought a recording device and placed it in her son's backpack for four days in October in an effort to figure out who Aaron's bully was. To her surprise, it wasn't a classmate at all — it was his teacher.
The recorder caught Suarez humiliating Aaron and calling him a "loser" when he opted out of participating in class.
"I don't care, don't do it, you think I care? Whatever your mom wants to see, honey, whatever your mom wants to see, you tell me what she wants to see a nice job or she wants to see a loser's job." Suarez is heard saying to Aaron.
Escotto said now that she knows what was going on, she gets why Aaron acted the way he did toward school.
"It was shocking to me because I knew something was going on, but I didn't know it was that bad," Escotto said. "I cried and cried. Then I understood his behavior."
Escotto, who also has a 10-year-old daughter who attends the same school, was shocked and heartbroken.
"For me to hear the things that she was saying to him," Escotto told the Miami Herald. "She picked him out, she singled him out, she humiliated him in front of the whole class. She talked about me in front of him. No 5-year-old should be able to go through that. That affected my family, affected him."
When Escotto confronted both the teacher and principal multiple times and nothing was done, she hired attorney Sonia Roca.
Roca said that although it is illegal to record someone without consent in the state of Florida, Escotto's recording is legal because Suarez has no right to privacy in this case, Local 10 News reported.
"She did what I feel any mom would do when they’re faced with no other choices," Roca said.
Escotto said that she transferred Aaron out of Suarez's class for his sake but was not happy about it because her son was not at fault.
"After I changed him from the class, he did really well," she said. "He went to honor roll. His grades changed and he's happy now."
According to the Miami Herald, Escotto spent months making sure her case was legally sound but is unsure if she will take legal action against the school. Her main focus is getting her son's teacher disciplined for "intentional infliction of emotional distress" and a "breach of fiduciary duty."
The Miami-Dade School District is investigating the case.
“Miami-Dade County Public Schools goes to great lengths to promote a culture of dignity and respect, not only among our students but with our employees," spokeswoman Jackie Calzadilla said in a statement. "We work diligently to ensure the well-being of every child entrusted to our care."
"Any action that runs contrary to the values we instill in our school community will not be tolerated. The district will conduct a thorough review of this matter and, if the allegations are substantiated, we will take any and all appropriate disciplinary actions.”
Suarez has not been reprimanded and is still teaching kindergarten at Banyan Elementary, Local 10 News reported.
"It’s sad that we have to get to this point to get a response from somebody to look into this complaint that I put in a long time ago," she said.
Sarah Gangraw is a travel-addicted cat lady who lives on black coffee and cheese. She has a degree in journalism and writes about all things news and crime. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter — she's occasionally funny.