The Knucklehead of the Day award (Wizbang)

Today's winner is Rene Santoyo. She gets the award for the following.

Every morning, Shawn Spitzer sent her 13-year-old daughter off to school with a lunch box of snacks and $5 to buy a hot meal.
Every afternoon, Spitzer noticed that her daughter, who has severe autism and cannot speak, would head straight for the refrigerator when she came home.

Spitzer wondered if it was a growth spurt. Maybe the cafeteria food was bad. But the reason for her daughter's hunger, authorities learned, was more disturbing: The special education assistant was stealing her lunch money.

Over the course of three days, using a hidden camera, police twice caught Kristen Rene Santoyo, 37, lifting the $5 from the girl's lunch box at Camarillo High School.

Santoyo was arrested on campus, and later charged and convicted of felony petty theft and a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to a child.

On Tuesday, Ventura County Superior Court Judge James P. Cloninger sentenced Santoyo to six months in jail and three years' probation for stealing the victim's lunch money on 57 separate occasions between September and November.

In addition, Santoyo must pay $285 restitution to the student and attend at least one year of weekly child abuse counseling sessions.

Stealing a child's lunch money isn't just despicable, it earns Rene Santoyo today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Note of thanks to Kevin here at Wizbang. He tipped me to this particular news.

Comments (4)

That's just awful. My broth... (Below threshold)

1. Posted by ClobberGirl | March 8, 2008 1:21 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

ClobberGirl:

That's just awful. My brother is autistic and I would kick someone's ass if I caught them doing that to him. That woman needs a good ass-kicking, but jail time will have to do.

Posted on March 8, 2008 13:21

Rene,I have a niec... (Below threshold)

2. Posted by Eneils Bailey | March 8, 2008 2:03 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

Eneils Bailey:

Rene,

I have a niece who has a special child.

If you ever did anything like this to her, I would throw you in the parking lot, bull-whip your ass till you could not stand, butt-fuck your brain, kick your miserable remains to the curb, wait for the trash truck to pick you up, and then follow it to the dump to make sure you had a proper disposal.

Posted on March 8, 2008 14:03

Cheesewiz!Hats off... (Below threshold)

3. Posted by drjohn | March 8, 2008 3:34 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

drjohn:

Cheesewiz!

Hats off to the judge who passed the sentence. I didn't think there was anyone left in California who went to jail for anything other than being a military recruiter.

Posted on March 8, 2008 15:34

Good Lord, that's MY high s... (Below threshold)

4. Posted by Son Of The Godfather | March 10, 2008 7:59 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

Son Of The Godfather:

Good Lord, that's MY high school (errr, a few years ago)!

I grew up here in Camarillo (still here), and these sort of things are rare. I can tell you that the community is thinking the same thing most of you are.

I'm glad this piece of filth was caught, but I would have preferred a more "Charles Bronson" solution.

Don't let this story turn you off to our city or school... Go Scorpions!

Posted on March 10, 2008 19:59