COLUMBUS, Ohio – A couple raising a 14-year-old developmentally disabled student say they hid a recording device on the girl to prove a teacher and school aide were bullying her, and the audio and subsequent investigations have led to a lawsuit, the aide’s resignation and disciplinary action for the teacher.

The girl’s mother and the woman’s longtime boyfriend said in court documents that they complained about the mental and emotional abuse to school officials in the Miami Trace district, about 30 miles southwest of Columbus, and then secretly recorded instructors’ comments for four days last spring after their claims were rebuffed.

In the recording, voices identified as aide Kelly Chaffins and teacher Christie Wilt are heard making derogatory comments about her character.

“Are you that damn dumb? You are that dumb?” Chaffins said. “Oh, my God. You are such a liar. You told me you don’t know. It’s no wonder you don’t have friends. No wonder nobody likes you because you lie, cheat.”

In another instance, Wilt apparently talks to the girl about the results of a test before evaluating it. “Just keep it,” she said. “You failed it. I know it. I don’t need your test to grade.”

The girl’s mother, Kourtney Barcus, and her boyfriend, who helps raise the girl, said in the lawsuit that their concerns about the aide spanned several years before they recorded the audio and that school officials initially rejected their claims. But they were shocked by what they heard on the tapes. “We didn’t know,” the boyfriend, Brion Longberry, said Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show.

In comments to the local newspaper, district superintendent Dan Roberts acknowledged this week that there was a problem.

“The persons involved fell short of our mission,” Roberts told the Washington Court House Record Herald, which first reported the story. “We’re sincerely sorry for that and we will work very hard to never let that happen again.”

The girl, now a freshman, was moved from the middle school to the high school ahead of schedule this spring as a result of the situation and is enjoying her new teacher and new environment, but the family remains upset with how the district handled the situation, said the family’s attorneys, Brian Garvine and Daniel Mordarski.

“To say this stuff to any 14-year-old girl would be just awful,” Mordarski said. “To say it to a girl that really doesn’t have the capacity to fend for herself or to speak up or to really fight back is — it’s just heartbreaking.”

A $300,000 settlement was reached in a lawsuit filed this year by the girl’s family against the school district, Wilt and Chaffins, the attorneys said.

The lawsuit alleged verbal and emotional abuse and inappropriate comments by the aide and the teacher, as well as failure by school officials to report suspected child abuse.

Chaffins resigned, and gave up her educational aide permit, according to board documents.

The board decided to suspend Wilt’s license as an intervention specialist for one year. Wilt can avoid that suspension if she remains in good standing with the district and completes training.