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 to Support Alex Barton, detailing the case and giving contact information for the relevant administrators in Port St. Lucie. In that post, she said:

Let me be clear: I don't care whether or not Alex is assigned a diagnostic label. I don't care what he did to be classified as "disgusting." The behavior of this teacher is reprehensible. She has not disputed the allegation, but according to Port St. Lucie spokeswoman Michelle Steele, has confirmed that the incident did take place.

Please help ensure that proper disciplinary action is taken. People with differences of all sorts deal with bullying from peers every day. It is no secret to many of us that teachers and others in authority can be bullies, too. But when the bullying is directed and produced by a so-called educator, surely this must cross a line visible to all. Please take a stand against this abuse. If you have a blog, please write a little something in support of Alex Barton. Maybe he isn't special. He shouldn't have to be. He's a five year old boy, a human being, worthy of respect.

While Bev's outrage is clear, I can find nothing in this post that suggests anything other than speaking out against the atrocity committed, here.

Unfortunately, her post incited some responses she hadn't anticipated, prompting her to follow up with a post about why she would now be closing comments on these posts:

I have begun to consider that Ms. Portillo is perhaps a person who found herself in a job she was not suited for, without the proper training, someone who never should have been in the teaching profession. The problems which led up to the events in Port St. Lucie are systemic, and will need to be addressed at that level.

Around the web, you can find comments stating that she did the right thing, that children must be made to behave through any means available. You will also find people saying she should be harmed emotionally and/or physically for her crime. I've heard that she is undeserving of life. This is not acceptable to me.

I have made terrible mistakes in my life. I have harmed people. I have done my best to make amends for those wrongs and not to repeat the hurtful actions. I know that if my worst moments were shown to the world, were discussed on numerous sites, some with nearly a thousand comments now, I would not want to continue living. Yet I believe in redemption (not in a passive sense, but through hard work toward change) and I hope that others, including Portillo, do too.

When people start coming to my blog and talking about revenge and sending people to hell, it is time to take a break.

And finally, my hat is off to Mary at A Room of Mama's Own for similar compassion and clear-headedness in the midst of a tragic situation. She says:

I salute the two children who voted to keep Alex in the class. It takes incredible courage to stand up in the face of an overwhelming majority and say that you simply don't agree. (Courage I don't even have as an adult most times.) I ache for Alex, who at 5, can't possible understand why someone who was supposed to care for him would want to hurt him like this. (Frankly, at almost 40, I don't either.) I ache for the classmates who were taught that bullying and shaming others is acceptable behavior. And I ache for Alex's family -- especially (as a mama) Alex's mother -- who have to witness his pain in the wake of this event. What mama is not going to cry to hear her baby say over and over again, in that nightmarish perseveration, "I'm not special. I'm not special. I'm not special."

But I'm also trying to feel compassion for the teacher and the school district, because it is one of my most deeply held beliefs that hatred, however just or righteous it may seem, is toxic. And genuine compassion, however hard to muster, is healing. I know how difficult it is to be a teacher and an administrator, because I've done both jobs. I also know how frustrating it can be to balance the needs of an autistic child with the needs of neurotypical children and adults, because I live that every day. And I know that using shame as a teaching technique is a learned behavior, so someone, somewhere taught Wendy Portillo to use this tool the way she taught her students. And that's a terrible thing.

(Mary also has a round-up of other posts on this issue at the end of her post, if you'd like to read more from others.)

I agree with most of what I've read; as unacceptable as this scenario is, I feel a small pang of sympathy for the teacher, as well. What must be going on inside a person for her to arrive at a place where putting a troubled 5-year-old to a peer vote seemed like a good idea?

As to whether or not Wendy Portillo should lose her job... well, I leave that decision to her superiors. But as a mother, as a human being, my question is this: Where is the apology? Where is the publicly issued statement from Wendy Portillo, apologizing to Alex Barton's family, and the families of the other children in that class?

Everyone makes mistakes. People who are sorry apologize for them. Nothing will undo the trauma that a small boy was forced to endure, here. But I'd have a lot more respect for Ms. Portillo if she faced the music and expressed some remorse.

BlogHer Contributing Editor Mir also blogs at Woulda Coulda Shoulda and Want Not.