Comments on: Year suspension backed for teacher who had kindergartners vote to oust class mate

By: Ana

Ana — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:04:28 +0000

What you all fail to realize is that Aspergers is HIGH FUNCTIONING. It is a mental disorder that is not fully understood. Getting an IEP isn’t simple! It is very difficult and can take years to get all the bureaucratic documentation necessary to qualify.

Children are “main streamed” and therefore they try to place special children in regular classrooms. This child IS A KINDERGARTNER! Add the Aspergers and you have a recipe for disruption and misbehavior. HE isn’t to blame…the PARENTS are NOT to blame…The TEACHER should not have done this! It was wrong and inexcusable for her to do that to this child or the other children in class.

The boy would have likely been given a Para once the IEP was in place. They would have ironed out a behavior plan to help quell his issues in the classroom. I understand that we all want our kids to learn and not have the disruption, but that is not always how life is.

Blame the bureaucracy and bs…but do NOT blame this child or his parents. This teacher should be fired and the school district should pay for home bound services till this child is able to go to school again.

Aspergers/autism kids do not deal with change. They don’t get social cues and boundaries. It is a slow process to help them learn. This child may be homeschooled for a very long time if not permanently because of the trauma this teacher caused. How dare she do something like this…

By: AK

AK — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:59:26 +0000

Part of the problem is the one-sidedness of the reporting. The teacher, bound by confidentiality, cannot reveal all of the facts that led up to her actions. At one point, there was an article that interviewed other parents of students in this class. Those parents reported that their children had suffered abuse and bullying by this child. HE treated his peers badly (beyond the disruptive behavior in the classroom). I believe the teacher may have been trying to get his victims to stand up and tell him how his behavior made them feel (that was implied in the article I read).

Outside of that one article, everything has been from the mother’s point of view. Having taught a variety of children with varying disorders and issues, I take what this parent says with a grain of salt. She places all of the blame on the teacher and takes no responsibility for the fact that her son may have caused problems in the classroom and for other students.

Students are very tolerant of students with disorders. They will put up with a child who is “different” and does odd things. However, based on the comments of the other parents, this case went beyond being “different” and displaying “odd” behaviors. He was bullying and abusing his classmates and they (and their teacher) had had enough.

I have several autistic students and the other children in their classes would never vote to kick them out. The ones who they want to be gone are the bullies. I think that is what REALLY needs to be investigated in this case. What was this kid doing to his classmates to make them want him not around anymore? It was NOT about his autism. It was about his bullying.

Just my opinions…..

By: Olive

Olive — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:24:06 +0000

This %^&*@ makes me want to vomit. I don’t care what he did, humiliating a child is not the answer to the problem.

She is the kind of person that made me choose to home school my non-verbal son.

By: The Other Mike D

The Other Mike D — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:57:29 +0000

All of you who are saying this boy is autistic and shouldnt have been treated like this I draw your attention to the FACT that he has been diganosed with Apsbegers which is HFA(HFA—autism unaccompanied by mental retardation) which means his ability to discern right and wrong and to know what proper behavior was is NOT impaired.

I agree this is an extreme situation but I agree with an earlier poster that 16 other kids were affected by this boys problem and now thier education and that is a failure of the school board, the adminstration of the school and the parents.

By: GlennSacks.com » Blog Archive » Follow-up on 'Teacher Forces 'Only Friend the Five-Year-Old Ever Made' to Denounce Him Publicly'

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:18:57 +0000

[...] Palm Beach Post recently did a follow-up article on the case. From Year suspension backed for teacher who had kindergartners vote to oust class mate (11/18/08): FORT PIERCE — A St. Lucie County teacher who sparked a national controversy for [...]

By: You may be right

You may be right — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:10:57 +0000

I don’t think the teacher should have let her students vote but I can tell you one thing my nephew has many disablites and lives in Palm Beach County…this county did not serve him correctly at all. My brother and sister-in-law had to pull him in and out of public schools, depending on if they could afford private school. Other teachers punished him right in his ESE class for him shouting out (which was part of his disability) and when he was in a regular PE class other students torchered him-like twisting his chest. I have heard that this county does not do right for ESE students. It is a shame that the teacher resorted to this but I am willing to bet she didn’t get the proper support from her administration and think she is just as much a scapegoat and I hope this child gets the services he needs.

By: jubless

jubless — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:54:36 +0000

The student was disruptive, the teacher should have taken procedural steps to have him put in a different more appropriate placement.

His 5 year old peers certainly don’t need to be put in the position of deciding proper placement for a disabled child.

If I were a parent of the children who were given a vote, I would be outraged. Remember they are five year olds, still innocent and highly impressionable. I agree that this teacher should never teach young children again. She seems to lack discrepancy between what children should be making decisions on and what is an adult decision.

Letting her off with-out punishment is the equivalent to the teachers who have sexual relations with students. Its abuse and poor decision making that are just not tolerable attributes for a teacher

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:06:35 +0000

gator….try not insulting people so quickly. autism isnt from bad parenting at home unless you do not believe organic conditions can cause behavioral problems. Maybe this child needs to be in a more specialized class but your remarks about ‘thick skulls and ignorance’ are uncalled for.

If you do,

By: gator

gator — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:58:20 +0000

Wow, talk abou thick skulls and ignorance. First, I am not against students with special needs or do I condone the behavior of the teacher. To all of those with thick skulls, my point is that it is borderline criminal to stick children with special needs in a regular ed. classroom with just one teacher. If we are going to be advocates of inclusion, then we better provide support for the teachers. There should be at least one other professional in the classroom when teaching kids with special needs. Anyone that disagrees has never been put in that position.

ALSO, lets not forget about the other kids that are there to learn. Should they take a back seat to learning because one child is getting all of the attention….Thats ridiculous.

By: Robert Lewis

Robert Lewis — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:55:58 +0000

The teacher made a stupid mistake. Perhaps she was carried away by the hyperbole of the elections. In any case, she deserves a reprimand, butnot to be fired. The mother is admittedly vindictive and obviously out to make money on the supposed trauma that her son suffered. He will suffer a lot more from the taunts of his peers-the other students, than he ever will from any one teacher. The teacher was mistaken, not intentionally cruel. By the way, in relation to another comment: Republicans are not in favor of smacking kids around-another person carried away by the hyperbole of the recent election.