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Home : 2001 : November : 27

Thanks
By New 5th Grade Teacher

Kristy and pjm:

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. Your thoughts and suggestions gave me a real boost.

By coincidence, the foster mother happened to come in today and I met with her and the assistant principal
with the little guy there. The assistant principal had already read the student the riot act about his behavior and that his actions had better improve quickly or else he would be suspended. The foster mother finally had all of the paperwork needed to proceed with the evaluation which, by the way, not only is not only for special needs servicing but also with the intent of getting

him placed in a residential setting or contained behavior classroom. Both of those options would be appropriate to my way of thinking because he has virtually no chance of succeeding in a regular ed class. Unfortunately, this woman (who is a PAID advocate, by the way) has made no bones about the fact that she wants this child out of her home preferably before the holidays. I can only imagine what she says to him at home, given how freely she runs her mouth about him in his presence when she is at the school. On some level, I feel for the kid because I know that a great deal of what takes place is beyond his control. On the other hand, he does have some ability to contain his poor behavior and is not above deliberately engaging in actions that he absolutely knows will get his tail in hot water and will do so for some perverse form of pleasure.

By pure coincidence, the head of the Special Ed. Department for the district and another person involved in the decision-making process happened to be in the building for a meeting about another kid today and met with myself and the guidance counselor briefly. She wanted my input on what was happening with this child in my class. One of my fears, after talking with these two people, however, is that the boy is going to become a football between our SPED department and the Dept. of Social Services over whose responsibility it is to pick up the tab for placing this kid in a residential setting. Since the meeting for the evaluation is not scheduled until the end of January, I envision a scenario where everybody plays pass the buck and I get stuck trying to hold it together for him until the end of the year.

I do like your suggestion, Kristy, of getting everyone involved to sit down at the same time to come up with a game plan for how to deal with the boy in the meantime. That had crossed my mind as well as the idea of getting an aide of some kind into the class to go one-on-one with him. I think that I will try to get that ball rolling because a definite plan of action has to be put in place immediately. It is no longer at the point where we take a wait and see attitude and hope that he's going to have a good day and, frankly, I can't keep taking time out to explain in writing what the rest of the class is doing or giving him altenative work when he has to be sent up to the office with work because he has acted up (this is on top of the time to write up the referral slip that allows him to get sent to the office). That easily can consume 10 minutes during which the rest of my cherubs assume that they can act up, as well.

Being able to vent my frustrations here has been a godsend. It really helps to have the support of caring people who can offer such concrete advice and be objective. While I do believe that my administrators are being supportive, too, I don't feel quite as comfortable really voicing my concerns to the fullest extent because I still feel a need to look over my shoulder for possible repercussions. As a first year teacher in this system, I am vulnerable and I am all too aware of this fact.
Thanks again.