Three teachers were suspended from a British school after an 11-year-old boy with Down syndrome was left naked and soaking wet on a playground for half an hour, according to a report on Thursday.
Levi Blackshaw was recorded on CCTV cameras “curled up in a ball” after being taken outside in the cold last Oct. 30 by staffers at the special-needs Stanley School in Wirral, North West England, his mother, Suzanne Cole told the Echo.
“When I found out I was just crying. I went into the school and I nearly smashed the classroom up,” Cole said. “My partner had to get the social workers and I had to be removed from the building.”
The distraught mom said she demanded to see the surveillance footage — and burst into tears.
“It was awful,” she said.
The day of the incident, Levi, who is non-verbal, had been acting up and was left alone in a classroom.
He began playing with water, got wet and decided to take his clothes off, Cole said.
When school staffers went to retrieve him, deputy head teacher Cecilia Maxwell told them to leave the boy outside with just a towel around his shoulders, the mom claimed.
After about eight minutes, Levi was given some shorts — but then was left outside alone for another 22 minutes, the CCTV footage reportedly showed.
The school announced this week that Maxwell, head teacher Anthony Roberts and assistant head teacher Helen Clements had all been suspended while it continues to look into the allegations.
“Governors have appointed a new temporary leadership team to take over the management of the school whilst a full investigation is carried out into concerns that have been raised,” said David Spencer, the chairman of governors at Stanley School.
Levi has since moved to a different school, his mom said.