Should more have been done to this teacher??

Question

Read this link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,358956,00.html

What do you think? I know this happened in America, but I think it was very unprofessional of a teacher to kick a boy out of his class because he was eating his homework. Wasn't the teacher informed of this boy's autism?

And do you think the teacher should be fired for her actions?

Answer 1

She did know.  She was on the committee.

However, whether or not the boy has/may have a disability, she should be fired.  You don't treat any child like that.

I hope she loses her certification.

ELIZABETH, she was on the team.  I'm not looking for the article now, but it's out there.

Answer 2

In most schools in the UK there are teaching assistants allocated to pupils with learning/behavioural problems. They help to negotiate between teacher and pupil as they have special needs training.. So although the teacher may have been unprofessional/negligent, part of the responsibility/blame possibly lies with the school for not putting that additional pupil support in place. It must be a difficult juggling act for a teacher to balance the needs of individual pupil(s) with the responsibility for maintaining an ordered learning environment for the rest.

Answer 3

That poor child, how will he ever be able to go back into that classroom with those other children?  

What on earth was she thinking?  What did she really think she was teaching those children about conducting themselves around other people or how to deal with people who are perceived to be different?  How many of those kids went home that evening, 'played Survivor' & ostracised their own friends?

I hope the child's parents sue that school into the ground

Answer 4

It is bad for the teacher to let the kids vote. What do 5 year old kids know about vote?

It is also bad for her to kick him out. Think about the psychology bearing down on a little kid.

The parents should sue.

Answer 5

I think this is an excellent example of an unaware administrator and undertrained teacher being forced into inclusion before the staff is ready.  Now, granted, she doesn't sound like the sweetest kindy teacher ever, it doesn't seem like she has an ounce of training in autism.  However, due to inclusion being forced suddenly without training for the staff, it's a trial and error to find out who the good inclusion teachers are.  Why was a kid with autism (c'mon he's eating his homework for goodness sake!)  in a regular classroom of 18 kids without additional, on-going assistance anyway?

Edit - I don't see it as an excuse.. but, rather, a reason to re-examine the way we are putting kids with special needs students into the classroom.  Sometimes it's like leading the lambs to the slaughter.  Many students are "given" to the teacher who is lowest on the totum poll.  That teacher has no authority to speak against the administrator and what children they get.  We also need to look into what else the teacher has done and potentially been swept under the rug by administration or fellow staff members.  Her behavior just didn't grow this mean on a a single day.

Judy, sadly, many regular classroom teachers are not on the IEP team.  Its sad that having a classroom teacher in the meeting is not an absolute requirement.  However, by law she should have received a copy of the IEP.

Answer 6

If she wasn't informed .. Yes !! If she know about the autism .. then NO !! - She should lose her job for that !!

Answer 7

It doesn't matter if he had autism or not.   The teacher was cruel, and worse than that she is teaching the other children to be cruel to the weakest one in the pack, the one that doesn't fit in, the one that is a little different.

I think she is a dangerous woman to put in charge of children.

Yes, she should be removed from contact with children.

Answer 8

It does not matter what the school doesn't know, it doesn't matter waht the teacher doesn't know, it doesn't matter if the teacher has no training, ect

This can NOT be used as an excuse for what she did!

Answer 9

certainly, too little is done for autistic children as it is, all too often they are made the class scapegoat. there was an autistic child i went to primary school with and if there was any bad behaviour it was always blamed on him it was so wrong.

Answer 10

As a special education teacher, I have to say that I have seen way too many examples of children with special needs being put into general education classes as full inclusion students without adequate support, and it's not a positive experience for anyone involved.  I suspect that's what happened here.  

Obviously, it's ridiculous and highly inappropriate to have students vote on the fate of a classmate.  It doesn't even matter whether or not the student had special needs - the teacher's role is to provide guidance and support to all the students, never to participate in an exercise that ostracizes a child.

However, I do think that this may be another example of a child with very challenging educational and behavioral needs being placed into a classroom with a teacher who was completely unprepared and untrained to deal with it.  As a special education teacher, I have far more training and experience in providing the learning environment that is needed by children with autism and other challenging conditions than a general education kindergarten teacher.  That doesn't mean I am a better teacher or better person that my local kindergarten teacher, just that my class is often a better fit for a child with special needs.  

