Florida mom secretly records 'teacher of the year' calling her 5-year-old son a 'loser

Two weeks into the 2017-18 school year, things weren't going well for Kandy Escotto's 5-year-old son. He cried when he had to go to school, his grades were poor, and his behavior had changed, the Miami Herald reported.

While doing homework together one day, the kindergartener told his mom that he was a "bad boy."

"I said, 'Why do you say something like that?' " Escotto told the Herald. "He said, 'That's what the teacher tells me when I don't do my work.'"

Escotto took her concerns to Banyan Elementary School's principal, Cheri Davis, who told the mother she needed proof of the accusations. Banyan is part of the Miami-Dade County School district in Westchester, Florida.

The boy's teacher, Rosalba Suarez, a 33-year veteran teacher, was named the school's "teacher of the year" this year, according to the Herald.

What did the mother do to gain proof?

In October, Escotto bought a recorder, hid it in her son Aaron's backpack and sent it to school with him for four days.

When she listened to the recordings, she heard Suarez call her son and another boy a "loser."

Escotto heard the teacher belittling her son on the 32 hours of audio recordings.

“Raise your hand if you know how to bubble. … Aaron doesn’t know,” Suarez can be heard saying in the recording, according to a transcript of the recording, the Washington Post reported.

The teacher also criticized the boy's mother.

“I feel sorry for your mom,” Suarez can be heard telling Aaron in the recording. “I really do. She is a little lost.”

Escotto said her son was singled out and humiliated in front of his classmates.

"No 5-year-old should be able to go through that. That affected my family, affected him," Escotto told the Herald.

What did she do after she had the recordings?

Escotto set up a meeting with Suarez and confronted her about what she'd heard on the recordings.

The school's principal offered to move Aaron to another class, which Escotto reluctantly agreed to because her son wasn't the problem.

"I transferred him out of the class because I didn’t want him to keep suffering," she said. "He went from having F's to having excellent grades."

Suarez told Escotto she was lying.

"It was very upsetting being that I myself heard what was being said to the little boy," Escotto said, the Herald reported.

Next, the mother hired an attorney who put the district on notice with a certified letter in November.

According to Escotto's lawyer, Sonia Roca, the recording will hold up as proof of the teacher's bullying because a classroom is a public space, which means the party being recorded doesn't have to provide consent.

Roca said she received a letter from Gallagher Bassett, the district's third-party and self-funded administrator for its workers’ compensation and liability program, which acknowledged the claim. Then she said she received a call from an adjuster for more information but never heard anything else.

After taking a few months to make sure the case was legally sound, Roca held a news conference last week so the media could hear Escotto's story.

What did the school district say?

The school district said it has opened an investigation into the matter.

“Miami-Dade County Public Schools goes to great lengths to promote a culture of dignity and respect, not only among our students but with our employees," spokeswoman Jackie Calzadilla said in a statement to the Herald. "We work diligently to ensure the well-being of every child entrusted to our care. Any action that runs contrary to the values we instill in our school community will not be tolerated. The district will conduct a thorough review of this matter and, if the allegations are substantiated, we will take any and all appropriate disciplinary actions.”

Suarez is still employed as a teacher at the school.

What else?

Escotto hasn't decided whether or not she will take legal action against the school, but she would like for Suarez to be disciplined for her behavior.

The mother of two said that some other teachers at Banyan had been great to her kids, but she isn't sure if they will be returning to the school this fall.

"It’s sad that we have to get to this point to get a response from somebody to look into this complaint that I put in a long time ago," Escotto said.