Teacher Forces 'the Only Friend the Five-Year-Old Boy Has Ever Made' to Denounce him Publicly

GlennSacks.com ^ | 5/27/08 | Glenn Sacks

[PercivalWalks]

"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 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...

"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.

"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.'"

As a former teacher, I certainly know the challenges that teachers often face, and I also realize how incidents which seem innocent and humorous in the classroom can sound ominous or harmful when relayed second or third or fourth hand to administrators or parents. That being said, if this news article is accurate, there's no defense of what Wendy Portillo did in humiliating this little boy (pictured).

A few thoughts:

1) Sometimes a child will act up or act very strangely in class and the teacher may get in trouble later for disciplining the child or mishandling the situation because the child, unbeknownst to the teacher, had special needs or special issues. In this case, however, Wendy Portillo knew all about the special problems this boy had-- she had attended meetings where the boy's disability was discussed and plans were made on how to help him.

2) It is true that teachers are human like anybody else and can lose their temper in a difficult situation like anybody else. However, what Wendy Portillo did went far, far beyond losing her temper. This was hardly a short, quickly regretted outburst, but instead prolonged psychological abuse of the little boy.

3) It is quite true that one disruptive student, or out-of-control student, or special needs student who is unable to control himself, can disrupt an entire classroom. While I make no excuses whatsoever for what Wendy Portillo reportedly did, it is also possible that she was supposed to receive more support services from the school and did not receive them.

For example, perhaps the boy was supposed to go to a specialist a couple hours a day for help. This is good for the boy, obviously, and also relieves some of the pressure on the teacher. It is not uncommon for schools to arrange this type of special services and then for the special services to be intermittent, or canceled due to funding cuts or personnel changes.

I experienced this once during the year I taught fourth grade. I had a boy in my class -- a very nice, good natured boy who I liked -- who did not know how to read. How he was in the fourth grade and why he was there when he did not know how to read is a good question.

Anyway, he received special services -- for an hour or two a day he would be taken out of my classroom and would go to a specialist who would help him learn how to read. It was a good arrangement -- the boy began improving, and I had at least a couple hours a day where I did not have to pacify a boy who was largely clueless as to what was going on in class because he could not read.

After about a month or six weeks of this, you can guess what happened -- the reading class was eliminated, perhaps due to budget cuts, and the boy was dumped back in my class, making things more difficult for everyone involved--the boy, the other students, and myself. It is possible that something like this occurred with Wendy Portillo.

The full article is St. Lucie teacher has students vote on whether 5-year-old can stay in class (TCPalm.com, 5/23/08)--thanks to Chris. a reader, for sending it.

Glenn Sacks, www.GlennSacks.com

[Note: If you or someone you love is faced with a divorce or needs help with child custody, child support, false accusations, Parental Alienation, or other family law or criminal law matters, ask Glenn for help by clicking here.]

[chesley]

I've read a few more of the comments, and would like to say this. My daughter was not disruptive in class, or elsewhere outside the home. She was painfully shy and was much put upon by her peers.

In one case, we reported to the school principal that one of the boys in class was sticking her with a pin during class and to please separate them. NOTHING WAS DONE until the teacher saw the action for herself.

Here's an interesting note. Last year we noticed in the paper where a man of the correct age, and with the same name, was killed in a gang related shooting. Same fellow? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Back on subject. At home, she does not mind, she yells, she screams,she curses. Her room (she is 32 and still lives with us) is a sty. She has a job, but does no chores unless we just sit on her.

And then again, sometimes she voluntarily does something. She can be extremely sweet, or thoughtlessly cruel, although she isn't violent

Quite frankly, I don't know how she is going to cope when her mother and I are gone. Pray for her.

[brokenrecord]

As a parent of a child on the ASD spectrum, these type of stories naturally strike a chord with me. Fortunately we have a great school system in place.

We have 2-3 IEP’s per school year along with ‘problem solving’ meetings as needed. We are getting ready to transfer our daughter from one program to another (and one building to another as well) within the school system, and the plan is to have one of these meetings every couple of weeks to help her with the transition.

If they were having these meetings odds are this problem likely never would have happened.

Parents must be their child’s advocate. You can refuse to sign the IEP if you feel it is not correct. The parents and teachers also need to be realistic in the placement and goals that are set for the child. You want to push them to be the most they can be, but you also need to balance that with what they can handle as well.

If this had been an ongoing problem, the teacher should have requested a re-evaluation of the IEP.

I hold the teacher completely at fault based upon what this article says. But I also fault the school as well if they did not have a system in place to address when a placement seems to not be working out.

As far as home schooling goes...it is extremely difficult to provide all of the special services a child on the ASD spectrum needs as an individual/family. Also, it is very important for those children to have the example of neuro-typical children. Many things just don’t come naturally and they need lots of examples to understand social conventions among peers.

