This is—to me—a classic example of the kind of “entitlement mentality” that is indicative of our society today.  Everyone thinks that someone owes them something.

This girl claims to have school phobia and—as a result of an agreement with the school system.....the school pays for her private tutoring, a tuition to Barbizon Modeling School, her summer camps, her subscription to Teen Vogue and Seventeen magazines and even spent several hundred dollars to board her dog while she went to these camps.

I kid you not.

The reason?  Because her doctors claim she has a “phobia of school”.  And the mother apparently successfully sued the school by saying that it was their responsibility to educate her, in spite of her “condition”.

Maybe I’m wrong here, but with so many other options available (private schools, tutors, homeschooling, etc.).....

....why does this woman (and apparently, the judge) believe that public education is a right, not a privilege?

It boggles the mind.
Tony Rush

We deal with this non-sense almost daily in public education. 

Notice from Tony’s post the words “successfully sued.” Many of the problems are coming from the courts, not the educators.

We had a student at my school a few years ago who was violent and needed instutionalized.  The parents were waiting on the school to say he needed instutionalized so we would have to pay for it.  The instution they had chosen would have cost our struggling system over $1 million per year until the child was 21.  That’s one million for ONE student.  Of course we never “recommended” instutionalizing him even though he was violent and we actually had to construct a padded room for him. 

At 21 the parents put him in a public instution.  (21 is the magic age when they are finished with public eduation.)

We have TREMENDOUS waste in education.  Most of it is coming from judges and legislators who are so far removed from the classroom they don’t realize the implications their decisions are forcing.

Here’s another bit of nonsense from the public school system:

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL—A Port St. Lucie mother says her five-year-old son with special needs was voted out of his classroom by his peers at the behest of the teacher, who has since been reassigned....

After conferring with the State Attorney’s office, police found no grounds for charges, but the school district is investigating the incident and these teaching practices.  Barton suspects other students may have suffered as well.

Full article at http://www.wptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=5f442343-a5ac-4903-b598-9f777910ab79

That has to be the wildest thing I’ve heard lately.  What kind of a person would deliberately encourage a class full of students to direct hateful, humiliating and ridiculing remarks at another student?  Does this teacher have ZERO knowledge of the emotional development of a five-year old?  Did this teacher not have a CLUE what she kind of behavior he/she was teaching to the OTHER students by encouraging them to be hateful?

Absolutely amazing.

Tony Rush

Perhaps…

the child hit, bit, pushed, shoved, and broke bones in other students arms.  Perhaps he hurled the more horrific language than the young students or even their parents had ever heard.  Perhaps the teacher was not allowed to discipline the child in ANY manner due to liberal interpretation of IDEA.  Perhaps there are a million scenarios.

We had a student who had been allowed to do any amount of harm to other students because he fell under the “special needs” umbrella.  He had ADD… After he beat a student bloody in 5th grade I instructed the parents to file charges.  They did and the behavior stopped.  Perhaps this student is so mean to other children the teacher felt this was her only option.

FamilyMan - 27 May 2008 02:57 PM

Perhaps…

the child hit, bit, pushed, shoved, and broke bones in other students arms.  Perhaps he hurled the more horrific language than the young students or even their parents had ever heard.

That’s all speculation but let’s say you’re right and this little five-year old was all that:  it doesn’t excuse the idiocy of the teacher to reprimand him in that fashion. 

Discipline cannot be a REACTION to a child’s behavior.  It has to be a RESPONSE.  Standing a child up and deliberately humiliating HIM as a person (not just criticizing his behavior) is inexcusable.  In my opinion, this teacher should be fire. 

Perhaps the teacher was not allowed to discipline the child in ANY manner due to liberal interpretation of IDEA.  Perhaps there are a million scenarios.

Hmm......there are plenty of disciplinary solutions for the possible scenarios you mentioned.  I don’t know of any school in which “hitting, biting, pushing, shoving and breaking bones” would go un-addressed.  Whatever system is in place for discipline should have been used......not the one this teacher chose.

We had a student who had been allowed to do any amount of harm to other students because he fell under the “special needs” umbrella.  He had ADD… After he beat a student bloody in 5th grade I instructed the parents to file charges.  They did and the behavior stopped.  Perhaps this student is so mean to other children the teacher felt this was her only option.

I’m sure we’ll find out that there are more details coming that we don’t know yet.  But—again—no matter the severity of the child’s behavior, there is NO reason for a teacher to make deliberate emotional attacks against a child and ask the rest of the children to participate. 

“Voting” the child out of the classroom?  C’mon, FamilyGuy....you can’t honestly be suggesting the teacher was justified in attacking this student this way?

Tony

No, Tony, I don’t think she was right. 

However, there are a lot of frustrated teachers out there who have no disciplinary options.  If you have been out of the schools for more than 10 years then you have no idea. 

I have seen some 5 year olds who should not be in the class with other 5 year olds.  I think the teacher would have been more correct to isolate the child from the other students herself until the behavior changed.

Just a side question.  Do we KNOW that the mother is telling the truth?  It seems too much over the top to be so.

I don’t want to be assumptive but I would like to think this story wouldn’t have made it to a news service unless it had been corroborated.  For whatever else we think about the media, publishing uncorroborated stories is the big no-no that’s taught on the first day in Media 101. 

The teacher HAS been removed from teaching pending an investigation so it’s obvious that something occurred.

However, the State Attorney General’s office has ruled (unsurprisingly) that he incident did not constitute as “emotional child abuse” so no criminal charges will be filed.  However, that won’t prevent the mother from pressing charges in a civil court.  Which, in my opinion (if her story is accurate), she should.

Tony

I see your point Tony.

For those interested in following this second story I mentioned in this thread, here are some public documents that outline the teacher’s actions:

http://www.slate.com/id/2192480/

Tony Rush

Regarding this :

“Like a twisted reality show, Barton says in a 14-2 vote, his classmates voted the five-year-old out of the classroom.”

Full article at http://www.wptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=5f442343-a5ac-4903-b598-9f777910ab79

That has to be the wildest thing I’ve heard lately.  What kind of a person would deliberately encourage a class full of students to direct hateful, humiliating and ridiculing remarks at another student?  Does this teacher have ZERO knowledge of the emotional development of a five-year old?  Did this teacher not have a CLUE what she kind of behavior he/she was teaching to the OTHER students by encouraging them to be hateful?

These are very good questions to bring up, Tony. Was Alex’s special need a form of autism? I may have missed something if it was. Of the 14 children that voted Alex Barton out, how should the parents of the 14 children reacted?  I would hope that they would not encourage this kind of behavior from a teacher. Tony, how would you handle this if your child was one of the 14?

Here’s what I propose for the teacher (we all know what that is worth , this is just speculation, of course)

Suspend her without pay until she completes the following :
- Send her on an educated research hunt for this specific special need – learn all she can can on this;
- Teach a class on this (behavior, how to respond, etc.);
- Apologize to each student and parent, the school board, pirvately and publicly; and
- Apologize to Alex Barton and his family, privately and publicly.
Then let her come back and teach!

This may sound harsh but : There has to be some accountability in our society, doesn’t there?
Then may she know what it means to be singled out. Humility and compassion can go along way!