Teachers From Hell Pt. 2

 

I feel for these students. However, I also feel for the other students in Alex’s class. I have worked for years in public schools. Many times students like Alex are inappropriately placed in settings that are not good for everyone involved. I am not saying that he should be placed away in some padded ‘special ed’ room. But, that perhaps the teacher was overwealmed with a student that is “under desks, chews papers..” This can be very hard on the other students in the class. I have also worked with autism and ‘spectrum disorders’. It is a social spectrum disorder. Depending on the severity of the child’s social disorder, it would be very hard for him to understand that he was in fact being singled out. I think that the public likes to hear about a little boy that was discriminated against in a classroom with a disablity and it is being glorified. I am in no way saying that the teacher was right for doing this. She should not have put Alex against his classmates. And any type of physical action is totally crossing the line. Teachers have to play many roles, but one that they are not qualified to be in a psychologist. I have used peer pressure on kids before and many times is helps. It doesn’t mean that the teacher is a bad person or even a bad teacher. She is in a situation she is clearly not qualified to be in. But putting pressure on a school district to ‘do something with her’ when the right thing to do is train and put Alex in a position that is best for all. I say shame on poor Alex’s mother. She is putting her son in the public eye. She, as a mother of a child with a disablity need to be an advocate, for sure. However, many parents expect miracles to occur in a six hour school day, with 30 something other children,and in programs that are ill equipped. Knowing that your child has a disability,you need to be in constant communication and aware of what happens in the school day. I do question the validity of Alex’s ‘testimony’. One of the things with autism and social spectrum disorders is that they cannot act appropriatly in social situations. I am curious of the severity of his disorder. I find it hard to believe that a

- phmommyof2

Posted 05/30/08 11:03 AM

 

 

1. The school district should have assigned a 1:1 para-professional or aide for this child. They failed to do so. 2. Most parents of kids with disabilities TRY to be in constant communication with the school staff, but most of the time teachers are too busy to let the parents know what is really going on. 3. Kids with autism can still make connections and know when they are being humiliated. Don’t under-estimate them. 4 This teacher broke the Principles of Profession Conduct of the Education profession in Florida. a) Shall not intentionally expose a student to unnessary embarrassment or disparagement. 5. School districts need to start doing some staff training on autism. This isn’t going away and with 1:166 kids having the disorder, it’s the districts responsibility to educated itself on autism.

- Misha

Posted 05/30/08 12:04 PM

 

 

Wow, I don’t have or know of a child with this kind of need for understanding and recognition, but if I did, I’d wish there were more public schools that had trained teachers. I do feel the teacher brought unnecessary attention to Alex by asking his classmates to vote. I can’t imagine how he must have felt. We want to protect our children. It’s sad when we can’t send them to school without praying something won’t happen with a classmate. Now, we have to worry about the teacher too. I hope with a new President that cares for our children, things will improve in our schools with funding for special needs.

- Florestine Chapple

Posted 05/30/08 02:19 PM

 

 

That teacher should be fired!

- anon

Posted 05/30/08 05:29 PM

 

 

PHmommy: You appear to be a voice of reason. I say “appear” because some people are really not qualified to teach, and Ms. POrtillo appears to be one of them. You make the point that sometimes children are disruptive. This may be true, but the remedy is not to abuse them. In addition, you fail to mention the difficulties in removing an incompetent teacher from the classroom. This incident struck a chord with people because it’s typical of the petty bureacracy which has taken over the public school system. I personally sacrificed to send my kids to private school, and it was well worth the money. It has always seemed unfair to me that the money I pay in taxes not only did not go to teach my own children,but was used by the public school system to hire incompetent lackwits like this teacher.

- Doc123

Posted 05/31/08 01:45 PM

 

 

doc 123: I agree with your statement on the need to hire more qualified teachers. I also respect your decision to send your children to private schools. Unfortunately, that is not an option for many people. It most times, is not an option for children with disabilities. Many times, private schools will not accept students that require additional staff, rooms, equipment and such. I in no way believe that children especially ones that have a disability should be placed in situations that are abusive. However, I feel that our school systems are ill equipped for many children like Alex. Many of our teachers have little opportunity for professional development to learn how to properly handle students with disabilities like Alex. I agree that this teacher should not have done what she did. I am saying that all too often people don’t understand the way that schools are run. There are many rules and laws that keep students like Alex in inappropriate settings. This is very unfair to the students around Alex, the teacher, the support staff, and Alex’s family.

- phmommyof2

Posted 05/31/08 03:56 PM

 

 

I feel that the child’s special needs are being focused on to a point where we’re missing the reality. Most classes have a disruptive child or two (if you seriously think that a class of 18 5 year olds has 18 little angels who sit quietly and do everything as directed … ) and the teacher needs to be able to cope with that. This teacher clearly couldn’t. No child on earth should be deeply humiliated in the way this little boy was - special needs or not!

- winterglow

Posted 06/01/08 10:02 AM

 

 

phmommyof2 wrote:”There are many rules and laws that keep students like Alex in inappropriate settings. ” That is not true. There is IDEA law that states that a child like Alex should be tested and if found to qualify, he should have an IEP. (Individual Education Program.) This is the school districts responsibility to propose. The IEP team ( teachers, specialists and the childs parents ) determine together how much time the child will be in the mainstream classroom or the special education classroom. Aparently Alex had an IEP. So if he was in the mainstream classroom then that is what the team decided was appropriate for him. The law didn’t decide it, the IEP team did.

- Misha

Posted 06/03/08 02:51 PM

 

 

I understand how you feel about your son and the treatment of your wonderful little boy. I am a mom of a 11 year old boy with special needs and have been homeschooling for about 2 years. I pulled for similiar reasons and but did not find out from my son that one teacher screamed in his face to do his work. that was a self-contained teacher and I have been contacted by 3 others parents that have has issues at that school. I am so proud of you for taking this issue to the press. I didnt when problems with the schools started at 2. Its really a sad situation that the schools have put parents in. These children will grow up and if we dont start lookind at a true FAPE situation for our children then our issues will only get bigger. Best of luck!

- Liz

Posted 06/06/08 07:08 AM

 

 

From the time my son was in 1st grade I have had to be in meetings, courts ect to try and get my son and education. He has a form of autisum with 47xxy and he is now 27 and the system still is anti pro active in teaching him. his IQ is off the charts and they have shunned him. Its horrible. This has affected my life so adverisly that we are tramitized and poor. I took the schools to due process and won but the schools never inforced the decission by the courts and I ran out of money and lawyers. Our special needs programs are horrible and if you have a form of autisum your out of luck in the USA

- Donna Ginn

Posted 06/07/08 04:09 AM