Just another teacher of the year who is facing abuse charges.

61-year-old Jane Forgione, a special education teacher in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, has been charged with assaulting three of her students. According to WNEP, teacher’s aides reported that Forgione punched a child in the back, twisted a child’s ears, and bit a child’s fingers.

12-year-old Colby Van Horn, who has autism and who is non-verbal, was a student in Forgione’s special needs class for two years; while he is not one of the three students whom Forgione has been charged with assaulting, his parents and sisters say that he changed while in Forgione’s class:

“He was so aggressive. We knew something was going on. He could tell us with his
body language. There was just something wrong,” said John Van Horn. “He was more
aggressive toward my wife, and the other two kids.”
“He was throwing things,
knocking things over, breaking things, hitting everybody and then stopped when
he got transferred out of the school, yes,” said the boy’s mother.

Forgione was suspended without pay in April and has retired from the district. In 2006 she was voted teacher of the year by a support group for parents of autistic children.

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It seems pretty crazy to me that these folks keep getting named "teacher of the year".