http://www.breitbart.tv/html/103693.html Absolutely horrible. The teacher should be fired immediately, no questions asked.
I didn't watch the video. But by the gist of it, that teacher is extremely fucked up. For one, she shouldn't have even brought up the whole special needs thing to her students. She shouldn't have had them vote on it. She should have contacted the Principal, or anyone who could have handled the situation, and had the kid removed from the class if she was having a problem with him; behind closed doors. That's terrible for someone to do. That teacher must be a bit heartless, and really dumb to pull a move like that.
I didn't watch the video, but I do think that special needs kids should have special needs schools. It's ridiculous to have the extra cost of dealing with these kids at every school; the quality of education for all suffers. With special needs schools, the kids at regular schools would have budget for the arts, and special needs schools would be tailored to deal with the needs of those kids.
If you're job as an elementry-age teacher is to not only to teach academic subjects, but to foster a positive experience in the classroom for every child, then why would you with all these responsibilities pick on the one child that needs your help more than any other child? Does anyone know if the teacher was fired?
Somehow I knew this was in Florida right when I heard about it. Seems like a ton of crazy ass news stories on the internet and on the radio come out of Florida for whatever reason. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>I didn't watch the video, but I do think that special needs kids should have special needs schools. It's ridiculous to have the extra cost of dealing with these kids at every school; the quality of education for all suffers. With special needs schools, the kids at regular schools would have budget for the arts, and special needs schools would be tailored to deal with the needs of those kids.</div> There are special needs schools for special needs kids and even in many public schools there are multiple classes that are only special needs classes. I'm assuming that most of the U.S.'s public education system (Florida included) is in shambles much like the California one is and if its anything like California then the special needs only schools are few and far between. A lot of people don't have the time to drive their kids that far out of their way every morning and the school buses can't get that far out there because they have to get the rest of the kids to class on time. Then what do you do with the kid when he gets out at 12, 1, or 2 every day? Are there special needs daycares available? Plus you have to consider a lot of these kids' parents are low income or single parents (this particular lady I'm guessing is a single parent since she had no husband with her and made no indication of having a husband) which limits their ability to take hours off work to take care of the kid. Obviously when situations like that occur they have to put the kid somewhere and one option is to put him in regular education, maybe that was the only option. Also a lot of high functioning mentally handicapped people are allowed to be in regular education. Sure they're "different" but they can learn as well as a "regular" kid. Its especially sketchy at younger ages because doctors can't accurately diagnose young kids with mental illnesses. Is there really that much of a difference between a mildly autistic 5 year old and a "normal" 5 year old? It gets more obvious as they get older because the normal kids are going to mature while the mentally ill kids will obviously struggle with school work, maturity, or behavior. Where else can you put kids like these though? If they're capable of getting a regular level education, they probably should be getting one. At the same time though the teachers don't really know how to handle them and they often have maturity issues, especially when they're young and this isn't even mentioning how they deal socially with being in a class full of regular kids. The classes are already being slowed down by kids with learning disabilities, if these kids can keep up with the rest IMO they should be educated as highly as possible. I know a lot about this crap because my dad was the head supervisor of a special needs only public school that dealt with K-12 kids for like 30 years. My aunt has been teaching mentally handicapped elementary school kids for as long as I can remember. The whole public education system is a big time cluster f*ck, my dad was ecstatic when he got the hell out of there. My aunt was telling me how she runs into kids fairly often who aren't mentally handicapped at all but they were diagnosed with some kind of mental illness as infants and no one really re-examined them after that, obviously she can spot most of the ones who are "normal" because shes been working with handicapped kids for so long. But she says shes also heard of a lot of people who go the first 10, 12, 14, 16+ years of their life being told their retarded, being in classes for special needs kids, but end up being normal or just having some minor learning impediment. Sorry for the random aside but yeah if you have any kids that are diagnosed with mental illness when they're babies make sure to keep getting them checked because doctors can't diagnose mental illness very accurately (no matter what they tell you) when the kids are very young.
This specific issue isn't all that complicated. The school had the proper care and understanding in regards to the kid's Aspergers, but the teacher was just a complete dumbass about the entire situation.
