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I wouldn't have so many qualms about this if the parents had okay-ed this, but since they clearly weren't okay with it -- in fact, it sounds like at least some of the faculty members sensed that the parents wouldn't be okay with this and went out of their way to hide it from them -- I think it's pretty bad idea.
And as for the arguments for it . . . all of the jobs that they mentioned -- which included janitor work, helping out in an auto shop, and working in retail -- are pretty low skill, but it's pretty clear that in terms of dignified jobs most people would place janitorial work on the bottom of that totem pole. I don't see how anyone who is only moderately mentally handicapped wouldn't be able to handle ANY of those jobs -- it's not like the only job that special ed. kids will ever be able to have is janitor work, and from the sound of the article one of the students whose parents complained got to work in other areas after complaints were filed, and it seems like he was able to handle those okay. Furthermore, one of the parents straight out said that his son would never be a janitor -- to me that sounded like he would be willing to support his kid through adulthood rather than have him be a janitor, if worse came to worst, and if that's the case then why insist that "this kid needs to learn special skills that will help him later in life?" when that's clearly not on the parent's agenda. It sounds to me like the special ed students were given the janitor jobs because the faculty knew that they wouldn't complain about them like the other students might.
As for the father's attitude toward the son, this is entirely an issue of semantics, but I don't think there's anything wrong with referring to the other students as "normal students." If he'd referred to them as "normal kids," that would be questionable, since the idea of normality as applied to people is pretty hard to define. But I think it's pretty clear that there is a line drawn between "normal education" and "special education" -- that's why it's called special education, right? So in reference to students, instead of kids in general, I don't think that is that bad.
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