Father's Fight For His Autistic Son

We have new information about allegations of sex abuse at a Mobile County elementary school. A Semmes father claims his 7-year-old autistic son was molested by two other boys in a bathroom at Allentown Elementary School last Thursday. But, Paul Merrell claims it could have been prevented if his son would have been provided with an aide. We wanted to know why that request was not granted. But, because of Federal privacy laws, Mobile County Public School System spokesperson, Nancy Pierce, says she cannot talk about an individual case, "we aren't allowed to say a lot because we're trying to protect the child and so it's federal law that we can't give out information," said Pierce. But Pierce did tell us, to qualify for an aide a child has to be enrolled in special education and have an individualized education plan. She says not all special ed students will be given an aide. It's determined on a case by case basis. Merrell says he enrolled his son at Allentown in January as a special ed student and he says his son was given an I.E.P. But when tests showed his son's I.Q. is 120 plus, Merrell was told his son no longer qualified for special education. Despite the high I.Q., Merrell maintains his son still needs an aide because of his autism, " to look at him he looks fine and he, you know, he just, he needs his help in certain areas. I don't think anybody should stand over him 24 hours a day but I think that there are certain things that we pointed out to them that he needed help in and one of them was going to the bathroom, you know, we specifically said going to the bathroom to help him. That, it wouldn't have happened cause somebody would have been doing, you know, what we wanted all along," said Merrell.