Florida Teacher Needs to be Voted Off the Island

School personnel too often have an unshakable belief in their own inherent virtue and goodness; "we are here for the children after all." I run into the falsity of this belief all too often. A prominent illustration of a total lack of virtue happened recently in a Florida classroom. A teacher in Florida allowed the classroom to vote a child, who is on the autistic spectrum, to be voted out of the class. This teacher went beyond simple mean-spiritedness or  bad judgment. While the police declined to press charges, this teacher is obviously not fit to continue in this profession. She should take up any occupation that she does not have to consider other people's feelings. I have not seen such cold and callous conduct in my first hand experience, I have seen, however, lesser examples of extreme hurtfulness and bad judgment.  We all need to the ability to be self-critical of ourselves and our professions. Teachers are not immune from the bad parts of human nature.

Any interesting side-note to this story is that the vote was 14-2 to remove the student from the class. We could all learn something about compassion and standing up against peer pressure from the 2 children who voted to keep Alex Barton as a classmate.

PS the school apparently has re-assigned this teacher to non-teaching duties pending its investigation. If she had any decency she would just quit and go and work on a desert island.

Comments

[Karen Putz / DeafMom]

Good. gosh. Does this teacher still have a job?

[Jen]

I couldn't agree with you more. That teacher is not benefiting her students and is not fit to be in a classroom.

[Daunna Minnich]

The title of your blog says it all.  This teacher's behavior was inhumane and utterly shameful. Not only did she orchestrate the humiliation of this student, she also taught every child in the class how to resolve problems by engaging in gang behavior. She also taught every child how to be hurtful and demeaning toward a member of their class community — and not only that, but that such attacks are acceptable.  Parents who want to raise kind and caring children should yank their kids out of her class.

[Jennifer Biggs]

The following was my email sent to the principal after reading such garbage...thank you Charlie for posting this!

Jennifer
___________________________

Dear Sir,

My name is Jennifer, and I am the mother to an 8 year old boy with high functioning autism, also known as Asperger's Syndrome.

I read a story recently passed on through one of my support groups that I chat with regarding Alex Barton, a 5 year old boy in your school who is in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger's. It is to my utter dismay I read he was being "voted out of the class" by not only his peers, but a supposedly educated adult acting as a teacher; one who took it upon herself to initiate this unbelievable act.

This child SHOULD be educated with neurotypical peers as MUCH AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE in a loving environment, which yours is not. Read up on Asperger's; the more they are with typical peers, the more likely they are to learn behaviors of a typical peer. Your kindergarten teacher should be removed AT ONCE. You have employed a person with NO heart, NO tact, LITTLE education, and a discriminatory attitude. As I recall, Alex does have behavioral issues, which can be met LOVINGLY with an aide in the classroom and resource support.

The fact that your teacher took it upon herself to enforce her opinion of this child on HELPLESS children in her own classroom is DISGUSTING. Your teacher is supposed to teach these children values, and has failed miserably.

I have sent this copy to my attorney, who I hope will post this on his blog of "what NOT to do when educating a child on the spectrum".

You, sir, by allowing such action, are contributing to the discriminatory behaviors of all children in that classroom, in that a child with a disability isn't deserving of an education fit for them.

Terminate that teacher from her "duties", as I assure you don't want that reputation to spread.

I am just horrified.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Biggs

[not OK]

Isn't this treatment against the law? Google "Gebser letter"

[Adult left behind]

Right at birth I was left behind. Mother drug addict.with no home the DFS places me in a clinic for retards, until I was 1 year old. I lived with my grandmother at 17 months old til 6 years old. My home was disfunctoinal and my mom and her husband got to have me most of the time.My brother reported abuse but we were left behind. I cuold not speak, Ijust babbled, grunts, squeeks, screams, facials, and unappropriate gestures and behaviors that I learned from my home, as well as the clinic 'jail'. had set my life in stone. This is and has ben and still is my life. dead,dead,dead! This is my story...............

