Posted on 05/31/2006 10:41:25 AM PDT by Nachum
NAPLES, Fla. -- A 6-year-old special education student who kicked a Naples teacher's aide and spent several hous in juvenile jail is facing felony battery charges.
Her mother, however, wants to know why the case has gone so far.
Takovia Allen suffers from behavioral problems and attends a special class at Lely Elementary in Naples.
According to an arrest report, on May 2, a teacher was trying to line up students to go to music class. Takovia refused to go and kicked the teacher's aide in the ankle.
After a discussion among school officials and two law enforcement officials called to the school, the girl was arrested.
Takovia was taken to juvenile jail and held there for several hours before being released to her mother.
She is being charged with battery on a public education employee.
It's possible she will enter a program that includes counseling. If she completes the program successfully the charges could be dropped.
In case anyone was wondering whether or not the edukayshun and (so called) legal system was completely and utterly broken ...
My wife works daycare with behavioral 'issues' children.
If they arrested every little kid who kicked, bit, punched, or slapped the teachers aides, there wouldn't be any kids in there!
I fully expected to read about a tazing in this story.
I'm torn.
The one side sees this as completely stupid and as such should be dropped ASAP.
The other side sees this as completely stupid and should be pushed as far as possible to make the point that the school system in this country is in need of serious help.
Takovia?
Hmmm.....
I don't think we're getting the full story here.
My wife held the same position as a teachers aide working with Special Ed and Autistic kids. Getting bit, scratched, struck or kicked happened every day. She had a desk thrown at her and was once stabbed with an ink pen by a 15 year old girl. The little girl obviously has a problem or she wouldn't be in Special Ed and is probably already under counseling of some sort. This teachers aide is in the wrong business and should get out immediately.
My wife held the same position as a teachers aide working with Special Ed and Autistic kids. Getting bit, scratched, struck or kicked happened every day. She had a desk thrown at her and was once stabbed with an ink pen by a 15 year old girl. The little girl obviously has a problem or she wouldn't be in Special Ed and is probably already under counseling of some sort. This teachers aide is in the wrong business and should get out immediately.
1) Special Needs students are unpredictable, and may sometimes behave inappropriately.
2) Six-year-olds unpredictable, and may sometimes behave inappropriately.
3) Six-year-old Special Needs students are unpredictable, and may sometimes behave inappropriately.
And my new conclusion:
If you're going to call every such offense a felony, well, to praphrase Brody: "You're gonna need a bigger prison."
My guess is these "educators" have been wanting this child in counseling, or another program; the child's parent may not be cooperating. This may be attempt for the school to get their way on some issue they have this child.
Child has not even reached the considered. . 'age of reason'. . .
Aide probably deserved it. . .and I would like to give one to the teacher, herself. AND the principal. . .
Rediculous/OMG scream/
If there is an unaddressed issue with the child. . .the MAKE the parent accountable, for God's sake.
The child here should not be reaping a punishment from what the parent has sown; albeit; even if the child's teacher's are. . .
The age of the child (6) and the alleged "crime" (kicking a teacher's aid in the shin), are all I need to know. An arrest of a six year old would never, ever have happened in any other time in U.S. history, except in these twisted times we live in. The police dispatcher would laugh and tell the teacher to smack the child back. This insignificant situation with a special needs little girl who has barely graduated from potty training should never have been a police matter.
And homeschooling isn't as simple as some think. There are costs incurrred that some people can't handle. Not to mention the time involved. The public education system needs an overhaul. But I don't see it happening anytime soon.
Yep. I'm guessing there is something ugly beneath the surface of this one.
Absolutely. A kick in the shin, while inappropriate is NOT a felony. This could have been dealt with without dialing 911.
Medicating a really out-of-control kid into some semblance of normalcy is often not possible, but I don't think we should hesitate to keep kids sedated if they pose any real physical danger to staff or other students. And kids with incompatible problems should be in separate programs, not all thrown together. I was talking to an old friend from college the other day, who now works as a special ed teacher at the elementary level. She's got one kid (autistic and barely verbal) who simply hits people to get their attention; and another kid who has a brain shunt and really must NOT be hit in the head. If there isn't a separate program available little Miss Hitter, she should be attending "school" only under the influence of a strong sedative.
>If you're going to call every such offense a felony,well, to paraphrase Brody, "You're going to need a bigger prison."<
And more potty chairs.
Sometimes it's not clear what the intent of mainstreaming is. The effect in some cases is to provide some incremental benefit to a severely impaired child who will never be remotely self-sufficient, at great expense to a number of normal children who very much need a good education. The most outlandish case I've heard of was a few years back (in NJ, I think) -- there was a severely mentally and physically impaired girl attending a regular elementary school class in a wheelchair, accompanied by a full time nursing aide (at taxpayer expense, of course), and disrupting the class significantly. And for what? The girl was attending school with a DO NOT RESUSCITATE ORDER PINNED TO HER CLOTHES!!!! She wasn't expected to live long, had a history of cardiac arrests, and the decision had been made to let her go whenever the next one hit. It's hard to imagine what is going through the minds of parents and school officials when they allow this sort of insanity to go on. They seem to have completely lost sight of the purpose of school.
With the Internet, homeschool education packages, and retired teachers offering tutoring services, it should be easy for anyone to homeschool.
One would think. One would be wrong. There are state laws to adhere to,(some states are much worse than others) records to keep and standardized tests that must be done. It ain't free. It ain't cheap. And it dang sure ain't "easy". And if the public school system wasn't the travesty it is, it wouldn't even be necessary.
I would not say that mainstreaming is a bad thing. I could make a case that some of the "special" students do not need to be segregated. I knew of one person in special education for stuttering and nothing else.
It may be different depending on the location. But where I'm from regardless of the child's development, if there is a diagnosis of autism that child is required to be mainstreamed. Ridiculous. Then they add unqualifed staff to the mix & wonder why there are problems.
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