- Share This Post
- submit
- 9
-
Sparkle (0)
It's the sort of news story you read, and then you stop, take your glasses off, clean them, and read it again. Invariably, the headline sits next to the picture of a smiling, adorable little boy. It can't possibly be true, can it? And yet it seems to be: In Port St. Lucie, Florida, kindergarten teacher Wendy Portillo decided to put Alex Barton -- a "disruptive" student -- to the vote of his peers. His mother reports:
"(She) took him and stood him in front of his classmates this week, asked every single child to tell Alex why we don't like him... in his words, tell Alex why we hate him," she explains.
After having each child ridicule the boy, she says the teacher continued belittling him.
"Then they had a vote on if he deserved to stay in the class or not," says Barton.
Like a twisted reality show, Barton says in a 14-2 vote, his classmates voted the five-year-old out of the classroom.
"I never thought she would subject my child to such mental abuse," says Barton.
As a mother, my heart broke and my blood boiled as I read this story. And let me be absolutely clear on my personal biases, here, too: I have two children, one of whom is categorized as having special needs, yes. Naturally, I sympathize with the Bartons. On the other hand, I have watched both of my children deal with difficult, disruptive students in their classes over the years, and yes, I have sometimes wished those kids weren't part of the class, because it would make things easier for my own kids. I'm not proud of this sentiment; I'm just being honest. However, even in cases where my own child was being bullied or attacked, I cannot imagine a situation in which it is appropriate to allow a class to vote on a classmate's presence. I've come at it from every angle I can think to take, and I'm sorry, but I can't find it.
Call it child abuse, call it poor judgment -- call it whatever you like -- but I'm calling it the only way I know how: Inappropriate, cruel, and 100% unacceptable. And yet, Wendy Portillo has not been suspended or fired. (There is currently an investigation pending.)
The blog buzz has been fast and furious, the last few days, and no wonder.
Marla Baltes -- herself a mom to an autistic child -- begs her readers to view this as a cautionary tale:
It is indeed despicable. And yet, to me it is not surprising. The only thing in this story that surprises me is that the teacher managed to do something where she was caught. A side note here is that we must remember that an investigation will be done. Even though it seems hard to believe that there are two sides to this...there are always two sides.
I am in no way saying that what Wendy did was acceptable. And yet, I have a feeling there is more to this story.
[..]
We are all kidding ourselves if we think incidents like the one with this little Autistic boy are few and far between. This is just one story that happened to make it to the news. One parent that spoke out. Many do not. Many are afraid too and some just don't care.
So, what I am saying here is this. Don't assume that everything is going just great at your child's school because you have just signed off on the most perfect IEP you have ever had the joy of working on. Don't assume that your child will tell you when a teacher hurts him or her. Don't assume that your child has the ability to describe or understand what 'wrong' has been done against him or her in school.
Miss Liz at Simply Stating the Obvious recalls an earlier news story out of Port St. Lucie where a teacher was fired for "unbecoming conduct" in connection with working on a charter boat in a bikini:
A high school teacher can pose in a bikini on some patio furniture and receive a harsh penalty (with which I completely agree), yet a kindergarten teacher can subject her students to taunting and shunning and retain her job? Now Alex is terrified to go to school and has had some emotional setbacks. For what? And what is going on in Port St. Lucie that they’re having these kinds of problems with their school personnel?
Bev at Asperger Square 8 first put out a call to her readers
