The wee tiny tribe has spoken: autistic kid out.

The teacher should be fired, no question.

But the problem is deeper. This is undoubtedly due to the school system's extremely liberal interpretation of Bush's "Leave no child behind" policy. I obviously don't like either the interpretation or the policy.

When my son was in 3rd grade there was a kid in his class who pooped his pants every day. We wound up pulling our son out and home schooled him for two years.

Agreed - the damage to the child and the children that stand up to stand what they don't like about the child - imagine what that teaches them as well. This sort of behavior harms all of them.

It reminds me of a project (positive) my teacher had us do in elementary school. We all taped on these long pieces of paper on our backs. We were then to go around to each of our classmates and write something we like about each child. Once the project was completed, we were to circle the phrase said about us that we liked the most (or felt was most closely accurate) and read outloud.

Teacher must have been inspired by the toilet paper incident in the staffroom.

Well some of the stuff written was total bulls*t.

I agree with the first sentence but I don't think this has anything to do with "NCLB". Kids were mainstreamed long before that and this kid was in kindergarten - most likely the parents had never even thought the kid had a learning disability.

I get that your son might have been annoyed by this other kid but pulling your kid out of school for two years over it?

Wow.

The other kid wasn't doing it on purpose.

Let's not teach tolerance or compassion or understanding.

Let's teach our kids that if you're different, you must be weird or not worthy of being part of the group.

Let's teach them that other people's problems are to be laughed at and mocked.

Let's teach them that it's ok to publically mock someone who's different.

I could go on and on about the possible effects this will have on those kids.

It's disgraceful.

If the autistic child was disruptive, the teacher should have conferenced between the principal and the parents. The child could have been moved or put into a program that would be more flexible. We had an autistic child in the school my brother went to and they had to have a guardian or parent there with her at school to keep her from being disruptive because the teacher had no experience in handling autistic kids. It helped both the girl and the other students to learn.

What they didn't do was make her feel like an outcast for being different.

cj, could you explain how you think this incident resulted from a liberal interpretation of NCLB?

These children were 5 years old

They are supposed to be being "educated" by a teacher - not given control over whether a child is allowed in or out of a classroom. Since when do the children decide, especially at such a tender age and in this manner, who should or shouldn't be educated. I simply find it incredulous that an educator would do this. Errrrm - do the 5year olds run the school.

Aiden
The parents will probably be happy- now their precious children will be able to learn in peace. Who do you think the kids learned their attitudes from?
In fact they probably heard their parents talking about this kid and his issues around their dinner tables.
The teacher might be an idiot - but I'm sadder about what the vote tells me about the kids in the class.
I wouldn't let my child go back there if they paid me - whether the teacher still worked there or not.

I would sincerely hope that the parents of the other children would be as horrified as we are that this were allowed to take place. Certainly, even without my personal circumstances, I cannot imagine that most parents would bring their children up in this way. However, I may be naïve and wrong in this assumption. I work in a primary school - we have over 40% of our children with special needs of some kind - whether it is emotional or behavioural. They are age 4-11 and there are only 46 kids in our school.

I am certain there are parents who I know who do not raise their children to have empathy or understanding - in saying that - the children who were subjected to this were 5 years old. Fortunately, in the tiny school I work in we only do positive reinforcement of values and negativity to any child would not be tolerated in any way.


LilK
You know, the whole inclusion theory is not only supposed to be good for the special needs child. It is supposed to help teach general population kids empathy - how to behave around special needs kids, how to function with occasional distractions from disruptive classmates, even how to be friends with atypical kids. Without the help of teachers and other qualified staff, it will fail as it did in this case. Unfortunately, school districts are always strapped for cash. We've been mandated to include these students (a good thing, in my opinion) without being given training or specialized staff (not a good thing).

Inclusion is "for the whole". You are absolutely correct LilK and your understanding of these needs is heartwarming. You are also correct in that, unless the teachers/educators are "trained" and have understanding of HFA or any other special needs - they do not have the specialisation required to be able to teach these children. It is unfair on the children and the staff and certainly, hard for other children to be able understand certain behavioural problems. How is a teacher expected to understand something as complex as HFA and acknoweldge all the difficulties a child might have - and be able to teach 30+ other kids at the same time? It isn't possible.

However, inclusion is not right for every child. Some children with HFA are model pupils. They are not all disruptive, they are not all necessarily "intellects". Some children are that high functioning that no-one, except the exceptionally qualified, are able to see or understand the difficulties a child may have or experience at school. There are many many more neurotypical children at any one school who will have "destructive behaviour" within the classroom than there are HFA children at school. I know I am preaching to the converted here…. but this infuriates me beyond belief.

