I've had my share

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Home : 2003 : September : 19

I've had my share
By Carolyn

I've had several students like this in the past three years. Two years ago, I had a student in my class who threatened to slit my throat. Fortunately, there was a teaching assistant who witnessed what he said, so his mother
couldn't contest it. I am quite sure that she would have if I didn't have this witness. I, too, had kept referring him to the principal. Apparently, this threat was taken very seriously by the school district, which planned to expel him. He came back to school several months later, on probation, and then he sexually harassed several of my girls. He was then out for the rest of

the year. (He was in fifth grade at the time.)

I had another boy that same year with major problems all year long. I was stuck with him for a good part of the year before they finally decided that he belonged in the class for the emotionally disturbed. Too bad they took most of the school year to figure that out.

I got a foster child last year who had similar problems. She was placed in my room until a proper placement could be made. The students in my class were afraid of her because she acted so strangely, and she was suddenly violent, thrashing around at people.

Although I can't offer you a great deal of advice on handing these kids, I can at least offer you some consolation since I've been there, too.