This Week on True Crime Daily The Podcast: A husband and wife accused of killing the husband’s sister and living with the body to collect the victim’s disability checks. Plus, a school and three former employees indicted for the death of a 13-year-old boy with autism after he was restrained for over an hour and a half.
Joshua Ritter joins host Ana Garcia.
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Ana Garcia
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http://www.anagarciatv.com/
Joshua Ritter
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I was a special ed assistant. I don't know about all schools, but the ones that are in Los Angeles have a company that they use to provide a 'nonviolent crisis intervention (nci)' training in which they teach you how to restrain students without hurting them. They also teach you how to use 'antecedent behavior consequence (abc)' techniques to try to recognize when things are about to get rough and prevent it from escalating and to apply acceptable consequences. It's a paid training that happens during school hours.
I have been to a school where they have small rooms within classrooms that have windows and benches in them. Some students are taken in there with a staff member to work on calming down. It's not a punishment. Students learn to ask to be in them when they feel a problem coming on.
It's unfortunate, but many people in special education aren't in it for the students. In Los Angeles, you just have to have a degree in SOMETHING and pass an exam to become a teacher. Assistants only have to volunteer for half a year to be a substitute. They only need 12 child development units. There are many people who are waiting for their acting careers to take off, pass the law bar exam, or something or have another job/business and need the medical benefits. There are so many reasons to be in special education besides a love for the work. They expect it to be easier than dealing with regular students, don't care about putting in a real effort to educate the students, and stuff. I worked with a teacher who would give the students the same puzzles daily and do his other work at his desk all day. Another one went through all of his printer cartridges printing out ski trip flyers in the first week of school. He did real estate and planned trips and left the real work to assistants all day every day. One of the principals had a toilet paper stand with numbered sheets by her door that had a sign that said something about taking a number, if you have a complaint or suggestion. One teacher's son was on the payroll and never showed up. I could go on with examples like these ones.
Most cases Private schools don't have the same requirement as public ones. That's why it's partially ridiculous that we keep trying to destroy our public School system. We have more authority over public schools because there are elected officials that we can hold a capable not corporations that we have to file a lawsuit against.
My son was a behavior tech then became a teacher certified in special needs. I couldn't do what he does with the Patience and understanding he has. That's what it takes though. He never takes it personal. He knows it's the illness, mental, or otherwise of the child that causes them to act out. There are requirements at times for very very temporary restraints when it's becoming physically necessary or dangerous. But once that danger is over, it shouldn't be used as a punishment and at least in a public school district that could get you put in jail pretty quick.
In this state they have behavior texts that are in fact trained, and are responsible for coming up with the behavior part of the child's education.
I wonder if this kid was black by any chance cause that remind me so much of George Floyd
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21:14 We get it Ana, sending lots of LOVE❤❤❤
so wrong.. why do people have kids if they cant properly care for them?! STOP HAVING KIDS! unless you can devote your life to being a parent FIRST!
I work as a nurse in a children's psych hospital. Never hold them face down!
As someone that was locked in the closet a lot as a kid, it is very terrifying . Especially because you're confused on what you did wrong to get in there. Which leads to you panicking and breaking down because they wont let you out and its dark so you think something is going to get you😕 its not going to calm you down
No mercy for those teachers. It's a myth that all special ed teachers are altruistic many are inept at best and there to collect a paycheck.
I taught special needs for 28+ years. My last assignment was to a 500+ population that served those severely physically and mentally challenged students that could not be served in their home districts from six surrounding districts. Our students were on the Autism Spectrum, socially and emotionally disturbed, ADHD, Fetal Alcohol and all those disorders and conditions found in the DSM. Those students were 6 years to 21 years. We had a crisis team that could be called at a moments notice for emergencies and all of our staff were trained every year for these emergencies. Students were quickly moved from the classroom and the offending student was left in the room with the trained staff and crisis team. Police were not trained to handle these situations.
I saw a short documentary of a sister and brother in law who took in an adult severely special needs sister (of the wife), & they love every fiber of her being, & take excellent care of her. She’s an adult with an infant’s cognitive abilities. Not only that, but they -even the brother-in-law -lit up when he saw her, as he would when caring for a baby…with love and compassion.
