Asbury Park, NJ: Teacher fired after confining 2 SPED kids in a bathroom; half of class was SPED

Dec 7, 2017, Asbury Park (NJ) Press: NJ teacher fired after confining special needs kids in bathroom http://www.app.com/story/news/education/2017/12/07/teacher-fired-after-confining-special-needs-kids-bathroom/930074001/ A preschool teacher was fired for confining two special needs students in a bathroom, according to a report. A state arbitrator ruled Nov. 20 that the teacher's actions warranted her termination from the Wayne school district where she was tenured, the report claims. … The teacher Donna DeMarco placed two students in the bathroom on separate occasions. DeMarco asserted "she did so to de-escalate their emotional and potentially dangerous behavior," according to arbitrator's opinion. … The report states that DeMarco was a teacher at Packanack Elementary, where she had a classroom of 16 students, half of whom were special needs or on the autism spectrum. She testified in the arbitration hearing that she also called the children names in front of her colleagues as a means of venting and used bathroom confinement as a de-escalation technique. …