I have Tourette’s Syndrome, and when I hear about stories like this, I feel like wringing some necks and anybody who takes up for the teacher in this one is a million times more mental than the child with the disability. The teacher and the principal both need to be fired. The principal needs to be fired for allowing this type of stuff to go on. I was in regular classes throughout my K-12 school career and had graduated high school with a regular diploma just like the normal kids. I had volunteered to return to my high school as a coach of the Special Olympics high school basketball team after graduation. I am now an A+ certified PC technician running my own on call repair service through facebook. Man, I can’t stand these types of people. Ben
What the hell is wrong with that teacher? How does one come to think that that is a good idea? Also, when you ignore the autistic kids, you might be ignoring something that could immensely help your basketball team. <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tui8EOdv_VU&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tui8EOdv_VU&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BG7 Lavigne @ Jun 1 2008, 12:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>What the hell is wrong with that teacher? How does one come to think that that is a good idea? Also, when you ignore the autistic kids, you might be ignoring something that could immensely help your basketball team.</div> wow, thanks for posting that video BG. Quite a cool story. I wouldn't think having a kid "voted out" of the class would be a good solution in any way shape or form, however there are times when a child with a mental disability can really disrupt the class and cannot learn in the environment as well as the other kids have a difficult time learning. I had a friend when I was in grades 6-8 who had autism, but he definitely had a hard time, and some of the kids would pick on him, because they knew that he would yell out or try to hit them if they did things to him. So it was definitely tough in a regular environment for him.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Run BJM @ May 28 2008, 07:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Somehow I knew this was in Florida right when I heard about it. Seems like a ton of crazy ass news stories on the internet and on the radio come out of Florida for whatever reason. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>I didn't watch the video, but I do think that special needs kids should have special needs schools. It's ridiculous to have the extra cost of dealing with these kids at every school; the quality of education for all suffers. With special needs schools, the kids at regular schools would have budget for the arts, and special needs schools would be tailored to deal with the needs of those kids.</div> There are special needs schools for special needs kids and even in many public schools there are multiple classes that are only special needs classes. I'm assuming that most of the U.S.'s public education system (Florida included) is in shambles much like the California one is and if its anything like California then the special needs only schools are few and far between. A lot of people don't have the time to drive their kids that far out of their way every morning and the school buses can't get that far out there because they have to get the rest of the kids to class on time. Then what do you do with the kid when he gets out at 12, 1, or 2 every day? Are there special needs daycares available? Plus you have to consider a lot of these kids' parents are low income or single parents (this particular lady I'm guessing is a single parent since she had no husband with her and made no indication of having a husband) which limits their ability to take hours off work to take care of the kid. Obviously when situations like that occur they have to put the kid somewhere and one option is to put him in regular education, maybe that was the only option. Also a lot of high functioning mentally handicapped people are allowed to be in regular education. Sure they're "different" but they can learn as well as a "regular" kid. Its especially sketchy at younger ages because doctors can't accurately diagnose young kids with mental illnesses. Is there really that much of a difference between a mildly autistic 5 year old and a "normal" 5 year old? It gets more obvious as they get older because the normal kids are going to mature while the mentally ill kids will obviously struggle with school work, maturity, or behavior. Where else can you put kids like these though? If they're capable of getting a regular level education, they probably should be getting one. At the same time though the teachers don't really know how to handle them and they often have maturity issues, especially when they're young and this isn't even mentioning how they deal socially with being in a class full of regular kids. The classes are already being slowed down by kids with learning disabilities, if these kids can keep up with the rest IMO they should be educated as highly as possible. I know a lot about this crap because my dad was the head supervisor of a special needs only public school that dealt with K-12 kids for like 30 years. My aunt has been teaching mentally handicapped elementary school kids for as long as I can remember. The whole public education system is a big time cluster f*ck, my dad was ecstatic when he got the hell out of there. My aunt was telling me how she runs into kids fairly often who aren't mentally handicapped at all but they were diagnosed with some kind of mental illness as infants and no one really re-examined them after that, obviously she can spot most of the ones who are "normal" because shes been working with handicapped kids for so long. But she says shes also heard of a lot of people who go the first 10, 12, 14, 16+ years of their life being told their retarded, being in classes for special needs kids, but end up being normal or just having some minor learning impediment. Sorry for the random aside but yeah if you have any kids that are diagnosed with mental illness when they're babies make sure to keep getting them checked because doctors can't diagnose mental illness very accurately (no matter what they tell you) when the kids are very young. </div> I came really close to running for the school board in Mountain View back in the late '80s, exactly because the school districts are in a real bind as to how and what they can spend money. While it may seem "nice" to mix in the special needs kids with the rest of the kids, the burden and inefficiencies put on the schools hurts all the kids. If you have three schools in a district and have to spend 3x the money to make those schools outfitted for the special needs kids, the schools end up cutting programs like the arts, computer labs and music. A fourth school that is customized for the special needs kids makes the most sense. There's no reason the school for special needs kids can't have the same hours as a regular school. Another issue for Mountain View was "english as a second language" kids. The population there was 2/3 hispanic. 2 of the 3 schools should have taught in spanish while the third in english. You CAN learn to be a rocket scientist or brain surgeon in spanish or chinese, ya know. Yet mixing the kids together held them all back - the school went too slow so the non-english speakers could keep up, and the non-english speakers suffered at the same time. English as a 2nd language is fine, but it should be more like what I had in high school - french as a 2nd language - only that class was taught in french, the rest of the curriculum was taught in the students' native language. As for the teacher and school being discussed, it's way over the line.
