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This is the last time I will say this. I do not necessarily favor keeping the child in the classroom. I have said this several times before, today. I do object to the teacher having the class vote the child out like a "Survivior" episode.
i think you are taking the whole thing too literally. classroom assignments are not determined by majority vote, and children cannot vote each other out of class in any lasting or meaningful way. it was an exercise that backfired, because the child was too young to understand its purpose. yes, it demonstrated poor judgment by the teacher, who should have known the age group she was dealing with a little better, but i see no reason to respond as if she set the boy on fire!
As a teacher in Florida and having a undergrad degree in Psychology, I can easily see both sides to this story. Regardless of how difficult and frustrating this kid must be in class, the way this teacher handled the situation was inappropriate and uncalled for. A situation like that will no doubt stay with that child for years to come. With that said, I'm sure the teacher is tired of being underpaid, short staffed, unequipped to handle students with psychological disorders and choose to handle a situation her own way. Schools in Florida and so overcrowded, underfunded and falling apart at the seams. Some days you wonder what the heck you are doing with your life, teachers have stopped teaching and started handing out work just get a few moments of silence. The resources that are needed are unavailable because the wonderful citizens would like to see lower property taxes, not stopping for a second to wonder HOW the state would manage that. Manatee county is forced to cut 72 million out of their budget, making schools cut salaries and increase classroom sizes in order to escape hiring more teachers. Amendment 1 did lower property taxes but it also brought Florida schools from bad to worse. It's easy to blame the teacher (who I do believe handled the situation horribly) or the parent for the child's behavior. But ADHD, Autism and COD are all DISORDERS, they need to be handled as such. Experience, training and knowledge needs to be available to teachers and school administrators and that comes in the form of a school psychologists but schools have to make a choice in what is more valuable for their money? People need to stop taking our educational system for granted, believing it will always be there. Ya it will but not in the same form and if we continue to disregard it then our kids will ultimately suffer. School disciplinary problems will increase including school violence. Schools are second parents for kids, they spend more time in a classroom than they do at home. Teachers are tired and fed up with the lack of respect they are getting from the state and federal government, slowly they will start to displace that anger on your kids and school will no longer be a safe, healthy environment. So maybe instead of complaining about "poor parenting" or behavioral problems in kids, you should go to your representative and DEMAND that teachers, parents and administrators be given the proper tools to handle kids with psychological disorders and just kids in general!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, what you deal with in Florida sounds a lot like Arizona. This year I have had 6 kids in my class with severe mental problems. I have not been equipped to handle these problems. I had one kid hit me, one who brought a lighter to school, another kick me. To make matters worse, I got no support from administration. The only help I got was from the counselor whose job is being cut next year due to budget problems. I have one child that I was trying to get evaluated. Do you have any idea how long it took? Well, I put in the paper work in August. He didn't get qualified to receive special services until May 20. Therefore all that time, I had to deal with his behavior! My first year of teaching I had a kid in my class who had an IEP in Indiana to be in an emotional disorders class. Well, my principal not only ignores the IEP and places him in my room, I didn't even have a mentor teacher my first year of teaching!
I'm not sure you realized just how little money school systems have and that the lack of funding leads to teachers with 20+ students in a classroom. Perhaps the teacher exists that can effectively teach all 20 children with a multitude of learning styles and behaviors, but I have yet to meet him or her. Most of us just try to survive the day and hope that we facilitate an environment that resembles a classroom while little Johnny is turning over desks, little Sally is spinning in the corner and little Jake is attempting to climb out the window while yelling "You're not my mommy! I don't have to listen to you!". Our school system in america is broken and something has to change for our children as a whole to become educated productive members of society in the future.
However, what the teacher did to this child was wrong and she should be required to hand in her license and not teach again. Mistakes and lapses in judgement happen, but when an adult goes that far to shame a child it is unacceptable.
While I do feel for the underpaid teacher since what our teachers are paid is not much more than someone who works at the local Walmart it is the job they chose. I've been a not to popular vocal advocate that it's the administration that's way over paid and in our county there's way too many of them. If we'd go to a central admin there'd be many hundreds of thousands of $$$ that could go to paying staff and for programs.
