Stuart Chaifetz

For more than 20 years, Stuart Chaifetz has been a freelance artist and activist against animal cruelty. When his son was diagnosed with Autism he became an activist for children with special needs. In early 2012, Chaifetz sent his son to school with an audio recorder and discovered that his son was being verbally abused by his teaching staff. The video Chaifetz made with the audio has been seen more than 4.6 millions times, and was covered by media outlets nationally and internationally. It opened up the debate about how children with special needs are treated in school and the bullying they suffer from teachers.