Florida Teacher Needs to be Voted Off the Island

School personnel too often have an unshakable belief in their own inherent virtue and goodness; "we are here for the children after all." I run into the falsity of this belief all too often. A prominent illustration of a total lack of virtue happened recently in a Florida classroom. A teacher in Florida allowed the classroom to vote a child, who is on the autistic spectrum, to be voted out of the class. This teacher went beyond simple mean-spiritedness or  bad judgment. While the police declined to press charges, this teacher is obviously not fit to continue in this profession. She should take up any occupation that she does not have to consider other people's feelings. I have not seen such cold and callous conduct in my first hand experience, I have seen, however, lesser examples of extreme hurtfulness and bad judgment.  We all need to the ability to be self-critical of ourselves and our professions. Teachers are not immune from the bad parts of human nature.

Any interesting side-note to this story is that the vote was 14-2 to remove the student from the class. We could all learn something about compassion and standing up against peer pressure from the 2 children who voted to keep Alex Barton as a classmate.

PS the school apparently has re-assigned this teacher to non-teaching duties pending its investigation. If she had any decency she would just quit and go and work on a desert island.

Comments

[Karen Putz / DeafMom]

Good. gosh. Does this teacher still have a job?

[Jen]

I couldn't agree with you more. That teacher is not benefiting her students and is not fit to be in a classroom.

[Daunna Minnich]

The title of your blog says it all.  This teacher's behavior was inhumane and utterly shameful. Not only did she orchestrate the humiliation of this student, she also taught every child in the class how to resolve problems by engaging in gang behavior. She also taught every child how to be hurtful and demeaning toward a member of their class community — and not only that, but that such attacks are acceptable.  Parents who want to raise kind and caring children should yank their kids out of her class.

[Jennifer Biggs]

The following was my email sent to the principal after reading such garbage...thank you Charlie for posting this!

Jennifer
___________________________

Dear Sir,

My name is Jennifer, and I am the mother to an 8 year old boy with high functioning autism, also known as Asperger's Syndrome.

I read a story recently passed on through one of my support groups that I chat with regarding Alex Barton, a 5 year old boy in your school who is in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger's. It is to my utter dismay I read he was being "voted out of the class" by not only his peers, but a supposedly educated adult acting as a teacher; one who took it upon herself to initiate this unbelievable act.

This child SHOULD be educated with neurotypical peers as MUCH AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE in a loving environment, which yours is not. Read up on Asperger's; the more they are with typical peers, the more likely they are to learn behaviors of a typical peer. Your kindergarten teacher should be removed AT ONCE. You have employed a person with NO heart, NO tact, LITTLE education, and a discriminatory attitude. As I recall, Alex does have behavioral issues, which can be met LOVINGLY with an aide in the classroom and resource support.

The fact that your teacher took it upon herself to enforce her opinion of this child on HELPLESS children in her own classroom is DISGUSTING. Your teacher is supposed to teach these children values, and has failed miserably.

I have sent this copy to my attorney, who I hope will post this on his blog of "what NOT to do when educating a child on the spectrum".

You, sir, by allowing such action, are contributing to the discriminatory behaviors of all children in that classroom, in that a child with a disability isn't deserving of an education fit for them.

Terminate that teacher from her "duties", as I assure you don't want that reputation to spread.

I am just horrified.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Biggs

[not OK]

Isn't this treatment against the law? Google "Gebser letter"