[Wyatt's Torch]

However, many of the kids that are being “mainstreamed” in the school system are a huge distraction for the teachers and other students in the classes.

Very true...this is a result of the "universal service" mandate of public schools. The schools are forced to deal with them and have no other alternatives. Then to compound the problem, if a "normal" kids parents complain, they are labeled as discriminatory. The sad fact is that many of these kids do not belong on mainstream public schools for exactly the reason you mention. This is political correctness run amok...

[hoe_cake]

Some kids are “mainstreamed” and do quite well.

In this case, however, it appears the Special Ed system failed Alex by mainstreaming him.

The teacher may very well have been “out of her element” in dealing with Alex; nonetheless, to point to Alex’s deficit and ridicule him was very mean spirited.

[Always Independent]

I watched my son get put through hell in Jr High. When the school did nothing to help him and wanted to send him to another school, I acted but in a legal and determined way. And we won! Now he is almost a straight A student in HS!

[Earthdweller]

The school psychologist and the rest of the school team should reprimand the teacher. The worst thing you can do with an Aspergers child is isolate them. Aspergers is a mild form of autism. Many of our universities are inhabited by these types, mostly called nerds in my day,,,now I believe they are called geeks. Their social skills are a mess and those who want to "fit in" make a mess of it.

Home school would further this child's problems.

[hoe_cake]

I agree with you that home schooling is not always the best option, especially for a child with Aspbergers.

The special ed programs in public school systems if often blessed with excellent resources to handle a child with disabilities, much more so than a parent can give.

In my own case with my child (which isn’t nearly as significant as Alex’s), I welcomed the opportunity to have a host of “experts” help my child during her academic day, so that I could be fresh and ready to help her when she came home.

[RinaseaofDs]

“He’d do better being homeschooled.’

The homeschool crowd battles with atheists for the title of “Who’s the most self-righteous, arrogant, and ignorant crowd of people in American Life.”

[Earthdweller]

There is a place for Home school...Christian/private schools and public schools. All are a their own form of indoctrination. None should take precedence over the other in America and the child's best interest should always be the major consideration.

I myself prefer a mixture of private and public school so that my children will know what they are up against in the world.

This child would be better served in a private school with a smaller, more forgiving environment. Home school would only make his social skills worsen.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

The boy is White, so the media won’t touch this.

[JerseyHighlander]

Kids with Aspbergers need public or private school education and socialization settings MORE than anything else.

This child will have to learn social interaction, like most with Aspbergers, he’ll learn socialization by memorizing thousands of possible interactions, and the thousands of interactions needed to learn (and memorize) this will only be available in a school setting.

[EagleandLiberty]

Time to HOMESCHOOL your CHILDREN —

[GovernmentShrinker]

Regardless of whether it was appropriate for the boy to be in the classroom given his special needs, the teacher is a pathetic loser for asking a room full of kindergarteners to vote on how to handle him. She should be fired. She didn’t have the guts to make her own decision about the need to remove him from the class and take responsibility for it, so she arranged to blame the decision on a bunch of 5 year olds instead. She’s a sorry excuse for an adult.

Given her demonstrated incompetence as an adult and a teacher, I have my doubts about how much of the classroom disruption was really attributable to the little boy. He might do fine in a classroom led by a teacher who isn’t a knucklehead.

[longtermmemmory]

next you outcast the christians and the republicans and any whose parents are not politically correct.

You slowly force them into homeschooling and then prohibit homeschool students to have access to exams and placement testing.

Thus, only the adherents to the politically correct socialist religion of the public school teachers unions will be allowed advancement in society.

[RinaseaofDs]

I’m in complete agreement on all counts.

Some homeschool situations I’ve witness border on child abuse. Some parents think there’s no skill or science behind the art of teaching.

Some homeschool situations are fantastic.

[ConservativeDude]

But then he’d miss all that special socialization in the schools!

[CowboyJay]

Asperger’s is a rough one. Many kids with this diagnosis are highly intelligent. Special Ed class would likely be an even worse situation. A small gifted and talented program (or home schooling) would probably a better environment. (Do they still have G&T in public education?)

[fightinJAG]

While what the teacher did was stupid and rotten, the larger point is that school outside the home is not appropriate for this child, at least from what is in the article.

[Skooz]

If this had been done to my son I would probably be going to jail.

Ditto.

[fightinJAG]

Uh, the parents should have realized their child was not ready for this type of school setting and either homeschooled him or . . . he’s only five . . . spend the school year working on figuring out how to help him.

The bottom line is that the parents should have never sent the boy to school in the first place. He was bound to fail, at least socially, and why should he go through that when there are perfectly acceptable and legal alternatives?

Yes, the teacher is reprehensible. But the parents knew the boy would not be able to function successfully in this setting and they are the first people who are to be safeguarding the best interests of their child.