Not knowing this family personally and having no knowledge of the schools actual ability to manage kids with special needs, I still have a few thoughts.
First of all, no teacher should be assaulted by their students. No teacher should have their life threatened either. Those are both unexceptable behaviors, regardless of who they come from. I don’t want to vilify a teacher for pressing charges against a child who’s assaulted and threatened her. She has every right to do that.
At the same time, there are a few things I would like to know:
- Did the school have a behavioral plan?
- Did John have an IEP before being expelled?
- Is this school qualified to educate a child with Autism?
- Is the staff trained to properly interact with a child like John?
- What was the motive behind pressing charges against a 10 year old special needs child?
- How involved are the parents with the school (certainly not blaming the parents).
- If a child is known to react to being touched, what alternatives were in place to avoid making physical contact?
- How many teachers or aides were in the classroom?
- Are the teachers actually accredited special needs educators? (not that this would justify them being injured)
- What’s the student to teacher ratio?
- Is this a mainstream classroom or dedicated special education classroom?
- Have the triggers for John’s behavior outbursts in the classroom been identified?
These are just a few of the questions I would ask.
I wasn’t present and have no first hand knowledge of what went down, but this isn’t my first rodeo. Two of my kids with Autism were physically and emotionally abused in the public school setting by their teacher. They were then punished for their outbursts in a manner that was entirely inappropriate. The issue wasn’t so much my kids but how the teacher was approaching them. They were not trained to work with Autistic kids and that was the problem.
I know this kind of thing happens. At the same time, there are so many amazing and dedicated teachers out there. The good far outweighs the bad.
What I find odd about this is, if he was so out of control, rather than touching him (serving to only escalate things), why not remove the other students for a few minutes, while the situation was being de-esculated? When my oldest was in grade school, his teachers had to do that on occasion for both my son, and other students as well. It’s not ideal but it just might have been the smartest thing to do.
My son was also arrested at a young age, cuffed and stuffed. School didn’t tell the officer he had autism nor how to contact me. I called CPD to find out where he was, to make sure they knew he has autism and doesn’t know his phone number. Nobody would it could tell me where he was. When I finally heard from faircrest they m mentioned how hard it had been to contact me as he didn’t know his phone number. I was horrified that the school would do this and not bother giving the officers pertinent information for a child they knew had a communication disorder. Incidentally, he had give out a window into a roof after being chased by staff. The principal crawled out with him to try and get him back inside. He was panic stricken and trapped without an escape. His crime was throwing a rock he found at the principal to make him stay away. They also knew his personal space needs increased with anxiety. And they didn’t have a plan. I don’t blame the principal for going out after him. But it was a whole big mess on the first day of school, with a sub in the classroom and he was doing great until the principal went to check on how it was going and my kid panicked thinking he was in trouble. The principal said that the sub told him everything was going great and he had been fine until then. Now I can laugh about it. I could not then. Now I can see the good that came of it, but at the time it was utter despair. The police is not a behavior plan. Never ever. BTW, I was hit, scratched, pinched and has my hair torn out by Alzheimer’s pathogens when working in the nursing home. I could file charges, but to what end? I would look like an asshole, and the patient is not competent, not even maybe. A panicked kid with autism has more in common with those patients than you think. And I’m telling you nobody would ever think it acceptable to file felony charges against that poor demented grandma. Not ever. Why is it acceptable to do this to a child that has behavioral needs and limited understanding of consequences?
My son was also arrested at a young age, cuffed and stuffed. School didn’t tell the officer he had autism nor how to contact me. I called CPD to find out where he was, to make sure they knew he has autism and doesn’t know his phone number. Nobody would it could tell me where he was. When I finally heard from faircrest they m mentioned how hard it had been to contact me as he didn’t know his phone number. I was horrified that the school would do this and not bother giving the officers pertinent information for a child they knew had a communication disorder. Incidentally, he had give out a window into a roof after being chased by staff. The principal crawled out with him to try and get him back inside. He was panic stricken and trapped without an escape. His crime was throwing a rock he found at the principal to make him stay away. They also knew his personal space needs increased with anxiety. And they didn’t have a plan. I don’t blame the principal for going out after him. But it was a whole big mess on the first day of school, with a sub in the classroom and he was doing great until the principal went to check on how it was going and my kid panicked thinking he was in trouble. The principal said that the sub told him everything was going great and he had been fine until then. Now I can laugh about it. I could not then. Now I can see the good that came of it, but at the time it was utter despair. The police is not a behavior plan. Never ever. BTW, I was hit, scratched, pinched and has my hair torn out by Alzheimer’s pathogens when working in the nursing home. I could file charges, but to what end? I would look like an asshole, and the patient is not competent, not even maybe. A panicked kid with autism has more in common with those patients than you think. And I’m telling you nobody would ever think it acceptable to file felony charges against that poor demented grandma. Not ever. Why is it acceptable to do this to a child that has behavioral needs and limited understanding of consequences?
Cops said they weren’t told the boy had autism, if that’s true it is ridiculous on the school’s part
In the video of the arrest, shown on my local news, you could clearly hear the mom stating that he has autism. I absolutely couldn’t believe my eyes! From an educator’s perspective, you want and need to feel safe and in control of your classroom. As a parent it made me angry and fearful. What if that was my child? I can’t fathom the rationale behind calling the police on a special needs student. What message does that send to the other students?
My son was also arrested at a young age, cuffed and stuffed. School didn’t tell the officer he had autism nor how to contact me. I called CPD to find out where he was, to make sure they knew he has autism and doesn’t know his phone number. Nobody would it could tell me where he was. When I finally heard from faircrest they m mentioned how hard it had been to contact me as he didn’t know his phone number. I was horrified that the school would do this and not bother giving the officers pertinent information for a child they knew had a communication disorder. Incidentally, he had give out a window into a roof after being chased by staff. The principal crawled out with him to try and get him back inside. He was panic stricken and trapped without an escape. His crime was throwing a rock he found at the principal to make him stay away. They also knew his personal space needs increased with anxiety. And they didn’t have a plan. I don’t blame the principal for going out after him. But it was a whole big mess on the first day of school, with a sub in the classroom and he was doing great until the principal went to check on how it was going and my kid panicked thinking he was in trouble. The principal said that the sub told him everything was going great and he had been fine until then. Now I can laugh about it. I could not then. Now I can see the good that came of it, but at the time it was utter despair. The police is not a behavior plan. Never ever. BTW, I was hit, scratched, pinched and has my hair torn out by Alzheimer’s pathogens when working in the nursing home. I could file charges, but to what end? I would look like an asshole, and the patient is not competent, not even maybe. A panicked kid with autism has more in common with those patients than you think. And I’m telling you nobody would ever think it acceptable to file felony charges against that poor demented grandma. Not ever. Why is it acceptable to do this to a child that has behavioral needs and limited understanding of consequences?
Cops said they weren’t told the boy had autism, if that’s true it is ridiculous on the school’s part
In the video of the arrest, shown on my local news, you could clearly hear the mom stating that he has autism. I absolutely couldn’t believe my eyes! From an educator’s perspective, you want and need to feel safe and in control of your classroom. As a parent it made me angry and fearful. What if that was my child? I can’t fathom the rationale behind calling the police on a special needs student. What message does that send to the other students?