They agreed to take her in fully intending to make use of that social security check monthly, but they got tired of actually having to take care of her & her being around, & decided to try to have their cake & eat it too. So sad that she literally had nowhere safe to go just exist.
This girl is from my town bwfore she moved there and would come back arguing with people saying she would k*** them and fight them, not to mess with her, would flash money and call everyone broke bi****s and she made it big cause she made it out of Ukiah and so on
Their may not be criminal intent is the death. Its also extraordinary that such a young boy is so massive in size. Clearly fed a lot of high fat food.
Also the school has a duty of care as a special needs school to Max as a child with special needs.
Oh well there is a lot of abuse towards special folks. The school can be vicairiouly liable for employees who are negligent in their duty off care.
Omgosh! I am watching this year old episode..and its so awesome to look in the past and see you kept your word! A.Garcia had a subscriber on AND she responded to my recent comment! I bragged to everyone!
Someone should have had a half a brain and call 911! Schools should all have cameras in classrooms, hallways and outside! Cameras parents can access live at any time! Its so hard to trust strangers as it is! Maybe cameras would remind human beings to act appropriately!
I also hope Maggie haunts them for the rest of their lives 24/7. They deserve every bit.
Poor Max, these caretakers are 100% evil. And so is the sheriff.
They likely escalated this situation and then tortured him to death. He didn't need restraint for more than a few minutes at the most, he must have been so scared. 😢
These teachers weren't trained? Why are they working at a special needs facility? They should never work with any person ever again. They are obviously not able to make sensible life decisions. I am wondering who has special needs here.
This wasn't manslaughter but murder IMO.
That picture of that little girl and poor dog really hits hard. I hate evil beings.
i worked for 22 years with special needs children. Thankfully, i was the type of person that was able to realize that there was a reason for this child to go off. i had to let teachers know that if they couldnt keep their face out of the face of this child, then i would no longer work in this classroom with them.
sadly, after 22 years, i was NEVER taught how to work with any child, i was NEVER told what their label was. i have had children who had severe seizures and was never warned or told about anything.
i feel that any teacherparapro who works with children with disabilities should have to go through a training.
its sad how many people are not trained.
⭐️ It's repulsive what human beings are capable of doing to another! When your own greed is the reason, you're a predatory animal!
This epic failure of police and social services is prevalent everywhere in the United States.
This country doesn't value our vulnerable adults.
When i was in grade 3 we had a adhd child.. He would just snap throw chairs and everything else in his path.. Our teacher would get all the other children out of the classroom shut the door and then the school would call his grandma who he lived with to come calm him down and take him home.. His grandma would make him clean up all the mess he made before they left school.. Once he was gone then we were back to normal.. Teacher never laid a hand on him.. Her job was to get the rest of us out to safety.
Anna Garcia, most if not all special needs recipients of So Sec Disabilty benefit checks are required to have representative payees in order for the funds to be received and overseen by the representative payee. Several years ago, I was a representative payee for an individual until that person could become recovered from hospitalization. The Representative Payee may me a close family member, and agency that provides the works to care for that person, whether in house or out patient.
Representative Payees can serve their unpaid role ethically or unethically. As the " Voice" of the recipient, they have access to the funds that are transmitted electronically into a checking or saving account, as over 150,000 plus person who receive paper( physical ) benefit checks. ( The paper checks are available if requested for with receipients that have received benefits for a very long time.)
Maggie, I am so very sorry that your relatives murdered you and abused you in order to take your Disability Checks, in order to callously and evilly commit usury on your benfits.
Annie Garcia and others, I have worked with developed and mentally delayed clients and family members.
I was scrupulously careful with taking care of the funds of disabled persons.
However, I can state that at the time I was a Representative Payee, I observed that the very lax accounting practices seemed ripe for exploitation.
A "Child," mentally, no matter how old their physical body may be, can be vulnerable to those bent on taking advantage. All mailed correspondance can be co-opted, if they Payee lives at another address, those letters will never been seen by the actual recipient. The letters that ARE received by the payee themselves are not usually comprehended or understood. If they are not protected,indeed, the recipient can be told that the letters are "best to be read by the grown-ups and more.
Anyone with anything that causes them to have disabling conditions can be coerced and taken advantage of. Unfortunately, countless vulnerable persons are stolen from, intimidated, and injured, even close to death or with death by those who choose to exploit.