I have had quite a number of students referred to my special day class after they have had a very negative experience in full inclusion.  Often the child's behavior was very disruptive in the general education classroom, but with the smaller number of students in my class, along with the support of myself and my wonderful and highly trained teaching assistants, the student is able to learn more appropriate behaviors, which in turn gives him or her the opportunity for increased learning.  Full inclusion is not the right option for some kids - school systems to provide a variety of options in order to meet the needs of our students.

Answer 11

The teacher was pretty pathetic to do this, kicking him out of the class is one thing, I mean I know she may have known about the autism but the kid has to learn to associate bad behaviour with consequence even if he doesn't mean it, but the whole child vote thing is just wrong.

Answer 12

This teacher simply brings out to the public some of the widely held assumptions about who gets to be in a public school general classroom and who doesn't. The school system had some responsibility to provide someone to consult with the teacher who was experienced with children with disabilities. This boy apparently hasn't got an official "diagnosis" or an IEP yet. Still usually a team starts working on getting a child help when they know there's a problem,even at 5 yrs. old. I am a resource specialist teacher in CA, and I work with the general education teachers and staff. I'm not aware of every problem in their classroom ,but I do know all the children who are "at risk" in any way, behavior or academic problems. The teacher doesn't say why she did this "vote". Maybe to give her the benefit of the doubt she always uses this system of voting. It's age inappropriate to let 5 year- olds judge one anothers behavior; the focus in class should be on safety and social skills. She seemed a bit off base. She may stay in the office for a while before she gets her classroom back. No, I don't agree to fire her but I also wouldn't want my son or daughter there in her class and I especially wouldn't want her teaching kindergarten aged children.

Answer 13

She will probably lose her job.  I'm not saying what she did was right because it wasn't, but it is very difficult to handle children with severe behavior (autism usually means some type of disruptive behavior) in a regular classroom.  I wonder if the parent thought about medication to help with the impulsive behavior??  It is easy to judge if you haven't been in the situation.  She was probably about to lose her mind that is why she reacted in such a way.  I think parents of children with autism could do more to help the teacher....like early intervention or MEDICATION!!!! Most of the time, children that are autistic need medication.  If parents would start when they are young with a little (learning appropriate behavior), instead of waiting until they are 8 or 9 and have to be "zombiefied" just to be able function (because they have learned behavior that is very difficult to change).  I know what I'm talking about...with that said, I think the teacher could have found a more appropriate response, but probably with the whole year of bad behavior, she was sick and tired!!

Answer 14

The major problem was the fact she got the rest of the class to vote on keeping him in the class. Kicking him out is unfair but leaving the decision up to a gruop of 5/6 year olds is wrong.

Answer 15

no that wood be very unjust as the teacher was unaware so why shud she be sacked

Answer 16

Special ed teacher here...most likely they will put her on a probationary teaching assignment next year.  The problem is not necessarily the teacher (yes, she was stupid to resort to something this ridiculous) but many regular classroom teachers do not have any information about special needs students.  The teacher obviously didn't use her head if she didn't understand the student's problems.  It is her responsibility to find the information about the special student if she is not being informed by the administration how to help the student.

Answer 17

Very unprofessional on all accounts. I am not sure she should be sacked, but most certainly retrained and possibly never work with children with a disability unless she has specific training.

I very much doubt that the teacher or the school could say they did not know that the child had autism, given that the parents would have informed the school of their child's condition upon enrollment, especially if they want an IEP or other support services implemented.

Any teacher worth their salt would have raised concerns with their colleagues and the principal/head teacher, and even gone as far to speak to the child's parents.

And I will not accept that "She was probably about to lose her mind that is why she reacted in such a way". If the teacher was fully trained she would have known how to react to this situation appropriately, and most certainly not asked other children to vote on another student especially as they do not understand what and why they are voting for or the reason for the boys odd behaviour.

Also many parents do NOT want their child drugged to control behaviour as the side affects are truly horrendous, and are usually used for really serious behavioural issues such as aggression, self-injurious behavior and severe tantrums, given this boy has Asperger's which is high functioning autism he is most likely to have "odd behaviours" such as described in the article, rather than aggression etc.

What many people do not know is that there is NO specific drug to treat/manage Asperger's Syndrome, unless the person is displaying signs of depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety etc.

It is also very unfair to blame the parents for so called learnt or bad behaviour, these children act out due to frustration and inability to communicate, and I know many parents who had their child in early intervention programs, to help develop communication skills etc.