Posted on 05/28/2008 8:30:04 AM PDT by mware
Hundreds of parents of autistic children are signing an online petition to get Florida teacher Wendy Portillo fired for her alleged tactics toward a 5-year-old boy that mirror the reality show “Survivor.”
Morningside Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Fla., recently alerted Melissa Barton that her son, Alex, suffers from a high-functioning form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome, WPEC News reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Some people should not be parents.
As my dad would say, “Suck it up son!”
Both sides in the wrong with this—if he is supposedly “high functioning”, he’s not going to be disrupting the entire class by eating his homework (?!) and having only *1* single friend in the entire school—teacher should have gone about this a different way.
Parents aren’t helping by enabling him with all the ‘poor widdle me’ stuff, IMO. That is, as a former teacher who has has Asperger’s kids in my classes before, I’m just sayin’.
If a child of mine had such a condition I hardly think I would need a school to alert me to it. This just seems odd.
It is a disgrace that this kind of thing would happen in a classroom. This is a case of open mocking and ridicule. That's not education.
Yes, I know the child was disruptive. I have coached children's teams in this age group with such children. I cannot fathom asking my other kids to vote on whether to keep a disruptive child on the team. This seemed to encourage public ridicule of the child instead of being the firm, consistent adult in the group.
Yes, I know the child was disruptive. I have coached children's teams in this age group with such children. I cannot fathom asking my other kids to vote on whether to keep a disruptive child on the team. This seemed to encourage public ridicule of the child instead of being the firm, consistent adult in the group.
And, no, this does not "toughen the kid up," this is bullying, enabled by the teacher. If this teacher were a guy, I would suggest jumping him in the yard.
Kid shouldn’t have been in the class in the first place. This movement to put disabled kids in to classrooms because they deserve a “fair” (love them liberal buzzwords) chance to be “normal” is grossly unfair to the rest of the children who are there to learn. Not be distracted by paper-eating.
If there’s a kid that has “special needs” then those needs ain’t being served by shoving them into a normal classroom.
Yea the teacher’s move was dumb but it sounds like an overall no-win situation either which way.
I wonder what the "criteria" are?
Asperger's Syndrome is sometimes not caught until college (a friend of mine was diagnosed with Asperger's the year after he graduated). This form of autism often is confused with just awkward social skills.
“I wonder what the “criteria” are?”
Usually it’s whether or not prosecution can get the DA re-elected
This kid was kindergarten. It takes time to see how kids perform in a school setting, get the testing done, the diagnosis, and the plan for accommodation. Schools fight tooth and nail to keep kids from having to get advanced services because it costs the school districts more than they get in federal and state aid. It can be very tough to get needed services.
In any case, it is not up to the students in the class to determine who goes or who stays and how it is done. It usually isn’t up to the teacher, either, if we are talking about permanent removal. Where I live, the decision is made by a team that includes counselors, teachers, the parents, and medical specialists.
This teacher sounds burned out and at wits end - or has few skills in handling children. She needs to be out of the classroom. I can’t imagine any situation where her action would be approproate.
Thanks. I did not know that.
Thanks for you post.
The ray of hope in this situation is that at least now there is a diagnosis at all. Even up to five years ago, most teachers had never heard of AS, and these children were bullied and humiliated constantly. Until they learn various coping strategies, these kids are pure “bully magnets” because they misread social cues, and laugh when they should not, or think that humiliation is friendly banter and so on. It's a rough rough road for them, but they are also God's children, and have a lot to offer.
AS people are the original “out of the box” thinkers. Newton, Einstein and many others are now thought (based on their social life stories) to have had the syndrome.
I saw a documentary on this, and it quoted a well-known lady with AS, she had a neat way of putting it. Neurotypical people sat around the fire for thousands of years with the sharpened-end spear. The caveman with AS was the one who thought, “Hey, what if I attached a really sharp piece of stone to the end?”
IOW, folks with AS might come across as strange, they might appear to be rude at times due to their almost total lack of understanding of social cues or nuance, but when it comes to original thinking, and a really incredible ability to focus on a specialized subject and advance the knowledge, they are hard to beat. The stereoypicial "nutty professor" who gets lost walking home while dreaming up his next amazing invetion....he often has AS. He is a real person.
Employers: these folks might not be your first choice for front-office person to person work, but if you can find a niche for them where they can push a unique project to another level....they are your man. (Most are men, about ten to one.)
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