Mom’s secret recording catches teacher calling 5-year-old a ‘loser’

Davis about Rosalba Suarez, a 33-year veteran teacher who was named teacher of the year this year at the school in Westchester. She said the principal told her she needed proof that Suarez was bullying her son.

So Escotto bought a recorder, placed it in her son’s backpack for four days in October and listened to 32 hours of audio.

Escotto heard Suarez humiliating her son and another boy, calling them “loser.” The teacher told Aaron that his mom was driving her crazy, and ostracized him for not correctly learning how to bubble in a test.

When Aaron said he didn’t want to participate in class, Suarez is heard on the recording saying, “I don’t care. Don’t do it. You think I care? Whatever your mom wants to see, honey, whatever your mom wants to see, you tell me what she wants to see, a nice job or she wants to see a loser’s job.”

“For me to hear the things that she was saying to him,” Escotto said. “She picked him out, she singled him out, she humiliated him in front of the whole class. She talked about me in front of him. No 5-year-old should be able to go through that. That affected my family, affected him.”

Escotto confronted Suarez, who, according to Escotto, said she was lying.

Neither Suarez nor Davis, the school’s principal, responded to phone calls or emails with requests for comment. Suarez hung up on a reporter.

“It was very upsetting being that I myself heard what was being said to the little boy,” Escotto said.

Escotto hired a lawyer. Attorney Sonia Roca contends the recording is legal as the classroom is a public space.

“She did what I feel any mom would do when they’re faced with no other choices,” Roca said.