I think every school should have teachers in training maybe twice a year to keep up with all this restraining as this 1hour 45 mins is far far too long and adult would go through this whom has autism it’s absolute terrible and people need to learn of these needs and yes restrain but never this long .absolute horrendous poor boy .and the parents will be taking this all the way.autsm isn’t a joke or kids or adults being petulant it’s an actual disability and ther brain doesn’t work the same but they are still human and don’t deserve this treatment 😢
They say people will get help and nothing happens it’s exact same here in uk and it results in terrible ending for some and or left with the bad memory’s of these terrible acts
Some pretty sick individuals walk among us each day tbh .this poor girl didn’t get help she asked for and someone whom needs extra care .how they were able to cash cheques all that time is very mind boggling what an absolute terrible story just sick 🤢
Maybe the teachers revealed stuff about school policy, during their preliminary hearing, that made them decide to present that information to a grand jury??
BTW, I don't think grand juries are constitutional! The prosecutor can omit any evidence that would make them possibly clear the defendant, and they pick and choose evidence, they believe will make them win, and the defense lawyers don't even get to attend, let alone present their evidence. I've seen too many cases, where a "not quite totally honest" prosecutor presented things that were hearsay, rumor, or false, and omit evidence that showed the defendant had alibis that they weren't anywhere near the crime! It's a very unfair, one sided, stacked system!
George Floyd was held down for 9 minutes, and died.
Holding this child down for an hour and a half, what did they expect would happen? They likely did it out of anger/frustration! Walk away, if you feel that way! Have a quiet room, where the child can't hurt themselves, or others! Don't act out of anger or frustration.
He was likely reading their frustration, and acted off of that!
My sister, who is 63, works in a public school, one on one with children with behavior problems. She gets frustrated with "school rules" on how to deal with problem children, with emotional issues. She raised 3 children, in Chicago, when their mother couldn't raise the one, because of drugs, etc; and the other two, the oldest had, with two different dads. The oldest is now a lawyer, one son is in the Marines, and I'm not sure about the other. They would have been street kids or in jail, without her. My sister just went to the lawyer's beach house for Labor Day weekend!!!
If the school knew they were restraining children for hours, they would be mandatory reporters. So, if they didn't report that this has happened before, they are also responsible.
I think these commenters just dropped the ball. Of course authorities will believe she disappeared herself if her checks are being cashed. There is so much faking and levels of disability; of course there are so many possibilities and death is the least likely but in this case it's what happened.
The Medical Examiner may disagree. This sounds criminal. There isn't a logical reason for the teachers actions. It was excessive.
The school should have called the parents and and ambulance.
Why didn't the other family members take her in if they knew there was an issue? If she did disappear why didn't the brother report it? The whole faimly failed her including Adult Protective Services.
18 or 19 would be Adult Protective Services
This travesty happens more than we know.
Ana these are terrible cases & you ask every question we are all thinking,you are so compassionate, and there is just something about you that makes you different from other reporters…you have great guests like this episode so this is the best podcast I've seen regarding crime….keep it up and please know I truly wish I knew you!!
My daughter has 6 kids and 1 has autism he's so sweet and he didn't like being touched even hugs until a year ago… could Max be one that had that issue with being touched???
It's so sad to me my heart is broken 💔!!!
The same daughter was a teachers assistant in a special needs class…
Some were non verbal and didn't like to be touched my daughter worked as a volunteer for the school year and she was hired for the summer class by the end 2 students who were nonverbal were hugging her and telling her that they love her… during story time they either sat and held her hand or sat on her lap… I told her about this and she cried.
She said they had a timeout room where the sit in a classroom with soft toys and fidget toys a teachers assistant will sit with them… never hold them down but sit behind them and hug them and hold there hands
It took 5 minutes then play with the toys until calm
I'm so sad… I hope Max's 🙏 parents 🙏 will win their case and they start to heal… grief has no expiration date
I send love to all special needs kids that are facing this horror show may God keep them safe
The education system is horrible when it comes to helping children with disabilities in my state.
I know I am very late in responding but yes, special ed staff are trained in the proper restraints. It sounds more like the people were burnt out & or using their "power" to control the special needs children