As a parent of a recently diagnosed Aspbergers child who the school has known for years has ADHD/ADD I think the teacher needs to go back for retraining with the threat of termination if it ever happens again. Good people make mistakes and no one here knows how or if the administration set the stage for this to happen. My son has had many a teacher who were NEVER told that he has issues and didn't know until WE told them at parent teacher conference. If the school admins don't show enough concern to alert the teachers or even follow through on IEP's and 504's the how much concern do you think the teachers will feel?
It all starts at the top, sloppy CEO= sloppy workers for the most part. I've seen teachers threatened with termination for voicing an opinion contrary to what his highness the superintendant or principal wants.
I'm not letting the teacher off the hook, this teacher KNEW what was done was wrong but I'm willing to give a long term teacher a chance the first time with proper retraining just like I would any other employee I've managed or worked with.
Just my 2 cents...
[quote=jimj;3929637] I think the teacher needs to go back for retraining with the threat of termination if it ever happens again. Good people make mistakes and no one here knows how or if the administration set the stage for this to happen. My son has had many a teacher who were NEVER told that he has issues and didn't know until WE told them at parent teacher conference. If the school admins don't show enough concern to alert the teachers or even follow through on IEP's and 504's the how much concern do you think the teachers will feel?
QUOTE]
Excellent point. I agree with you. The teacher does need to go back for some retraining with the threat of disciplinary action. If the administration were decent, they would want an autism teacher to show her some things she could do with those kids to help them.
While I do feel for the underpaid teacher since what our teachers are paid is not much more than someone who works at the local Walmart it is the job they chose. I've been a not to popular vocal advocate that it's the administration that's way over paid and in our county there's way too many of them. If we'd go to a central admin there'd be many hundreds of thousands of $$$ that could go to paying staff and for programs.
As a parent of a recently diagnosed Aspbergers child who the school has known for years has ADHD/ADD I think the teacher needs to go back for retraining with the threat of termination if it ever happens again. Good people make mistakes and no one here knows how or if the administration set the stage for this to happen. My son has had many a teacher who were NEVER told that he has issues and didn't know until WE told them at parent teacher conference. If the school admins don't show enough concern to alert the teachers or even follow through on IEP's and 504's the how much concern do you think the teachers will feel?
It all starts at the top, sloppy CEO= sloppy workers for the most part. I've seen teachers threatened with termination for voicing an opinion contrary to what his highness the superintendant or principal wants.
I'm not letting the teacher off the hook, this teacher KNEW what was done was wrong but I'm willing to give a long term teacher a chance the first time with proper retraining just like I would any other employee I've managed or worked with.
Just my 2 cents...
I agree with your post for the most part. It is easy for us to judge without knowing the whole story. However, I really do believe that anyone teaching K should have enough knowledge of age appropriate practices to realize that this was very wrong.
On a side note, I can understand the parent's outrage, but I think to parade the child out for interviews to recount the experience over and over is a bit cruel and only escalating the experience. 5 year olds are pretty resilient and chances are he would have forgotten the incident, but I think any chance of that happening is long gone now.
One more thing, I suppose it is possible that there was no IEP since I think I read he had transferred in January. I know that generally there is a big push the last few months to identify children in need of special services because many schools have a cut off date to qualify for special ed the following school year. Strange huh? And I'm not sure about other states, but here in TN 504 has become such a gray area with admin that we are all confused!
One more thing, I suppose it is possible that there was no IEP since I think I read he had transferred in January. I know that generally there is a big push the last few months to identify children in need of special services because many schools have a cut off date to qualify for special ed the following school year. Strange huh? And I'm not sure about other states, but here in TN 504 has become such a gray area with admin that we are all confused!
There's no cut-off date for qualifying for Special Ed -- if a child has one of the 13 designated disabilities, he/she qualifies for services at any time. However, there are deadlines that schools have to meet to be in compliance with federal law. For example, you don't want to make an initial referral for SPED evaluation in May or June, because the district is required to test the child within a set period of time (30 days, I believe) and since that 30 days would fall during summer vacation, the school psychologist would be unable to complete testing in time. So, you'd want to make your initial referral by, say, April -- or else hold off until school starts again in the Fall.
In this case, it sounds as though the child was in the process of being tested and by now probably has an IEP -- but he apparently arrived at the school without one.
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Therefore all that time, I had to deal with his behavior!
My first year of teaching I had a kid in my class who had an IEP in Indiana to be in an emotional disorders class. Well, my principal not only ignores the IEP and places him in my room, I didn't even have a mentor teacher my first year of teaching!
