8 year-old assaulted on bus. Advice plz.

[VeloClone]

You took one phrase I used, "bouncing off the walls" and used that to call out all teachers. Sorry, it does not work that way in many classrooms. The kids that need help are given help, I am talking about the ones that repeatedly refuse to work, give them an assignment and you will find the worksheet on the floor at the end of the class. Never turn anything in, because they have not done it and want to spend the entire period talking and bothering others in the classroom. You can call them out, talk to them one on one, and no matter what you do, they do not listen.

I had very few problems with special ed, kids, those are not the kids I am talking about. I will agree I have know teachers that were not up to date on grading stuff, but I will say, that was never me, you turned it in, it was in the online grade book that day or at most the next day.

You seem like a parent that is involved in your child's education, the ones I am referring too, could care less about their kids education and do not want them at home, because that way they are someone else's problem.

Good luck with your son and keep doing what you are doing.

Fair enough. But for the record I took "bouncing off the walls," "disruptive," "bottom 5 players" from what you wrote and that is probably what set me off. My son could be described as any one of those from time to time, especially in the class(es) that are most challenging for him with his disorders. I'm sure his Math teachers have had very different views of him than his teachers in some of the other subjects where he struggles greatly.

I probably was pretty harsh, but maybe I read your post in the voice of one or two of the teachers we have had to have very contentious meetings with over not following his IEP. That probably isn't very fair of me.

Sorry, you have my support. But please don't give up on those students. Even sending off an email to specific parents at the end of the day or even end of the week outlining missed work or assignments may make the difference for just one of them. If it does, you have to think it is worth it.

That being said, you are right, we need to find a solution for kids intentionally disrupting classes. Everybody suffers.

 

[Mr.G.Spot]

Great comments here, but start a new thread if you want to on the recent posts.

 

[BCClone]

The OP is dealing with a kid who has injured 3 other kids. I don’t this to turn into a teacher bash or just discussion on disruptions. I am still struggling that people were blaming the school and admins and wasn’t wanting a 16 yo kid who broke and 8 yo arm and gave head trauma to a girl to be removed from that student population.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

Fair enough. But for the record I took "bouncing off the walls," "disruptive," "bottom 5 players" from what you wrote and that is probably what set me off. My son could be described as any one of those from time to time, especially in the class(es) that are most challenging for him with his disorders. I'm sure his Math teachers have had very different views of him than his teachers in some of the other subjects where he struggles greatly.

I probably was pretty harsh, but maybe I read your post in the voice of one or two of the teachers we have had to have very contentious meetings with over not following his IEP. That probably isn't very fair of me.

Sorry, you have my support. But please don't give up on those students. Even sending off an email to specific parents at the end of the day or even end of the week outlining missed work or assignments may make the difference for just one of them. If it does, you have to think it is worth it.

That being said, you are right, we need to find a solution for kids intentionally disrupting classes. Everybody suffers.

Some teacher are hard to work with dealing with IEP's and what they allow, I have seen it myself. Again, I was not talking about parents of kids that an email would help. These type of parents you will never see at a conference, never return an email, and the only time you are going to see them at school is when you are meeting with them at the principles office for what their child has done. These are kids that have been given opportunity after opportunity to change their behavior and refuse to do so. They are "too cool for school", I used to like to say.

Since I am retired, and out of the game, its no longer my problem, let others deal with it. Have a great day.

 

[BooneCy]

I commiserate with the challenges in public education, but as a parent of one kid who was an honor student and in AP classes and another with mental and physical challenges and ADHD (so yes, on occasion he is bouncing off the wall), I have to say that giving up on kids that have barriers to education is not the answer. Yes we need to find a balance but giving up on them is not part of the equation.

