I notice the teachers email address is given. Wondering if we can’t start an email campaign voting this teacher out of her profession.
As cathartic as our Two Minutes Hate is, I don’t think more mob rule is required. According to the article both the school district and the state Department of Children and Families are investigating. Let’s give the system some time to work before breaking out the pitchforks.
This is not appropriate behavior and, indeed, violates SDMB rules.
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My son , who has Asperger’s Syndrome, screamed during his first year in developmental preschool. But the teacher’s response was to remove him from the room and stand right outside the door with him until he calmed down. Only then could they re-enter the room and resolve the problem.
I can’t imagine what this woman must have been thinking. Why in the world would she believe it would help with the boy’s behaviors in class? And that’s the only possible reason I can think of for her to try this.
I agree. It sounds like this teacher has fucked up majorly (poor kid, what a horrible situation to go through), but investigations are happening. The teacher sounds like a bitch but let them finish the investigation.
I am in no way, shape, or form defending this woman’s actions–she seems to be actually evil–but this may not have been just a case of being the weird kid. A friend of mine has a son in kindergarten who has been suspended probably a dozen, maybe more, times for violent behavior. He has no impulse control and can’t seem to control his rage: he throws chairs, he hits other kids, he threatens to kill them. Obviously, there are emotional and mental health issues here, but diagnosing those things takes months and months–you have to see specialist after specialist, many of which are hard to get into, and if you don’t live in a major urban area you may have to travel hundreds of miles to find people who specialize in various things. Most specialists want to see the child several times, often after a long period of time has passed. No one is willing to make a diagnosis until they have heard what all the other specialists had to say, and without that diagnosis, you can’t start the process to remove the child into a behavioral unit, or get extra help in the classroom to deal with the child, so you are stuck waiting each day until they do something bad and then sending them to the principal’s office to sit until a parent comes and gets them, wash and repeat tomorrow. It’s a horrible cycle. It’s humiliating for the child in question, who can’t figure out why they can’t behave and who understands that everyone hates them, it’s awful for the parents, who are getting contradictory advice from everyone from their own friends and family (who generally have no clue) and the experts (who make all sort of dire predictions but won’t say anything definite) and frustrating for the teachers, who are torn between what’s best for one child and what’s best for the group, and who see misery they can’t fix. Everyone involved starts to blame each other–the parents blame the teacher and each other, the teachers blame the parents, the child blames themselves and their classmates and teacher. It’s a mess and their doesn’t seem to be a solution.
My daughter has a girl in her class - she’s now in second, but shared a room with her in Kindergarten who is - I’m not exactly sure of the exact diagnosis (because, of course, the school doesn’t share) but the rumor mill has given me ODD and bi-polar. In kindergarten the teacher had to clear the room twice - take all the other kids out of the room - while this child had tantrums. Plus the minor crying and screaming.
Yeah, its disruptive as hell, the problem is that this little girl has as much right to be in the classroom as everyone else does. Its the teacher and schools job to come up with ways to cope. In this case, there is always a room mom or teachers aide in the room, and the teachers and aide try and head off issues early - or walk the child down to the social worker before they have to clear out the room.
And in a kindergarten classroom, it may be unusual to have tantrums so bad they have to clear the room for the safety of the other kids - but it isn’t that unusual to tantrum. Many five year olds don’t have great emotional control and with 20 or so kids there are tears and tantrums in a kindergarten classroom almost every day.
No, the article doesn’t say that. We don’t know what the spokeswoman’s exact words were; for all we know she conformed every last detail. And one would think, if the police were doing their jobs correctly, that they would have investigated all the details, so it’s not an unreasonable assumption that the incident did, in fact, happen just in the way it was described.
This thread makes me sad.
My friend’s son has just been diagnosed with Aspergers at the age of 6. He’s a wonderful, inquisitive, sensitive little soul and it breaks my heart to think that someday he might find himself at the mercy of a sodding twatwaffle like Ms Wendy Portillo.
There aren’t enough “behavioural problems” in this world that could excuse this kind of systemic bullying and I hope to Og her certifications can be revoked so that she can never repeat this stunt again. In fact, I hope the only job she can find after this involves cleaning elephant cages for the local circus.
…preferably with her tongue.
That’s right, Ms Portillo. Eat shit.
