I ran across this article from last year that I was appalled at and made me think about the “Rights of Students with Disabilities” presentation. A 5 year old boy with autism was voted out of his class by his teacher and classmates in a kindergarten class at Morningside Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The teacher allowed his classmates to voice their opinions about him and vote whether or not he should be allowed to stay in the classroom. 14 of the children voted him out of the class and 2 voted that he stay. He was sent to the nurse’s office for the rest of the school day. The boy’s mother reported that he had been emotionally affected by the incident and was considering a suit against the teacher. Florida attorney’s officer said that there could be no criminal charges filed because the incident “did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse.” This makes me very curious as to what the criteria are and how far this state will allow people to go before pressing criminal charges. I also googled this article and found many, many websites for parents with disabled children who were rightly outraged by this incident.
http://www4.enews20.com/add_comment_08253_pc_748.html
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3 comments:
I can not believe that this was allowed to happen! What was the teacher thinking? I would be curious to know what happened to the teacher after this incident since criminal charges could not be filed. I feel that if a teacher believes this is appropriate then they have no reason to be in a classroom teaching students how to behave and treat students with disabilites.
This is almost completely unbelievable. I had to check the date on the article, just to make sure it wasn't some ridiculous April Fool's Day joke. This "teacher" needs serious re-evaluation. Running a classroom like some reality show AND victimizing a special needs student at the same time??? How is this not criminal?
The topic in our educational psychology and assement course this past Monday was autism. Vincent was able to share stories of his experience working with autistic children. Since Monday night, I have been thinking about this post. Althought I found this story appalling when I first read it, I am now able to truly grasp how horribly this teacher reacted to this student and the situation. To have a class vote to remove any student from a class is poor classroom management and judgement, to say the least. But considering this student was autistic makes this a cruel and unusual punishment. I really have to wonder if this teacher is actually certified or certifiable. She definitely needs to leave the teaching profession behind. This is another example of one bad apple giving teachers a bad name. I could go on for pages, but I will spare everyone my wrath.
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