My son needs a lot of help in some of his classes. We try to give him as much as we can from home. However some of his teachers make it very difficult for us to help in the instruction of our son. On-line parent tools have out of date, incorrect information. We will check and find no assignments for a class then a few days later find that he has a late assignment that was assigned during that time period. The online tool for checking on work progress is worthless. It shows all assignments turned in and not graded as missing. Some teachers grade work right away, some will wait almost a week before it appears so if it really is missing you are way down the road before you know it - and frankly it is a guess since you don't know if all the other student's work is graded and your kid's is missing or if it still isn't graded. (And what happened to returning graded work to students? Isn't part of grading work is so that we can learn from our mistakes? Feedback of "you got 1.2 out of 4 on this assignment" is next to worthless.) Executive functioning is one of the areas that my son struggles with as part of his disorders. If the parents aren't given the tools to help him organizing and keeping track of his work then that tells me that the school and teachers plan to help my child with that as laid out in his IEP.

This isn't a kid who doesn't try, but some classes with certain skills are extremely difficult for him. Others come a bit easier and in some he actually excells. In fact, he won a math award - one of only two in his entire high school - for last academic year in a pretty large high school.

It is clear to us that a few of the teachers at his school have put him in the category you seem to be putting some students in. Maybe that is fair for some students that don't care and don't try - sad but fair - but for a kid that just needs the extra help to succeed and has proven s/he can and has with help, don't shut parents out who are clearly trying to help you help their kid.

And why the hell aren't we giving those kids grief for not getting assignments done? Send a letter home every day if you have to. It can be a form letter where you just fill in the blank of the missing assignment. Not all do, but THERE ARE STILL PARENTS WHO DO CARE!

Don't get me wrong, the majority of his teachers have been great. He has had a couple of Special Ed teachers who are my heroes, including the one who is his current sports coach. But giving up on kids because they are "bouncing off the walls" and assuming that means that they don't want to try to learn hits a nerve with me.

/RANT

Thank you for message. As a parent, coach, and training in education, I wasn’t sure how to respond or if I should at all. I do know parent advocates who job is to help represent students with special needs. The responsibility does not solely rest on the teacher, good functioning school environments provide a place and resources for teachers to allow all students an opportunity to succeed.

 

[RezClone]

I don’t know who told you that riding the school bus is a right and they can’t take that away. The school most certainly suspend him from the bus. They are gutless.

UPDATE: I've chosen to request an in-person meeting with the superintendent later this week. I will bring this up, thank you.

I want to look him the super in the eyes with questions and responses. The goal is get the school's version of the facts pinned down and what their thought process was for what they did and chose not to do, as much as possible.

Next step will be to go to the school board Vice President. He's the guy to go to with this. One of the best human beings in town and always quick to lend a hand and help people out that are trying to help themselves.

School and my lawyer have both told me that the school insurance will be reimbursing me for my out of pocket costs on this.

For those that missed the previous update, the super already promised that the offender will not be on my kid's school bus, period.

I decided to take mental break from this thread for a bit, but now I'm back and ready to go. Please continue with the questions, etc. There has been useful stuff I've gleaned from this thread.

 

[RezClone]

The people that "dumb" posts in here are somethin'....Cant just keep scrolling?

Yeah that one really stood out. Didn't expect to get dumb'd in this instance. But in retrospect, how could I have not? Lol.

Hence why I chose to take a break. Glad I did. We're still batting .1000 on threads going sideways at some point. CF will CF.

 

[CloneFanInKC]

I’m really glad the offender will not be on the bus your son rides!!!

 

[Mr.G.Spot]

UPDATE: I've chosen to request an in-person meeting with the superintendent later this week. I will bring this up, thank you.

I want to look him the super in the eyes with questions and responses. The goal is get the school's version of the facts pinned down and what their thought process was for what they did and chose not to do, as much as possible.

Next step will be to go to the school board Vice President. He's the guy to go to with this. One of the best human beings in town and always quick to lend a hand and help people out that are trying to help themselves.

School and my lawyer have both told me that the school insurance will be reimbursing me for my out of pocket costs on this.

For those that missed the previous update, the super already promised that the offender will not be on my kid's school bus, period.

I decided to take mental break from this thread for a bit, but now I'm back and ready to go. Please continue with the questions, etc. There has been useful stuff I've gleaned from this thread.

Good news. In case you missed above, every geographic area has a plaintiff-litigation-bull-dog attorney. Find out who he is and meet with him prior to these meetings. He will advise you on when/if to drop his name.