Mom Waits For Autistic Son To Speak In Thanksgiving Play But Mic Is Snatched Away From Him By Teacher

Sep 23, 2020 by apost team

Parents are always filled with a mixture of nerves and excitement when the time comes for their children to perform in a school play. In 2016, one mother, Amanda Riddle, was especially anxious for her then 6-year-old son, Caleb, to fulfill his role as a turkey at his elementary school Thanksgiving performance in Nutter Fort, West Virginia.

With a mild form of autism, Caleb often has difficulty with crowds, and Amanda was both hopeful and concerned about what might happen. Sadly, the performance did not go as planned. However, it wasn’t Caleb, but a school teacher that disrupted the play instead.

Caleb had waited through the entire play, patiently doing what was asked of him and performing his role as a turkey. When the end of the play was nearing, Caleb stepped forward and approached the mic, obviously anxious to share his moment in the spotlight.

Just as Caleb was reaching the mic, a teacher steps up and snatches it away, stunning and humiliating the little boy.

“Oh no!” Caleb cried out as the teacher ensures that he won’t have a chance to be what she would consider a disruption.

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Poor Caleb was left standing on stage in his turkey outfit, sobbing for everyone to see, as he tried to grapple with the shame and disappointment of the moment.

While we understand that no teacher wants the play to be disrupted by a student unexpectedly talking into a mic, the way that this teacher handled the event is being criticized by both Amanda and others who have watched the viral video of the incident reports The Sun.

Amanda says that watching what happened to her little boy broke her heart. She explains that Caleb only wanted another chance to say “gobble, gobble, gobble” and feels that the school was being unfair to rudely snatch the mic away from him.

This upset mom has the support of many others, with online commenters chiming in to say that it would not have hurt to let him deliver an extra line.

Nutter Fort Primary School is responding by assuring everyone that their teachers and those working within the system truly do care about each and every child. However, to Amanda, those words aren’t lived out well enough in everyday life.

Watch the video for yourself and let us know what you think. Should Caleb have been allowed to deliver some extra lines, or was the teacher right to snatch the mic away before he could add to the play?