From what I gathered in that interview, 80% of what the mother said is bullshit. She's overblowing what happened for publicity. I really doubt that the kid re-lived the thing and said he's "not special." She's taking advantage of the situation.
And how exactly did you come to that conclusion (as well as such a ridiculously specific percentage)? I believe she went over the top at certain points (that Al Qaeda comment was rather pointless), but I'm also willing to give her a little leeway considering how f'd up that situation must've been for a mother.
Should have added an "IMO." Don't get me wrong, the teacher did probably do something out of line to the kid BUT I feel the mother is exaggerating the truth. What makes you think that everything she's saying is true?
Because the news reporters obviously would have researched the situation before giving it significant air time. I also don't see what she'd gain from lying.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney @ Jun 2 2008, 01:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Because the news reporters obviously would have researched the situation before giving it significant air time. I also don't see what she'd gain from lying.</div> The news reporters only care about ratings. As long as the basis of the story is true, they don't care about any other fabrications of the truth. The basis is that the kid got kicked out the class by being voted against (probably true), the bullshit (IMO of course) is the stuff about the 5 year old kid re-living the incident and the kids friend being prompted by the teacher to vote against the kid. How the hell does the mother know that the teacher forced the kids friend to vote against him? What does she have to gain about adding extra bullshit onto the story? How about publicity, money from selling the story and even more dollar from sueing the school (adding the bullshit onto the story makes it even more dramatized and that gives her an even bigger paycheck than she would have got from telling the truth).
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Laker_fan @ Jun 3 2008, 09:07 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney @ Jun 2 2008, 01:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Because the news reporters obviously would have researched the situation before giving it significant air time. I also don't see what she'd gain from lying.</div> The news reporters only care about ratings. As long as the basis of the story is true, they don't care about any other fabrications of the truth. The basis is that the kid got kicked out the class by being voted against (probably true), the bullshit (IMO of course) is the stuff about the 5 year old kid re-living the incident and the kids friend being prompted by the teacher to vote against the kid. How the hell does the mother know that the teacher forced the kids friend to vote against him? What does she have to gain about adding extra bullshit onto the story? How about publicity, money from selling the story and even more dollar from sueing the school (adding the bullshit onto the story makes it even more dramatized and that gives her an even bigger paycheck than she would have got from telling the truth). </div> The kid's a close friend of her son. You don't think its possible that she asked the kid why he voted against him when her son told her the story? And you don't win court cases with made-up, exaggerated stories. There are opposing lawyers that would ask for some sort of substantial proof, you know. Dude, what you're saying very well may be true, but your reasoning is so incredibly random. It'd be the equivalent of me watching the news tonight and claiming that every 2nd story is completely fabricated. I don't have any specific reason to suspect it, but I can always justify it under the same "umbrella excuses" (all news is about getting ratings, people just want money, etc., etc., etc.)
This woman makes me want to punch her in the face. Why is she on TV? Why does she need strangers to validate her son? Why is she comparing this situation with Al Qaeda? And there she is, repeating six inches from this kid's ear all of the horrible, traumatic things that supposedly happened to him so he can relive it right on national TV! Great parenting! She comes off as a publicity-seeking nutjob who obviously has some sort of agenda that's more important to her than her son. ("My son told me the other day that he isn't SPECIAL!" WTF? Do you live in an episode of Dr. Phil? This is a real person we are talking about.) This is a serious situation she is describing. If what she says is true what the teacher is doing is illegal and completely evil and despicable. It is no different than assault. Her priority should be to get her son into a situation where he receives the best education and can be socially and developmentally nurtured and his special needs can me properly monitored and addressed. Has the school board refused to investigate this? Is there a lawsuit pending? Are the police involved? Or was making her son some kind of martyr and her face a fixture in the media the only recourse she has? The whole thing makes me sick.
