A Florida special needs teacher was placed on administrative leave after she was caught on camera hurling racist taunts at a mother and her children who she thought were trespassing in her neighborhood.
Patricia Schmidt has been placed on leave by Collier County School District in Naples, Florida, after horrendous footage of her alleged abuse emerged.
The mother told NBC 2 that she was on a walk on a public sidewalk in the Kings Lake neighborhood with her children on Saturday and passed by a walking path designated for residents when a woman in a Mercedes bombarded them with abuse.
A mother says she was walking on a public sidewalk in the Kings Lake neighborhood with her children when a woman in a Mercedes bombarded them (Patricia Schmidt pictured)
The mother says she was on a walk on a public sidewalk in the Kings Lake neighborhood with her children and passed by a walking path designated for residents
'She blares on her horn for like ten seconds, rolls her window down and starts yelling out the window that we can't walk down that pathway,' the mom told NBC 2.
Schmidt works as an Exceptional Student Education (ESE) Specialist at Lely Elementary School in the Collier County School District, according to the school district's staff email directory.
At one point the mother pulled her cell phone and captured Schmidt's racist, expletive-filled tirade, aimed at her children.
'Did you pay for that path? You can't afford to live in Kings Lake. You're white trash!' Schmidt tells the mom. 'Are those your mulatto kids? Did you have sex with a Black guy? Your kids are half-breeds, look at them.'
Mulatto is an outdated term for bi-racial people now considered derogatory and offensive.
Schmidt- who works with special needs children five days a week at Lely Elementary- continues to target the children, even calling one of them a derogatory term for special-needs people.
'Your son must be special-ed,' she is captured saying. 'He's a retard. Your son is a retard.'
The mother maintains she and her kids were standing on a public sidewalk on their way to a pond.
Schmidt works as an Exceptional Student Education (ESE) Specialist at Lely Elementary School (pictured) in the Collier County School District
A mother says she was walking on a public sidewalk in the Kings Lake neighborhood with her children when a woman in a Mercedes bombarded them
Shmidt earned the nickname 'Kings Lake Karen' from her neighbors who say her property (pictured) is surrounded by flags with middle fingers and profanities
According to neighbors, Schmidt's tirade began because she believed the mother and her children were trespassing and that for years she has 'made it her mission to guard her property and a walking path' which has a sign that says it is meant only for Kings Lake residents.
NBC 2 reports that Schmidt earned the nickname 'Kings Lake Karen' from her neighbors, who are also fed-up of her bad behavior.
The teacher's that her property is surrounded by flags with middle fingers and profanities, as well as 'no trespassing' signs and surveillance camera warnings.
When NBC2 told the mother Schmidt is a teacher she raised the question 'Who knows how she's treating them in the classroom when their parents aren't there to defend them?'
Another mother in the community told NBC 2 that earlier this year, Schmidt yelled at her eight-year-old bi-racial foster son, who suffers from PTSD.
'It made me incredibly angry for sure. I think she specifically targets kids,' the mother said.
When asked if the tirade was a fireable offense, local defense attorney Mike Carr told NBC 2 that what people do outside the workplace toes the line between Freedom of Speech and misconduct, but in Schmidt's case 'the conduct is reprehensible and I think it shows somebody who is mentally unbalanced. It sounds like she needs help,' he said.
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