Kindergarten teacher’s punishment upheld by judge
March 31st, 2009 by TCPalm.comTC Palm
The St. Lucie County kindergarten teacher who held a vote to oust 5-year-old Alex Barton from his classroom lost her appeal for reinstatement.
Administrative law judge Claude Arrington upheld the St. Lucie School Board’s decision to suspend Wendy Portillo for a year without pay and remove her tenure.
Schools Superintendent Michael Lannon, who testified at the hearing that he would not recommend she be allowed to teach in a district elementary school, said he had not yet read through the order and declined to comment.
Portillo’s attorney, David Walker of Stuart, also said he had no comment.
Alex Barton, 5, was instructed by his teacher to stand in front of the class and listen as other students described what they disliked about him, according to a police report.
The school district proved Portillo violated the state’s code of ethics for teachers and school board rules in the May 21 incident, in which she asked students to say whether Alex should be in the classroom while she tallied the votes on a board, Arrington said in his order.
The judge also sided with the district’s assertion that Portillo exposed Alex and the other students to “unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement” and used an inappropriate method of discipline, Arrington said in his order. She also failed to exercise the best professional judgment and failed to make a reasonable effort to protect Alex from harassment, he said.
Arrington said in his order that, except for last year’s incident, Portillo was a dedicated and excellent teacher over her 12-year career in St. Lucie County. Many of Morningside’s teachers and parents support her and her reputation remains intact despite the negative publicity of the voting incident, the judge wrote in the order.
“There can be little doubt that (Portillo) has been traumatized by the negative reactions to her misconduct. (Portillo) and her family have suffered economically as a result of her suspension,” Arrington wrote in the order.
Tags: alex barton, kindergarten teacher
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March 31st, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Good for the family who fought for this and won.
March 31st, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I am so happy this teacher is no longer in the classroom!!I hope more parents will follow suit,if their children are victims of teachers who have this kind of conduct!!!!
March 31st, 2009 at 9:46 pm
This is a travesty. This exceptional teacher was put in this situation due to the failure of the administration who should have have a special education teacher in the classroom with this student. When inclusion takes place in the regular classroom with students with disabilities a special education teacher is sent with the student to handle behaviors that the regular teacher is not trained to handle. The student was sent out and returned to the classroom with no results.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:09 pm
It does not matter what a teacher does to manage their classroom because it can always be twisted around and turned into “unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement.” Think about it. Billy, whats the answer to 2 + 2? Oh no. Billy didn’t raise his hand to answer the question, he had to go to the bathroom. Now Billy is embarrassed because he can’t add and how dare this teacher call on him. What a joke!!! The day has now come when teachers are no longer allowed to teach or effectively manage their classrooms. Public Education, I Love It!!!!
March 31st, 2009 at 11:28 pm
should have never gone this far
April 1st, 2009 at 7:14 am
Sad day for our educational system!
April 1st, 2009 at 7:32 am
Someone needs to take caharge of the classroom. Too bad that the teacher had to be punished.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:05 am
While I agree with WayneH that special ed. support should have been in place, it still boggles the mind that a teacher would do such a horrific stunt in a class of 5-yr-olds.
BTW - in our district, my son with autism was included in a regular kindergarten class…w/o support. I heard from parents of other kids (my kid was pretty non-verbal at the time) that their kids would come home upset because the PRINCIPAL of the school would come into the classroom and SIT on my kid.
My kid got an aide. Soon, my kid left that school.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:46 am
Sad days in America when teachers can longer TEACH. Parents have taken over the classroom and really have no clue of what goes on when they are home. It’s because most of them that complain, their children are spoil and control them and their house daily. They are the parents with no control and when a teacher says something to their child, they then want to call SLCSB. Children go home and tell their side and no one listens to the teacher at all. Too many take things the wrong way and NEVER look at the full picture. This same child that caused all this mess will do something else again in life before he graduate one day “IF”…that his mother will not be able to get him out of so that she can rejoice as she is now doing for the “FAME”. I’m sure he is not the “perfect little child” and mom knows that. How dare a parent/county want to see a teacher or anyone OUT of a job and have no income to live by??? The same people that are talking down on Mrs. Portillo never know that they may end up one day without nothing! We have to be so careful what we do and say. As the word says..”we shall reap what we sew”. That starts from the Top on down. Sad that no one from her school or this county stood up for her at all and that’s because they are all scared of their job. Where was the UNION??? It is a waste for teachers to pay dues to a union that will not support them in the time of need. It’s because they are paid by the school board and they are scared of their position also. Sad, sad, Sad! Continue to look up Mrs. Portillo This Too Shall Pass and the same people that are up now…can be down later. Trust and believe that! Because there’s someone that sit high and look down low. One who is much Greater than all of them that voted you out and this whole world. Think on these Things it will all work out for you.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:23 am
I can’t believe the ignorance of people posting comments here. This case is not about control in the classroom or kids that need discipline, it’s about a teacher that has no clue what she is doing. She acted like an 11 year old kid who was throwing a fit instead of an adult and a teacher. You all need to get a grip.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:09 am
I am so happy my grandkids are in private school. Ad a former teacher I am disgusted with the public school system. The world is in a chaotic state now because parents have not learned to discipline their children, and the public school system has gone nuts of political correctiness. America hs lost its soul!
