Footage of educators beating autistic brothers ‘for fun’ stirs outcry

SAKARYA – Doğan News Agency

Footage showing educators from a special institution slapping autistic students on their heads and insulting them stirred outcry on social media.

Footage showing educators beating two autistic brothers at a special education institution in the western province of Sakarya has stirred outcry on social media, prompting the launch of an investigation. Officials from the institution, meanwhile, told the family in a letter that the educators filmed the ill-treatment on the autistic students “for fun.”

In the video, two brothers, 20-year-old Ata Sinan and 18-year-old Bumin Yılmaz, are seen being slapped in the head, having their ears pulled and being insulted on camera by one of their educators.

Their mother, Ayşegül Öğmegül, a neurologist, told reporters that the footage emerged on June 24, after one of the two educators who mistreated her sons was sacked after beating another student. She alleged that he put the images online for “revenge.”

Öğmegül moved to Sakarya’s Sapanca district after divorcing her husband in order to be able to send her sons to the institution. “The school’s administration told me they were doing very well. They had even sent me footage showing their development. But it was all a sham. What kind of humanity is that?” she said.

Her sons were diagnosed with autism when they were five-years-old and three-years-old, respectively.

Officials from the institution said the educators who were responsible had been sacked and the case had been sent to prosecutors. Meanwhile, the Sakarya Governor’s Office said a judicial and administrative investigation had been launched after it was confirmed that the footage was filmed at the Kırkpınar Autism Solidarity Association’s facility.