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Re: Yes. Involving the other students was abusive but if the boy were
Please take a look at the links in my entries about Alex Barton. He's not 'hopelessly' autistic. He told his mother 'I feel sad'
It's enough to rip your heart right out.
posted by
Rainbow_Writer
on June 11, 2008 at 3:51 PM
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Yes. Involving the other students was abusive but if the boy were
hopelessly autistic he would have never noticed their treatment of him. I'm sorry if he was traumatized, however.
posted by
WindTapper
on June 11, 2008 at 3:00 PM
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Both the system that causes frustration in teachers and the teacher herself
are responsible. I really think we need to tackle both. This was an extreme case, but there are cases galore where children are made to feel lesser for things they end up doing not because they want to but because of their conditions - physical or social
posted by
Straightforward
on June 10, 2008 at 7:58 PM
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It is so sad for everyone involved. The pressures of being a classroom teacher are incredible. This does not excuse any actions. The point is that her classroom was incredibly understaffed and could not meet the needs of the special needs student. She was teacher of the year. I was a classroom teacher, an administrator who supervised and evaluated classroom teachers. The complaint I always got were that we were understaffed. The dollar only went so far. For me, the teacher has been disciplined and that is going to be the end of it. One needs to understand teacher tenure to appreciate the difficulty in removing a teacher from a given school district. I had one once and I was told it would take at east nine years of documentation to even get into the office of a given teacher's union. This could fill several blogs as well. The whole thing is so incredible sad. I would like to see the school district held accountable in this matter. Thanks for indulging me. sam
posted by
sam444
on June 10, 2008 at 3:09 PM
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Your blog provides a service ...
to parents everywhere, love. Issues of integrity, honesty,and trust in education enter the picture. 
posted by
BC-A
on June 10, 2008 at 2:31 PM
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Re: Goes against everything
Read my links in previous posts about this story. The mother heard about this from: her son, the school nurse, AND the teacher!
I've read and linked to major-network news reports about this. So I am confident the information is accurate.
posted by
Rainbow_Writer
on June 10, 2008 at 11:44 AM
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Goes against everything
A good teacher should be. Enlisting other kids to support her negative feelings is not only abusive, it's masochistic. She should be brought up on all kinds of charges. However, if the Mom is only learning about this from her son and it isn't verified by others, that's a problem, too, as he could have a wild imagination. (If you recall the Witch Hunts from the '80s when every Day Care Center owner was brought up on charges of Satanic abuse and proven to be "false reports"). So, you have to tread carefully here.
Mal
posted by
gapcohen
on June 10, 2008 at 9:47 AM
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