Hard to say whether this represents "justice" for Alex Barton -- that depends on what kind of price tag you can put on the public humiliation of a child and the longterm effects of bullying -- but his family does stand to get some monetary compensation for his kindergarten teacher's profoundly ill-considered lesson plan of having his classmates say what they disliked about him and then vote him out of the classroom. Alex, as you may recall, was in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at the time; his teacher was suspended for a year, but later got her job and tenure back.
According to a TCPalm.com report, the lawsuit Alex's mom brought against the Port St. Lucie, Florida, school district and teacher's union has been settled for $350,000, though that agreement is still subject to final approval by the court. The first $200,000 would be payable right away, and the rest in installments when Alex turns 18.
Alas, what the settlement does not include is any admission of wrongdoing by the school, the union, or the teacher, whose attorney says of her desire to move on, "She just wants to teach kids." She might want to think about how that responsibility extends to teaching all the kids in her charge, even the ones who struggle with behavior (and the ones with hearing problems, too).
Image by Terri Mauro
I used to run an after school program for kindergarteners – about 10 kids. I loved loved loved that job my first year, but the second year a special needs girl joined the group. And suddenly I found myself spending 60% of my attention and energy on her, and over and over would lose the focus of the others while I was attending to her. I was never taught how to deal with a special-needs child, just one day my supervisor told me Jessica would be starting the following day and might need some extra attention.
I know it sounds wonderful, integrating special-needs children into groups, but unless you’ve been the person running the group, you have no idea what a huge impact it makes. Physically Jessica was the same as the other kids, but mentally/emotionally she was about 2 years younger, she needed help in the bathroom, every time. There was no one to supervise the rest of the kids, much less keep them on track, while I was helping Jessica in the bathroom. She would hit the other kids when she’d get frustrated and I couldn’t get her to stop, and my supervisor wasn’t any help either, it just seemed like she didn’t want to have to deal with the situation either.
I went from loving my job, to dreading going to it, in a matter of a few weeks. Finally one day my supervise told me ‘Good news about Jessica’ and honestly I so hoped she was going to say they’d found a more appropriate setting for her, but instead I heard I’d be getting an assistant to help me. Well, this assistant was a 17 yr old girl who had far far less experience than I did with kids in general, and none with special needs kids, so she started leading the activities that I had once loved leading, and I spent nearly all my time one-on-one with Jessica. I ended up quitting.
Mary, maybe you should not be working with kids. Clearly, you need a “more appropriate setting”
Jerks should stay far away from children. We dont cherry pick the “normal” kids.
Mary, did you ever gather the other kindergarten children together, instruct them to tell Jessica all the things they hated about her, and then have them vote to make her leave the group and go wander the hallway? To me, that’s where Wendy Portillo crossed the line, and crossed it in a big way — you don’t deputize children to bully. There is absolutely no way that is acceptable, and that’s why Portillo gets no sympathy from me, I don’t care how hard her job was.
As a parent, I’m well aware of how difficult these inclusion situations can be for teachers who are not trained and not given the necessary support. But it is NOT the child’s fault. None of us would want to be put in a position where we are set up to fail, and that is the case for both the child and the teacher in these situations. Lisa, if we’re going to call anybody a jerk here, I’d reserve that term for the administrators who give lip service to inclusion but do absolutely nothing to make it work.
When my son was little, inclusion was still an unusual thing, and I did everything I could as a parent to make sure that those situations were as appropriate as possible, including giving teachers information, paying for aides, and writing behavior plans. But now, you know, inclusion has been around for a while; it is increasingly mandated by law; and there are best practices for doing it. You don’t just dump a kid in a classroom and expect the teacher to figure it out. Teachers and their unions need to start screaming about this — not to get the kids out, but to get the supports in.
Mary, I’m sorry the experience chased you out of a job you enjoyed, but please please please, recognize that it was NOT the child that was the problem (nor, I should hasten to add, the parents who wanted their child to be included in that program) but the people in charge who failed to give you the information and support you needed. When inclusion is done right, it benefits everyone.