Justice 4 Josiah

My 8-year-old nephew Josiah has had a rough life. He was born early at 27 weeks, placed in foster care at a young age, all while struggling with cerebral palsy and autism. He is mostly non-verbal and walks with a walker. He bounced around from different foster homes and was even abused while in the system. He finally met his forever adoptive family and began his healing journey. Unfortunately, he yet again has fallen to be the victim of abuse. His abuser was someone his family thought they could trust, his teacher.

Josiah's amazing, diligent mother, Brooke, noticed that he had been acting out at home for no apparent reason, which is unlike him. He was also regressing at school in different ways. Brooke has been fighting for Josiah to have more support at school for almost 2 years. Sadly, the school has failed him repeatedly and now Josiah has suffered the consequences and who knows for how long.

There are many kids with special needs not getting the support they need at school, and it's a hard battle to fight, even with an advocate.

From viewing just one 45-minute-long classroom video, we witnessed Josiah being dragged by his limbs, kicked, his face pushed into the carpet and a bookshelf, being pushed into walls, and the teacher putting his knees on Josiah's chest and back, holding him down on the ground. All this from just one day of videos.... We are scared to see more videos and pray Josiah can overcome yet another trauma in his life.

Please donate to help Josiah get the justice he deserves for the abuse he has suffered. PLEASE help us make a statement that we will not tolerate abuse of our children. The school and the district need to be held accountable; they should have had the support needed in place for these vulnerable kids. After viewing the video footage, they were still going to keep the teacher on at the school, putting other kids at risk. Please donate any amount you can to help the family fight this battle. Just the first appointment with legal advisors alone is $1500.