April 1st, 2009 at 10:10 am
sad Time:
Yes you shall “reap what you sew”. Just as she stood an autistic child in front of the class to be voted out, she was voted out. Fortunately it was the school board, who were actually capable of understanding what they were doing, that voted her out. Perhaps she received no backing because what she did was offensive to most rational people. There few absolutes in life but mistreatment of handicapped people is absolutely always wrong. She got what she deserved, public shaming and all.
April 1st, 2009 at 10:10 am
I am so happy my grandkids are in private school. As a former teacher I am disgusted with the public school system. The world is in a chaotic state now because parents have not learned to discipline their children, and the public school system has gone nuts on political correctiness. America hs lost its soul!
April 1st, 2009 at 10:49 am
The child was not yet “labeled” as autistic when this incident occured. The parent went out afterwards and had him tested. This teacher sent the child out for disruptive behavior at least twice during that day. He was sent back after a time period. The teacher clearly had difficulty teaching the other chidlren during the disruptions and therefore may have felt overwhelmed and unsupported. Although this incident was over the top and caused much controversary, what would you have done? The other children are expecting something to be done about the behavior. If the teacher ignored it, the other children would have copied it and became disruptive as well.
It does sound like there was a communication gap. I am not sure whether the parent had been contacted for previous incidents but this day may have forced her hand to get the child assessed. Many parents do not want to hear about their child having special needs or behaviors in class that are not apropriate. This teacher had been teaching for 12 years. the parents did not express concerns and in fact supported her after the incident took place.
As more and more children are placed in mainstream classrooms that have a cast array of special needs, teachers are not receiving the extra help, training or pay to deal with hard behaviors. We need to offer the support needed and if a teacher is struggling and sending a child to the office, they should take the time and energy to look into the occurances and offer further training, support and suggestions.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:27 am
I am so glad that my daughter is 21 years old now and not in public school. I think that our school system is failing all of our children and many of the childrens parents don’t have care. At first I was outraged at this incident too but as the mother continued to become another media storm like the Octomom I started to ask more questions.
If you were a teacher in a classroom and did not know that this child had a disability but continued to cause a disturbance what would you do? Holding a classroom vote was the wrong way to approach the situation but what punishment is fair? loosing your job and retirement? loosing everything that you have worked for over one incident. I doubt that any of the people on this blog that are so hard on this woman would want to lose everything that they have earned over years of work due to one bad decision. I can only say that from what I see this woman has another agenda which most likely has $$$ attached. Hopefully the people that want the teacher fired will offer more of their taxes to help pay the law suit when it is filed against the school board. Open up and say litigation.
April 1st, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I am sooooooooooooooo glad this so called teacher will not be allowed to teach um, i mean abuse little kids again!
April 1st, 2009 at 8:49 pm
the teacher did what she thought was right at that time i dont think she wanted to hurt this child what about the mother she should have had that child in a differnt school for children that needs a lot of help and she should have seen that by then long before that happen that he is diffent and what about the other kids that can’t learn because of this child i think no one wins in this case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:47 am
regina Says:
April 1st, 2009 at 8:49 pm
the teacher did what she thought was right at that time i dont think she wanted to hurt this child what about the mother she should have had that child in a differnt school for children that needs a lot of help and she should have seen that by then long before that happen that he is diffent and what about the other kids that can’t learn because of this child i think no one wins in this case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
People who drive drunk think it is right at the time too, that is until someone dies. That is the point in punishment, so people learn from their mistakes. Just like when you spelled different, differnt you too thought you were right BUT you are wrong and now you know.
And the mother could have been psychic? Who sends their kids to school anticipating that a teacher will abuse them?
January 20th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
I agree the voting thing was not appropriate punishment however what other options does a teacher have when students are rude, disruptive, and disobedient? Public education has been taken over by a group of sue happy people. Most of these people have never been in a classroom. Get a grip America! I had to stand in front of a chalkboard with my nose in a circle on the board. I was humiliated but I didn’t disrupt class again for a long time. When I got home, I got spanked for it. Mom didn’t run to school squalling humiliation.
We have lawyers and judges making millions off the taxpayers so that parents like this can sue. This type of crap is ruining public education and sucking the life out of taxpayers. If you don’t want your child disiplined, take them out of publicly paid for schools.
June 27th, 2010 at 3:38 am
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