The mother of an 8 year old autistic boy who has severe peanut allergies has sued a special ed teacher who allegedly gave her son a peanut-filled candy bar in hopes of making him sick so that he wouldn't go on a field trip. The teacher allegedly told a classroom aide that the boy would likely misbehave on the trip and "maybe he could get sick enough not to attend and we won't have to deal with it." The mother said that her son, who is mostly non-verbal, gets hives and experiences swelling if he merely touches peanuts.

A classroom aide told school officials that the teacher treated the boy like a "caged animal" by keeping him for hours at a time in a cubicle that should have been used for short times alone. She was also accused of pinching the boy, standing on his foot so he could not move his leg, and grabbing him by the arm to drag him around the classroom. The school fied a report with Child Protective Services immediately upon hearing of the complaint and put the teacher on administrative leave.

Classroom aides also claimed the teacher hit a nine-year old girl with Down Syndrome on the lips in an attempt to make her pull her tongue back in. The teacher claimed it was a therapeutic technique.

In 2007, the same teacher was placed on administrative leave in another school district after a nurse told a child's mother that she saw the teacher force-feed her daughter, slap her and improperly restrain her. The teacher has denied all of the allegations.