Two Montana Teacher's Aides Charged With Abuse of Special Needs Students

Oct. 22, 2009 — -- Two teacher's aides face felony charges stemming from allegations that they abused special needs students in their Montana middle school classroom.

Julie Ann Parish and Kristina Marie Kallies are each charged with one felony count of assault on a minor and one misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of children after the Great Falls Police Department investigated the alleged December abuse of student Garrett Schilling, then 13.

The aides are accused of holding Schilling's head under running water after he fell asleep in class, forcing him to sit in his soiled pants for hours and making him eat his own vomit when he got sick at Great Falls' North Middle School.

Schilling's mother, Tifonie Schilling, said her son, now 14, has Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder that leaves him with limited means of communication and results in his showing symptoms often associated with autism.

Because of this, Schilling said, her son was never able to tell her about the brutal treatment he was allegedly receiving at the hands of his own teacher's aides, which they have denied.

"If the teachers thought Garrett was being lazy or falling asleep at his desk, they forcibly took my son to the kitchen sink in the room and forced his head under the water while he was screaming for his mother," Schilling said of the alleged incidents. "And if he had an accident in his pants he was made to sit in it all day. They would taunt him and say, 'You stink like a baby.'

"They were waterboarding my son," Schilling said, adding that she learned of the alleged abuse in April 2008, when a teacher's aide with whom she was friendly sent her an e-mail warning her of Garrett's teacher's aides.