You have got to be kidding me.
St. Lucis teacher has students vote on whether 5-year-old can stay in class by Colleen Wixon
PORT St. LUCIE, FL (TCPalm) May 23 - Melissa Barton said she is considering legal action after her son’s kindergarten teacher led his classmates to vote him out of class.
After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn’t like about Barton’s 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.
By a 14 to 2 margin, the class voted him out of the class.
Barton said her son is in the process of being diagnosed with Aspberger’s, a type of high-functioning autism. Alex began the testing process in February for an official diagnosis under the suggestion of Morningside Principal Marsha Cully.
Alex has had disciplinary issues because of his disabilities, Barton said. The school and district has met with Barton and her son to create an individual education plan, she said. His teacher, Wendy Portillo, has attended these meetings, she said.
Barton said after the vote, Alex’s teacher asked him how he felt.
“He said, ‘I feel sad,’” she said.
Alex left the classroom and spent the rest of the day in the nurse’s office, she said.
Barton said when she came to pick up her son at the school on Wednesday, he was leaving the nurse’s office.
“He was shaken up,” she said. Barton said the nurse told her to talk with the child’s teacher, who told her what happened.
Alex hasn’t been back to school since then, and Barton said he won’t be returning. He starts screaming when she brings him with her to drop off his sibling at school.
Thursday night, his mother heard him saying “I’m not special.”
Barton said Alex is reliving the incident.
They said he was “disgusting” and “annoying,” Barton said.
“He was incredibly upset,” Barton said. “The only friend he has ever made in his life was forced to do this.”
The child’s mother filed a complaint with the school resource officer, who investigated the matter, said Port St. Lucie spokeswoman Michelle Steele said. But the state attorney’s office concluded the matter did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse, so no criminal charges will be filed, Steele said. Port St. Lucie Police is no longer investigating, but is documenting the complaint, she said.
Steele said the teacher confirmed the incident did occur.
St. Lucie School’s spokeswoman Janice Karst said the district is investigating the incident, but could not make any further comment.
Vern Melvin, Department of Children and Families circuit administrator, confirmed the agency is investigating an allegation of abuse at Morningside, but said he could not elaborate.
(Outraged emphasis mine.)
I’d comment further, but what I’d say wouldn’t be very Quakerly.
Filed under: Autism, Education & teaching, General outrage, News & commentary, Testimony of equality
Didn’t meet the criteria for emotional child abuse? I can’t think of any circumstances where it would be appropriate for a teacher to direct students to vote to ostracize a fellow student. The shame.
And kindergarteners, for heaven’s sake!
how cruel and beneath contempt!
Update from the paper you lined to:
St. Lucie teacher reassigned after student ‘voted out’ of class
By Colleen Wixon (Contact)
Originally published 10:12 a.m., May 27, 2008
Updated 10:12 a.m., May 27, 2008
PORT ST. LUCIE — Morningside Elementary kindergarten teacher Wendy Portillo has been reassigned until further action may be determined, according to St. Lucie County School District spokeswoman Janice Karst.
Karst said in a statement on Tuesday morning that Portillo had been reassigned out of the classroom at the district offices.
Last week, Portillo held a vote in her classroom in which kindergarten students “voted out” 5-year-old Alex Barton, who is in the process of being tested for Asperger’s Disorder, a type of high-functioning autism. Alex’s mother, Melissa Barton, said the vote was taken after classmates were allowed to tell Alex what they didn’t like about him.
i’m just about in tears over this! this is so cruel i can barely believe it actually happened. that teacher needs to be put on leave and re-educated about how to handle special needs kids. i hope the parents persue it, because this sure as heck is abuse. that boy will probably remember this his whole life. how sad.
Thanks for the update.
NO CHILD should EVER be “voted out of class” by her/his classmates. How knuckleheaded can a teacher be?
But if this teacher knew that THIS child was also possibly autistic, that makes it even worse.
Sometimes, the ideas and actions of my fellow teaching professionals shock me, even after 28 years…
[...] The Quaker Agitator [...]
Didn’t meet the criteria for emotional child abuse?
Didn’t meet the criteria for emotional child abuse?
Didn’t meet the criteria for emotional child abuse?
I’m just going to get shriller and shriller and shriller. I have a 4 year old son named Alex and I cannot imagine the heartlessness, the outrageous breath-taking cruelty or the horror of this. He’s just a little boy!
Do the two kids who refused to go along with this get medals of honor?
I don’t care if a child has autism or hangnails, this was a public humiliation of the highest order. I think it falls under the category of “creating a hostile workplace.”
And you have to wonder what the rest of the class learned from this incident.
cath
This teacher is a bully.
It does smack of bullying, yeah.
Actually, it is organized, institutionalized mandated bullying. The kids who participated have be abused too. A goodly percentage of them went along with this but did not feel good. A swift intervention needs to be done for the entire class. If I was a parent of ANY child in this class I would sue, the teacher, the school, the district.
This is how you raise kids who are willing to go to a foreign country and torture someone.
this teacher needs to not only be re-educated, she needs to be fired. and the children in the class and indeed the whole school need to be taught that we are ALL different and have different ways of learning and that none of them are wrong or worthy of ridicule.
that poor sweet boy. it makes me want to cry.
I am silenced. Oh my God…
i can’t fathom how or why she would ever think that this would be a good idea. i mean- where did it come from? if it was my kid- he would be pulled out of that school and they would be sued from here to tomorrow. no way- no how any of them would ever hold jobs anywhere ever again. our children are our future.
I hope that mother has a lawyer, because this is an easy case. The boy has an I.E.P.? He is entitled to a “free appropriate public education,” and no teacher — or school can make that decision. It is made by an I.E.P. Team after extensive testing and discussion. It is federal law.
I have taught students with Aspergers’ in an inclusion setting, and it is indeed difficult. One of the aspects of this disability is that the student is often academically quite bright, but socially is years behind their peers.
But what this teacher was thinking, I have no idea. She’s going to be in big trouble, I can guarantee. (I can see the lawyers lining up already.)