Fury as beloved Iowa special needs teacher, 29, is FIRED for secretly telling parents of non-verbal autistic student, 7, that fellow staffer ignored him when he repeatedly banged his head on concrete floor: Enraged family sue the school

An Iowa special needs teacher has been fired after she blew the whistle on a staffer who ignored a non-verbal autistic child banging his head on a concrete floor.

Amanda Delzell, 29, has been on paid leave since late last year but was finally terminated by the school board of Urbandale in a 4-1 vote Monday night.

She said she was worried about the safety of seven-year-old Keaton Petek because one of her colleagues was ignoring him as he banged his head at Webster Elementary School last year. 

Delzell - who said there was blood in her classroom from the incident - said she was consistently rebuffed by her supervisors, being told the child's self-harm was confidential and being investigated.

It was so confidential that they had apparently not even told the boy's parents, Cody and Paige Petek, about it until Delzell notified them herself. The Peteks are now filing a civil rights complaint against the school.

When Keaton's parents were finally allowed to watch the video, they were horrified at what they saw.

'The Special Ed teacher is standing over him with her arms crossed across her chest or with her hands on her hips, not showing any type of empathy or getting down on his level,' Paige Petek told WHO13.  

Back in November, Delzell described what was going on with Petek and what led her to try and report her colleague's behavior.

'One of my students who is autistic and nonverbal was harmed by another educator to the point that there was blood in my classroom,' Delzell told WHO13. 

'The next day I went in and watched the cameras and what I saw was my student's IEP and Behavior Plan not being followed and the result was serious injury to him.' 

Keaton's parents say that he is generally a 'fun loving, happy, resilient kid' but because of what he deals with on the spectrum, 'any type of disruption in his schedule, either at home or at school, can cause him to be overstimulated, overwhelmed and very confused.' 

Delzell then describes similar behavior on behalf of the other teacher as Petek's mother saw. 

'I saw his teacher standing over him allowing him to self-harm, and using her foot to push him down the hall. He was crying out while in the fetal position.' 

Paige Petek said it was even worse: 'They did nothing to help him and at one point you see the special ed teacher scooting him down the hallway with her foot as he's screaming and crying.'

'[Keaton's] behavioral plan states that any type of situation that Keaton is triggered and is banging his head on any object or the ground, an adult will immediately intervene and block his head with the safety cushions. And that's supposed to be followed up with a nurse evaluating him.' 

The nurse did call Petek, claiming that the teacher had tended to Keaton's injury.

However, the next day, she received an email from the school principal saying this teacher was going to be 'out for a few days' with no further explanation.

Five days later, Petek says 'another employee' - presumably Delzell - told her about the incident and 'they were told not to say anything or speak about it to parents.' 

Delzell said she was punished by the school for reporting it to the parents approximately 10 days after the incident.

'I'm on the leadership team, a model teacher, a mentor teacher and then right after parents found out I got a letter of reprimand saying I wasn't meeting standards,' she said.

In mid-November, Delzell - who has taught in the school district since 2018 - was placed on administrative leave, which lasted until April's decision to terminate her.

Last year, Cody Petek called it 'terrifying' that the woman who tried to do the right thing was being punished while the special education teacher who ignored Keaton's cries still works there. 

'These kids can't talk and I feel like there's nobody there looking out for the best interests of the kids.'

The family filed the civil rights complaint against the teacher in the video, administrators, and the Urbandale school district and its board, who chose to terminate Delzell Monday night. 

'Leadership starts at the top,' Cody Petek said. 'They have to be held accountable for what they have done and the way they've handled it. If they've done this to our kid, they'll do it to others. And that's what we're after is making sure that never happens again.' 

She was fired despite 40 people coming to a school board meeting in December to profess their support for calling out the behavior of a colleague, WHO13 reported. 

'We are deeply disappointed by the superintendent's recommendation and the board's decision,' said Lori Bullock, an attorney for Delzell, in a statement following her firing. 

'We are not done with this fight. We will continue to work to hold the district accountable for the way it has retaliated against Ms. Delzell for doing the right thing.' 

The Urbandale School Board would not comment on the decision, citing confidentiality laws. 

A Change.org petition to have Delzell reinstated has already garnered more than 600 signatures.