This student can be quite violent. She's been on a fight on the bus (couldn't be kicked off because of her disability), been in more than one fight at school (can't be expelled because of her disability), was responsible for getting other kids to fight each other (got a day home for that one), and is routinely touching (and being touched) in an sexually explicit manner in my class (was referred, but nothing happened) and in others (was referred, but nothing happened...maybe because of her disability).
The girl isn't entirely out of control most of the time although she comes and goes as she pleases (walking around or in and out of the room) and is very talkative during lessons and work times. Still, she's certainly a negative influence on the class and she takes away learning time from everyone. If I were a parent of any other kid in the room, I'd hope that the student would be removed from the course.
Here is the really sad part...the girl has natural ability. At the beginning of the year, she's shouting out answers left and right (okay, so she wasn't being called on then and was certainly disruptive especially when I was trying to get some strugglers to give me answers to questions) but at least she was engaged and excited. Soon she began to skip school, and eventually she fell so far behind that she has no idea what we are doing in class. Sure, if she could focus for a week, she'd be fine for "B"s, but she can't really do that.
And her home life doesn't seem so bad...her mother is a positive part of her life and she doesn't live in the worse neighborhoods. Her choices for friends aren't that great; seeing her in the hallway kissing her boyfriend isn't for the feint of heart, either.
These kids need programs - she was in a program in her middle school that dealt with these issues. Lower class sizes, peer mediation, support systems - this girl needs them. Not to be in classes of 35 especially when many of those kids are borderline students anyhow. They don't need any negative influences in the classroom when so many can tip either way.
So today, the day after the meeting I'm not invited to, the six teachers get this message from the case manager:
No one should use language which suggests [student] should return be in a [special program] setting. This is inflammatory and hurtful.For goodness sake. So now we have a student who has serious issues, and we can't even about having her in another program that might benefit her as a student and a person we can all live with?
This is almost as bad as not being able to call her by name in class because she sees that as confrontational. (Yes, true story....I thought about calling her Buttercup). Someday I might be able to call myself a professional. For now, I'll just bend over for the parents and students making a mockery of public education.
4 comments:
I, like you, am sorry that we have come to a time when sincerely suggesting something helpful is usually viewed as derogatory. I suggested to a parent recently (a parent who had admitted that her son never learned his multiplication tables) that her son would be less frustrated in class if he brought a calculator because it would speed up his work. She yelled at me for calling him stupid.
By leaving her in the classroom and allowing her to do as she pleases with no regard for others or their wasted time, we are carefully training her to be a superintendent one day.
As I frequently tell my kids when they come to me with a story about evil nonsense being perpetrated on them (sometimes by clueless teachers), I think we are missing out on a part of the story.
Either IB is selectively reporting and enhancing, or the administrators and parents (and students with disabilities) that he has to deal with are mostly idiots. Judging by some of the legal inaccuracies reported (cannot discipline--or suspend rather--a student with a disability, just as a for instance), I rather suspect that IB is just a wee bit biased in his reporting.
Anonymous:
Kids can't be suspended if it can be shown that the disability is to blame for whatever infraction has happened.
If a kid is diagnosed with ADD, then he can certainly be suspended for hitting another child. However, I have one kid whose disability is being unable to control his anger and lashes out physically at others. He has a $40,000 district-appointed assistant that follows him around all day in case he needs to be physically removed. But he cannot be suspended when he does, which he has - including when he got mad and threw a notebook at the student teacher working with me first semester.
See, here's the thing. The prohibition isn't really against suspension--it's against denying education services. And there's an allowance of 10 days before a suspension is considered denial of services (or an illegal change of least restrictive environment). Beyond the 10 days, a change can be considered, but there has to be an IEP meeting, and a determination of whether the behavior is related to the disability AND a functional behavioral assessment to assist in understanding the behavior and make a plan for improvement.
In spite of this, kids with disabilities are still suspended at a higher rate than kids without disabilities.
But hey--it makes for good stories doesn't it?
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