‘It’s a human rights violation’: Arizona paraprofessional fired for blowing the whistle on public school’s neglect of special needs students

When an Arizona public school put an unqualified education paraprofessional in charge of a special education classroom, he blew the whistle in a video. Then the school allegedly fired him.

The educator, Jay Davis, calls the Tuscan Unified School District’s actions a “human rights violation.” 

“They knew that the teacher was not going to be here today,” he claims in a video. “They still didn’t get a sub because they know that they can rely on us.” 

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“These kids are nonverbal,” he continued. “They can’t tell their parents if they don’t have a teacher so they [the school’s administrators] get away with it.” 

He added that special education teachers aren’t supported, and schools often fail to meet the conditions of students’ IEPs (individualized education plans). 

“Y’all need to look into TUSD because this is happening everywhere,” Davis concluded.  

Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo and Sabrina Salmon, the district’s senior director of Exceptional Education, both denied the claim that special education students were being denied qualified teachers.  

“At no point was this person identified as Jay asked to provide substitute teacher coverage to any class,” Trujillo wrote in an email.  

Salmon added that Davis was no longer employed by TUSD.  

At the beginning of the school year, TUSD had severe staffing challenges, lacking 25 math teachers and 50 special-education teachers. It was missing over 300 of the substitute teachers it had prior to the pandemic.  

Despite the district suffering from a lack of teachers, the superintendent of TUSD received a 14% pay raise – amounting to $28,000. 

TUSD has also been accused of trapping employees in unions and forcing them to pay union dues, which violates Arizona law and precedent set by the Supreme Court.  

“Even if an employee revokes their consent, the District continues to deduct dues from each paycheck until the next opt-out period commences or the current membership year ends and until the employee receives union consent to opt-out,” wrote Parker Jackson, staff attorney for constitutional litigation at the Goldwater Institute.  

“This is not only unfair and predatory – it is also unconstitutional,” Jackson concluded. 

As teaching conditions worsen, disabled and special education students bear the brunt of learning loss. 

School districts across the nation are failing their special education students, leading to state and federal investigations. 

One Oregon senator even alleges that schools are giving disabled students less instruction, as little as half an hour a week.  

As a result, parents are looking for off-ramps from the public education system, such as through school choice programs. 

An estimated 58,000 students participate in special education ESA programs nationwide, but not every state makes them available.