Cherry Hill father Stuart Chaifetz  made two national television appearances today to discuss the bullying of his autistic son in a Cherry Hill classroom but has yet to release further audio.

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Appearing on Fox News Channel’s American Newsroom he repeated his promise to release more audio of his son Akian being bullied by teachers and aides in a classroom in the Horace Mann Intermediate School in Cherry Hill sometime this week.

 

He called the on going investigation by school officials “vindication” of his allegations but said the “worst comments” were not necessarily made by teacher Kelly Altenburg, backing off his earlier assertions it was her voice on the audio.

Altenburg is currently on paid leave while the investigation is conducted.

Chaifetz had said in a CNN interview on Saturday he would release more video  he said would prove that teacher Altenburg’s voice is the one heard on the audio recording made when he sent his 10 year old autistic son to school with a recording device. The audio has yet to be released.

“I held back one clip which I did not release anywhere publicaly…where the teacher was directly involved in what I call bullying of my son,”  Chaifetz said on CNN during Saturday’s interview.

Chaifetz also appeared on Anderson Cooper’s daytime show Anderson in a pre-recorded interview and repeated his story. Cooper’s interview with Chaifetz on CNN was the first time Altenburg denied the allegation of bullying.

In a statement on his Facebook page, Chaifetz apologized for not releasing the new audio. “Please understand that I am overwhelmed right now, so if I don’t respond to you don’t feel that I am ignoring you. I still have 4,678 emails to go through,” he wrote. “Also, I apologize for changing the release date for the new audio. I want to make sure I have the time to do this all right. Thanks for your patience


AN EXAMPLE OF THE NEED FOR REFORM

Meanwhile, Governor Christie mentioned the case on Monday night’s Ask The Governor  as a reason why teacher tenure reform is needed.

While he won’t give his opinion on this particular case, he finds it really disturbing – and in general, it points up the fact that “we have to do a better job at demanding excellence in the front of every classroom and about holding people who teach our children accountable.”

He said “this is why I’m having these fights – this is why we have to have significant tenure reform- it’s why I’m fighting for this – no place else – no other place in America would this be tolerated…we have a system in New Jersey now where it is impossible to terminate an under-performing or misbehaving teacher – we can’t stand for it anymore- and the teachers union continues to fight with me about this stuff because they want to empower themselves.”

 

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