ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. — A pair of special education teachers at a Rockdale County school are under criminal investigation for how they allegedly treated one of their students.

Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes has learned that two teachers at General Ray Davis Middle School are being accused of locking a 13-year-old nonverbal student with autism in the school’s restroom for at least two hours.

The isolation was initially meant to be a five-minute punishment for having a meltdown, administrators said. Investigators say that time grew to two hours.

“There’s just no words to even describe to me how that child felt. I mean isolated, that’s on so many levels, it’s wrong,” parent Delphyne Taylor said. “We gotta look out for our our kids, especially those who cannot speak for themselves.”

District officials say they are reviewing the video camera footage from the classroom on the day in question.

The boy’s mother called Fernandes and said she would speak with her after she was able to look at the video footage, which she is scheduled to do on Thursday.

Every teacher and paraprofessional in the state of Georgia has to take an oath of ethics to protect all children in schools.

The teen’s parents said their son came home during the first week of school acting abnormally. The next day is when administrators said he had a meltdown and was forced into isolation in the restroom.

The Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating, in addition to the school district’s investigation.

The student is not attending the school while the investigation continues.

The names of the teachers being investigated have not been released.

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