Inclusion can ONLY work if is works for the "child" - for some children - inclusion is just not possible - even if they are a model pupil. In other words - "inclusion" does not work for an HFA child who presents no problem at school - yet has limited understanding of communication within the school environment because he/she is looked upon as being neurotypical. Inclusion therefore can be damaging to this special needs child.


"He told me Mrs. Portillo said, 'I hate you right now. I don't like you today'."

Could someone really say that to a child? Would they? What educator on this earth would tell a child in their care they hate them? Any educator ( and I am NOT a teacher - I just work in a school ) would tell a child you do not like the behaviour - you never make it personal to the child, you say the behaviour needs moderating….. or whatever words… who would tell a child they are "hated"? If this is the young child talking and is not corroborated - I simply find this too hard to believe. If it is true.... this woman should not teaching children in my opinion.

"Portillo said she explained to them that the students in class were all her priority and she would protect them like a 'bear defending her cubs'," the report said.

Protect them from a 5yr old picking his nose….. whatever her reasons. I don't get this. I just don't get it. "Bear defending her cubs" …. I'm sorry folks, I don't believe this person is entirely all together in her profession. You teach … therefore you teach all kinds of kids - if you want to have "bespoke" children - then start your own school lady and pick only nice good kids.

OK - wound up again - really shouldn't talk when I feel quite as bitchy as I feel looking at this.

Cj - I don't know US politics or policies - in the UK we have inclusion and "Every Child Matters" - a lot of educators I know believe in this, as do I. In reality, the "system" prevents "every child mattering" because it always comes down to money. It's words. In reality "every child" only matters if they can fit within the system. I learned that the hard way by a system that let's some special needs children down - and I live with it every day. However, I do believe, and the teachers at my school believe, and most of the teachers I know believe, that Every Child Matters. I do think a majority of teachers are good (again, I don't have a big experience here) - however, the teacher is only as good as the system it works in. They are strangulated at every turn when resources are limited and budgets are cut.


In saying all this - the fact is - just as I know only too damn well - the damage is done.

I should go now.

Izzie - go now? Why? You're kicking ass!

But he was taking up too much of the teacher's time and denying others their learning experience. We had a previous teacher who was a mental case that messed up our oldest for years - she didn't learn ANYTHING in the 4th grade because of that b*tch. We learned a hard lesson.

I had a teacher like that in the 1st grade. But she was just out right racist more then anything else.

This was the 70s and from my mothers explanation years later , mixed breed children and black and white families were still not accepted.

My teacher at the time was an older black woman and she truly hated me.

Openly called me Mixie in class. Removed me when " lessons were serious" and tried to keep me in the back so that I would not be a source of disappointments. <-- her words.

Yet, any open reading lesson, I was called on because I was the only kid in the class who could read fast. I read faster then she did. And for that, I could make her class lessons go fast if she let me read the details about it then have me sit some where else while she explained it.

When I was younger, I always thought that she was doing this because I was too smart.
I was in a room full of white kids and... well.. they were dumb to me.
They couldnt read. They didnt know math, they spoke 'bad english', they were dirty and very mean.
It wasnt until I was an adult that I realized that woman was racist, And that she was openly making fun of me.

Her logic , to me when I was young, only meant that I was truly special in some way and the discomfort I felt being around those 'dumb' kids only cemented the fact ( in my little head) that I really didnt need to learn anything as they did. They were obviously missing some screws.. HA

But that was not the case. She was just trying to deprive me.

When i would tell my mother some things, she never beleived me. She thought I was the one causing trouble and that I was the one who wouldnt sit still.
She would work with me for long stretches of time teaching me how to think about diffrent things , and interesting things in my mind to help me sit still. How to spell silently, made up words.
How to make a story in my head, and draw it during art class.
How to do math in my head..


all in hopes of curing me from being active.. Because she really thought it was just me.

If I would have been more articulate, if my mother would have realized things like you did cj.. I may have been lucky enough to have been moved to someone else who would not have made me the butt of her daily life.

Izzie, your post was one of the best I've ever read. You managed to hit all the fallacies found in much of teaching and the cruelties inherent, unfortunately, in many classes.

Shewolf, at least your mother added to your education unlike many parents who would have just ignored their children or even punished them.

Experiences like your stay for a lifetime--as they have with you. luckily, you managed to grow beyond those bad times, but many don't, for a depressing variety of reasons.