MANSFIELD - A statewide group picketed outside the school superintendent's office this week, alleging a teacher's aide made derogatory comments about a disabled student.

SPEDWatch, a Pepperell-based watchdog group, protested outside Superintendent Brenda Hodges' office for about three hours Monday morning over an incident that allegedly happened Nov. 2.

According to organization founder Ellen Chambers, on that day a disabled student at Qualters Middle School was walking around the school's track with a teacher's aide, also known as a paraprofessional, when a second disabled student came out from a nearby school building.

The aide, whose name has not been made public, then allegedly made a joke that the second student came from "the mental class," Chambers said.

As the second student began running around the track while clapping his hands, the aide then allegedly mocked the student's actions in front of the first student, Chambers said. The alleged jokes upset the first student to such a degree that he has not been able to return to school since.

"The student is so distressed and anguished that he can't go back into the school building," she said.

Chambers said the student was so distraught that he allegedly told his mother he wanted a BB gun for Christmas so he could kill himself.

According to Chambers, the boy's mother, who is a member of SPEDWatch, wrote a letter to the school asking for an investigation and an apology from the aide by Nov. 20.

When the apology was not given, Chambers said the group went forward with plans for Monday's protest.

Hodges said the school has investigated the matter and was not able to corroborate the student's version of the events and that the aide has denied making the remark or mocking the student.

"It was determined that they could not substantiate and support all the things the student said," she said.

Chambers said it would be impossible for the student to have made up the incidents because he has been diagnosed with nonverbal learning disability, a disorder in which the sufferer does not have the mental ability to lie.

The school department has not taken the matter lightly, Hodges said, and has been working to get the student back in the classroom.

"The school and the administration have spent a great deal of time trying to work with the parent to get the student back to school," she said. "Unfortunately, that has not happened at this point in time." Despite Monday's protest, Hodges said the school system is still trying to resolve the situation.

"We're still scheduling meetings with the parent," Hodges said.

MATT KAKLEY covers Mansfield for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0333 or at mkakley@thesunchronicle.com.