By Colleen Wixon

Alex Barton. Family photo courtesy of Melissa Barton.

The proposed settlement still requires a review by a guardian ad litem, a third party designated to consider the best interests of the child, before the agreement can be finalized in the courts.

About $200,000 of the settlement, reached Nov. 24 in Miami, is to be paid within 30 days of the court entering the order, the documents show. The remaining amount will be paid in a structured settlement beginning in 2020, when Alex is 18 years old, and ending in 2032, the documents state.

(more…)

St. Lucie County school board members decided unanimously tonight to allow teacher Wendy Portillo to return to teaching more than a year after the May 2008 incident where she led kindergartners to vote a 5-year-old boy out of their class.
School officials say Portillo, who had been suspended and stripped of her tenure, is expected to teach science and reading to sixth graders at Allapattah K-8.
She was Alex Barton’s kindergarten teacher at Morningside Elementary when she led his classmates to vote on whether he should stay in class after he’d been disruptive. Doctors later diagnosed Alex with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.

(more…)

If St. Lucie County school board members next week approve Wendy Portillo’s return to the classroom, she’ll likely be teaching students twice as old as the kindergartners she led last year to vote a 5-year-old out of their classroom.

School board officials had suspended Portillo and stripped her of her tenure for the May 2008 incident, in which she asked Alex Barton’s classmates at Morningside Elementary to vote on whether he should stay in class after he’d been disruptive.

Alex was subsequently diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. His mother, Melissa Barton, sued the school board and Portillo in August, saying the “Survivor-style” vote-out caused Alex irreparable psychological harm.

By then, school officials had restored Portillo’s tenure and said she could return to teaching as soon as mid-November.

Portillo’s reinstatement is on the agenda for Tuesday’s school board meeting, joined with several other personnel matters.

(more…)

Alex Barton with his mother, Melissa Barton

A mother whose autistic son was voted out of kindergarten in St. Lucie County last year is planning a press conference this afternoon to announce the filing of a federal lawsuit against the school district, several school officials and the local teacher’s union.

The complaint submitted in federal court alleges 5-year-old Alex Barton suffered irreparable damage when his teacher Wendy Portillo “orchestrated a ‘Survivor-style’ vote” asking the boy’s classmates whether or not he should be allowed to return to the class after he’d been repeatedly disruptive. The class voted him out 14-2.

Alex has since been diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome.

Wendy Portillo answers questions during an administrative hearing.

The school board initially suspended Portillo one year and stripped her tenure, but in June they restored her tenue and said she will be allowed to return to the classroom in November.

St. Lucie County Schools spokeswoman Janice Karst this afternoon said the district does not comment on active livitgation.

Barton this morning declined to discuss the specifics of the lawsuit, reserving comment for the press conference scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at her attorney Paul Sopp’s office in West Palm Beach.

She did say that her son now attends a private school in Palm Beach County through a scholarship.

“He’s doing so well,” she said. “His teacher’s a sweetheart.”

Sopp said that that while Barton is seeking monetary damages from the suit, a victory in the case would help other students.

“What we’re trying to do is ensure that no one in the St. Lucie County school district is denied education based upon their disability,” Sopp said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

 Loading ...

FORT PIERCE — A new principal has been assigned to Morningside Elementary, a school that gained notoriety after a teacher asked her students to vote on whether a 5-year-old boy could remain in class, St. Lucie County Superintendent Michael Lannon announced today.

Cortina Bell-Gray, an administrator who has been with the school district for six years, will head the school this fall.

“I come to it with much excitement, much humility,” Bell-Gray said of the appointment.

Bell-Gray, whose appointment was announced during today’s school board meeting, will assist in the search for an assistant principal, Lannon said.

The assignments come at the close of a difficult year for Morningside. More than a year ago, teacher Wendy Portillo asked her students to vote on whether then 5-year-old Alex Barton could remain in class after being sent to the office twice for misbehaving. The students voted 14-2 for him to leave.

The incident attracted an onslaught of attention, drawing email and phone calls from around the world.

That Alex was later diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a form of autism, and had been under evaluation for it at the time only added to the controversy.
Portillo was suspended without pay, but will be allowed to return to the classroom in November. Her position, though tenured, will depend on vacancies within the district.

Several months prior to the vote-out, a reading mentor at Morningside was arrested on charges of molesting an 8-year-old girl.

Anthony J. Tripoli, 69, was convicted in May of sexual battery and lewd or lascivious molestation. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Principal Marcia Cully and Assistant Principal Patricia Gascoigne were reassigned to Fairlawn Elementary from Morningside at the end of the year. Fairlawn’s principal, Susan Lyle, retired.

Lannon has said the changes were not related to the vote-out incident.

Bell-Gray has been an assistant principal at several schools in St. Lucie County. She also was principal of Garden City Elementary about two years ago.

PORT ST. LUCIE — The principal and assistant principal at Morningside Elementary, a school in which a teacher last year caused a national controversy by asking her students to vote on whether a boy could return to class, will be reassigned, school officials said today.

Principal Marcia Cully and Assistant Principal Patricia Gascoigne will start the coming school year at Fairlawn Elementary, said St. Lucie County School Superintendent Michael Lannon.

Fairlawn’s principal, Susan Lyle, retired at the end of this year. Morningside’s new staff has yet to be announced, but parents of Morningside students received an automated phone message this week informing them of the change, Lannon said. (more…)

Wendy Portillo answers questions during her administrative hearing.

Portillo, a 12-year veteran of Morningside Elementary, put her head down and wept after the vote. When she looked up she was smiling.

“I didn’t think this was going to happen and I’m just happy I’m going to go back to doing what I love,” she said after the personnel hearing.

 Loading ...

Portillo, who will finish her suspension in November, faced a tougher punishment.

Superintendent Michael Lannon recommended that Portillo be suspended without pay for a year, returned to an annual contract and prohibited from teaching young children again in St. Lucie. He had considered, but ultimately rejected, firing her.

Portillo appealed the punishment to the state Division of Administrative Hearings, but the judge ruled against her. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — One year ago, a 6-year-old autistic boy was brought to the front of his classroom. He left moments later feeling like an outcast.

For many, he became a symbol of how children with autism are mistreated and misunderstood.

Some experts say the case of Alex Barton, who was voted out of his kindergarten classroom 14-to-2, brought about change and awareness of how autistic children are educated. Others say there still is a long way to go. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — The mother of the 5-year-old kindergarten student voted out of class last year told police she was threatened by another mother at the same school.

Melissa Barton said she went to the school Friday for a ceremony honoring her oldest son, according to a Port St. Lucie police report. Another woman approached her in the school cafeteria allegedly threatening to fight her in the parking lot.

Barton’s son, Alex, was ousted from his kindergarten class in a 14-to-2 vote led by his teacher Wendy Portillo. Portillo in November was suspended for one year and her tenure was taken away.

The other mother denied the allegations, the police report said. She told police she approached Barton and said, “I’m going to be real discreet about this. I just want you to know that I love my school and what you did was not fair to our school,” the police report said.

The school resource officer said she escorted Barton to the parking lot because of safety concerns and told her she would send a patrol car to monitor her home.

No arrests were made and the case was closed.

By staff report, TCPalm.com

TC 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.

(more…)