Aggressive student

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Aggressive student
By Michelle

Let me start by saying that this is my 12th year teaching and I work with students with severe to profound cognitive disabilities many of whom also have vision and/or hearing loss, orthopedic impairments, and health impairments

First
of all, taking the shoes is a great idea! I almost always do. Secondly, I will not sit there and be brutalized. I give parents the option of letting me deal with it or coming in IMMEDIATELY to deal with it themselves. I know that they don't always see the problem. One way I get my point across is to ask them, "OK, I have three other kids who like to hit. Which one of

them would you like for me to let hit your child? Just give me the name and I'll pair them up." It generally shocks them. I then explain that I certainly would never let anyone hit their child and I just can not let their child hit anyone else.

I try to do as many preventative strategies and positive behavior supports as possible, but when necessary, I do restrain. I am fully trained and certified to use active physical restraint and I do have parental consent. To make your positive behavior supports as effective as possible, try to identify what is causing the hitting. For one of my kids, it was terrible stomach aches that came on quite suddenly. He was non-verbal and just letting us know that he needed help. Another student used hitting to say "no". He happened to be in the stage where he said not ALL the time! I have a child now who hits and kicks whenever he is given a direct instruction. Mom never tells him what to do and he doesn't like it. Frankly, I don't care what he likes at this point. I had my conference with Mom and offered to let her come in and sit with him. She decided to give me written permission to deal with it -- no big surprise there! Figure out what the problem is and teach an appropriate replacement behavior.

I also seat the child away from the class and use time outs as necessary. If the child is in a wheelchair, I will back up the chair and lock his brakes. If necessary, I will stand behind the chair and hold it.

For your protection try to always have two people in the room. If that is not possible, try to leave your door open.

I have not always had parental or administrative support. I don't have a teacher's union, but if you do, I would suggest contacting them. We have a teacher shortage. The two times that principals have refused to back me, I turned in my resignation. Both times, within 1 hour they apoligized and set things in motion to deal with the problem. It was absolutely amazing to see how quickly they overcame all of those impossible obstacles that had previously kept them from getting things done! Don't quit unless you mean it since they could always you take you up on it, but sometimes you need drastic measures. Another drastic measure is to request an re-eval to consider homebound placement because the child is a danger to the other children. Not a popular approach, but it does tend to get things moving when you make the request in writing and send it on to the director of special ed. Mothers also tend to become very cooperative. It may be cute when he's at school punching you, but it is a lot less cute to mom when she is the punching bag and has him at home 24/7.

One other thing, as difficult as it can be to have a parent in your class for long periods of time, it may be worthwhile to ask the mother to spend a couple of days with you. She will get a better picture of his behavior, she will get to see how other children with similar disabilities behave, and she can see you dealing with inappropriate behavior. Imagine having a 9 year old child, whom you love dearly, who is unable to talk or let you know when something is wrong. He is defenseless if someone tries to hurt him. Now, take that child and give him over to a total stranger for 7 hours a day, walk away and never question anything she does. I know I couldn't do it. Sometimes letting a parent see you in action builds trust --- trust that you will not harm their child, and trust that you can help their child acheive things which to them seem impossible.

I'm sorry this is so long. Hope you can find an idea or two within it. BTW hang in there, this can be an ongoing battle even with parental support. I'm off to put more antibiotic cream on the three new scratches I got today. Those would be in addition to the three bruises on my left leg and the really big one on my right leg. Oh well, at least we can sleep late tomorrow!