What aspect of the teacher letting other children say the boy, forced to stand in front of the class for the process, was “disgusting” and other explicit insults do you think doesn’t deserve a reaction? You’re not seriously saying that there could be some circumstance in which this would be an appropriate reaction to a disruptive kid?
Duck Duck Goose and monstro, I was emphatically not talking about “different” or “weird” behavior. In fact, I was the weird kid in elementary school, and my weird, dreamy behavior may have puzzled a few kids, but didn’t harm a fly.
But kids with autism can be difficult for other kids, and even more then difficult, they can be extremely disruptive, unpredictably agressive, and black holes sucking attenton away from other kids who need the attention just as much. That isn’t anywhere near “kitten torturing bully” but it still makes life much, much more difficult then it should be for the other kids, especially if the teachers aren’t dealing wel with explaining the kid to other kids.
The acticle doesn’t say this was the case, however, with this boy, just that he was “disruptive”.
But again, Maastricht, what does standing a kid in front of the class and instructing the other kids to call him names have to do with solving any kind of classroom disruption? Aside from being abhorrent, isn’t doing that just as big a disruption of normal classroom activities?
I see a mod has already stepped in to comment on this (thanks, TomnDebb!) but yeah, I would not want people to do such a thing. It’s actually upsetting that the woman’s email address is available so many public places, like the school web page someone linked to earlier. I’m afraid she probably already has gotten a lot of hate mail.
That said, I posted because of the fact that this sort of thing strikes close to home. As a parent of 2 kids with issues (one, in fact, with autism)… who’ve received nothing but fair treatment at the hands of the school, it horrifies me that someone in authority would allow / ringlead treatment of a child like this 
My kids have been mistreated bullied enough by their peers without adult assistance.
But the spokeswoman isn’t reported to have said “We’ve thoroughly investigated, and things happen just as the news report now quoting me described.” Rather, she’s reported to have said that the teacher confirmed the incident occured.
You put it best: For all we know the lady confirmed every last detail. That’s correct. And For all we know all she said was the three words, “Yeah, it happened.”
-FrL-
ETA: It’s strange how you emphasized “article” in your reply to me: “No, the article didn’t say that…” as though we have some source of information about the incident and about the police spokeswoman’s report other than the article. Do we?
It doesn’t matter what the kid did. This isn’t about the kid, but about how the teacher (and most kindergartners LOVE–even revere-- their teacher), the lone figure of authority for all of those kids responded to the need for discipline. I don’t care if the kid set the room on fire. At age 5, he is too young to know right from wrong–he has an idea, but as was said upthread, little impulse control.
Nothing excuses the manner in which this teacher chose to teach this child a lesson. Nothing. (if what is reported is true. I have to wonder how the mom has all these details from such a child–not that it’s impossible, but I also wonder what recourse she has–it’s her and Alex’s word against a likely tenured teacher.)
Ironically, I’d say it’s because he probably does have Aspberger’s that he could stand up there and “take it”. A sad, sick irony.
I’d like to see the teacher made to stand in front of her peers and have everyone say what they don’t like about her, with words like “disgusting” etc used frequently. Usually, I’m not much one for an-eye-for-an-eye, but here I agree with Gilbert and Sullivan: let the punishment fit the crime.
Wow, am I your friend? I’ve been doing all of the above for about 10 years. And in the wonderful state of Indiana there are no services for these children until they’ve gotten “the waiver” for which there is a years long waiting list. My kid just got out of 6th grade, she’s a danger to herself and others, and the school system won’t do a fucking thing to help me. I guess we have to wait until she gets seriously injured or injures one of us before they will do anything to intervene.
It’s incredibly frustrating when you have no help and nowhere to turn. Sorry to hijack.
Pretty awful…
And the cretin shares her name with my favorite restaurant of all time (Portillo’s).
Looks like she eats there 24-7…
I’d wager her email inbox is stuffed full of helpful critiques of her teaching methods, though.
I was afraid something like this might come up as soon as I saw that the linked site had email addresses on it.
IMHO, poor judgment on the part of both The Tof and astro.
Not to hijack the thread, of course. Ms Portillo, SPECTACULARLY bad judgment, you silly bint.
Ditto. I can’t help but think that was at least part of astro’s motive for posting it.