Journal Entry from May 27, 2008

This weekend I came across an article about a 5 year old boy in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. Basically the teacher was sick of behavioral issues with the boy, so she had him stand in the center of the class and had all the other children tell him what they did not like about him. Then they voted him out of the class. She sent him to the nurse’s office for the rest of the day. This is a kindergarten class. And she was involved with his IEP meetings and knew that he was being evaluated. She still has her job and the police department determined that no mental abuse took place. How can that possibly be????? You just don’t do that to a child! Any child! AS gives him social challenges and how is this going to help??? It’s not! His mother has said that he has not gone back to school and won’t be this year. And when he goes with to bring his sibling to school he cries. How can a grown woman teaching kindergarten do this to a 5 year old child? And what about the other kids in the class. What is it teaching them? Maybe someday they will have some challenges themselves and they will think back to that day in Kindergarten and think that they are worthless or someone to make fun of. The whole thing just makes me so angry that I can’t even express it. Well today it does. Yesterday, when I first saw the article, I just felt defeated. I thought of it all day and I just felt defeated. I can’t think of a better word to describe it. Is this the world my child is going to grow up in? My biggest issue with Thomas’s diagnosis is how he is going to feel growing up. Is he going to feel rejected? Is he going to feel like he doesn’t fit in or have a place in this world? Is he going to grow up embarrassed or feel like an outcast? I never felt like I fit in growing up. I never quite found my place in school and I don’t want that for my child. Regardless of his dx. But this kind of a story makes me fear for my son. Because there are people out there like that. Teachers even.

Not to mention that it is so illegal. That teacher knew they were working on an IEP and that he was in the process of being diagnosed. How can you do that to a child with a disability that you know makes him socially awkward. A child that you know has trouble navigating his world. How dare you! And as a child with a disability, he has a legal right to accommodations for his right to an education. And how did the police determine that no emotional abuse take place? How can you possibly say that wasn’t abuse regardless of his dx. That is abuse for any 5 yo. Or any adult. How would any adult like to be surrounded by their peers while they told you what they didn’t like about you? That is abuse. Period.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/may/...t-classmate-5/