[Terry]

Wow! All of you who are saying that this teacher is mean spirited and has no heart and is evil are now doing the same thing by calling on her removal, her extridition to a desert island, etc. Umm, is this the pot calling the kettle black here? It sounds as if you are not practicing what you preach!

Yes, the teacher made an error in judgement! Was it malicious in thought? I do not think so-I think that she was really trying to do the right thing that came after a school year of one frustrating incident after another. Before I join with all you who would like to line her up against the wall, I want to hear her point of view. After all is said and done, perhaps instead of chopping off heads, we can learn from it and move on.

From what is read so far, this student was a constant, severe disruption with pushing tables around, lying on the floor pushing tables up, doing gross bodily functions while in class, etc. Are you so ready to condemn this teacher to life in Abu Gharib because she tried, albeit in a very wrong way, to deal with this situation? If so, then parents who send their childrent to summer camp should be treated the same as this teacher because everyone knows, the reason for summer camp is for parents to get a break from their children! LOL! You are going to get very defensive of this statement because you know it is true.

We should give this teacher the benefit of the doubt until we hear her side of the story as well. Something tells me that there is more to know before we, who know everything and are so kind in our words and deeds, pass judgment on her.

[Stan]

Terry,
Teacher's in this country are expected to be highly qualified. This is a mandate set by the No Child Left Behind Act. It calls for teachers to be proficient in their endorsement area by meeting professional standards set forth in teacher education programs at local universities. It also requires teachers continue their education by maintaining a number of professional development points over a number of years, even attain higher education through local universities within a given amount of time. My point: this teacher should have been versed in behavior management having a student with exceptionalities in her class. If she was not, it's the school board's fault for hiring and placing her. My other point: her decision to "vote" a student out of her class undermines basic principles of human dignity we are all entitled to no matter what our exceptionality. How would you like to be voted out of your community especially if you were unable to advocate for yourself.
This is an instance where this teacher did leave this child behind. Literally.

[County NC News]

Hi,

Taking a moment to stray from the subject, but since we are discussing the goings on in the public education system.

I’m promoting North Carolina State House Bill 388 “Tax Credit For Children with Special needs.” This is a bipartisan bill designed to provide parents of special needs children financial assistance toward utilizing private education instead of the conventional public education system in North Carolina. My most recent article:

Special Needs Education Poll Compels Bill 388 Sponsors

Currently, our news agency, County NC News, has free advertising space in exchange for back link placement. As of now, we have written two static web pages concerning House Bill 388 and Children with Special Needs. Furthermore, House Bill 388 needs your support for passage. I need your help in better understanding this lifestyle. Therefore, please email me your comments.

Rob Cross

Terry,

Even if the kid was disruptive, the teacher's behavior is unacceptable. In my opinion, not only is it unacceptable toward the little boy, but toward all the other kids she involved in her rejection lesson. She taught them it was OK to be mean with somebody who was different, to reject him, ...

This does not mean the school does not bear a part of responsibility by giving her the help she needed, but I certainly would not want my sons to be on either side of her little lesson. It was bad for both sides.

[Sara Cooper]

A good teacher does not let her/his mood affect her/his teaching. In this case if she was frustrated, as Terry seems to think, she/he should not let that affect her teaching. It is never okay to vote a student out of the classroom no matter what they do. The teacher needs to come up with ways to help the child. If the child was that disruptive, the principal should have stepped in and given her more help. It is also a good idea to use the resources around you and the teachers around you. Surely there was a special education classroom that he could have gone to for a cool down period. Sometimes it helps if there is another teacher to discuss or share students with for a brief time. Maybe if she had more support this wouldn't have happened.

[dinesh]

We have problems with the Golden Rule for a number of reasons. One of them is that although they teach it in schools for children to use interpersonal situations, they do not seem to ever apply it to the adults themselves.
-------------------
Dinesh

http://www.drugtreatments.com/florida

[Internzoo]

I think inhumane behaviour of th teachers should be dealt this way only.A very informative post...i must say.Strict actions should always be taken against such teachers.

Internzoo
http://www.internzoo.com

[jerry]

which teachers are highly qualified and which are not? The no child left behind act doesn't cover this aspect does it?