I am writing this to try to understand how to cope the two days I work with an Addict. I work only two days as by day three I am exhausted dealing with her. It is watching a train wreck over and over again and I can do nothing. Let me make this clear again – NOTHING.
I am Subbing in an Autism classroom, we are down to two Students. One who is fairly functional and the other who is somewhat communicative but also highly ticked. He has the fluttering hands, the occasional body jerking and goes inward for times. I have not had any issue gaining his attention and he can read and do math, particularly math quite well. Both boys are actually lovely boys and I am privileged to know them. There are four other full time rooms with differing students and levels of ages and spectrum skill sets. Only one room is a full time classroom that the kids flow in and out. I have been in all of them and with that have met almost all of them. One is missing and has been since the fall out incident with the Teacher in the room I am currently in. I don’t recall him and with that am still not sure what transpired that led this Teacher to be on leave. One Teacher is also on leave for an incident but he is in the building but not in his classroom, another is on Medical leave. So of the Full Time Teachers, a total of six, three are out. There is one full time Sub in the Health room for the Teacher on Medical, no permanent roster and has no Teaching license, he is a raging moron and that is a compliment; there is no full time Sub in either permanent class with me being the one at least consistent presence so on the days I am not there I have no clue who is in there with the Aide. And that is the problem the Aide.
The Aides accompany Students to each class, to lunch and the buses when they arrive to and leave the school. These are all high school aged kids and the class ages are divided by room and with that a new Student arrived this week and another withdrew. Who is in charge in the Department is unclear and the Teacher whose room I am in is the sole Crisis Manager in the building when one of the Students have a meltdown. I worked with him one half day when the Aide was absent and I met him, spoke to him and he was alluding to the problems in the Department with regards to the other Teacher’s sudden leave situation. I did not think he was having an problems and did joke or now perhaps not say he was seen as a White Male Supremacist and that put him in a challenging spot. There is one other White Male Teacher in the department and I have subbed for him and in turn I realize now why he keeps his head down and his Aide supports him and likes him. I heard her say that to another Aide and she is the only one willing to admit that there is a problem, so they are laying low and out of this. Politics are always a problem in Education and this is no exception.
Which brings me to this Aide (I call her Mania) Her friend is the Aide (Whiny) running the classroom next door where the Teacher who has been accused of some type of verbal abuse. She is a whiny self involved individual and when I covered the room earlier this school year it was my first encounter with that Department and with her. Another Sub was there and I was there for only the morning and the rest of the day into the mainstream portion of the building. To say relieved would be half of it. The other young man that was there has since moved on and may no longer be Subbing, but being in that department without any skills or familiarity with Special Needs, no real direction or instruction, regardless of the department or especially the department, you are fucked without dinner. Over the year I have kept it light and friendly as I passed in and out and then came the Health room. That was when the Teacher left sooner than anticipated and the scheduled Sub was not available. In other words he did not want to be in a room where the plans were not set. He had them for the weeks/months he was assigned and these two earlier days did not exist; So, in that a man who is never absent suddenly was. And in those two days I met them all, the Aides who came in and out and the remaining Teachers. A motley crew to say the least. I have never actually met/spoken to the lone Teacher left, the one man hiding in the corner who I had covered for when he had Covid. But the overall climate is not healthy, the dismissive nature in which I was treated was enough as I pulled out my ass actual health lessons and taught all the classes. In the interim I was running between other classes to cover other rooms in SPED and the building, that is the sub shortage. It its utterly disruptive and challenging in the best of times, running between four flights of stairs and rooms to simply take attendance and just sit there. It makes me hate myself every single day.
But with the Autistic kids I feel I need to be better and do better so I teach. It was noticed and with that the single Aide of the one lone Male Teacher left, informed me that I was in fact a good Teacher and appreciated it. This from one of the many in schools who are underpaid and under appreciated and this compliment was duly noted. Sadly it did not last. The current Aide (Mania) also was positive and generous, but since this time now with this woman these past few weeks I feel utterly exhausted with her and her behavior. At first I thought it was just her personality and then after she told me of her car accident I realized that she should not be at work, it happened only recently (unclear exactly when but it appears to have been during the pandemic and when schools were closed) and with that has a metal leg implant and struggles with walking and I suspect also Traumatic Brain Injury. And with that she has the perk of addiction to pain meds.
Thursday, after three days (I worked on Thursday as a half day, paid for full and the start of Vacation so I felt it would be fine. I was wrong) it was as bad as any day and with it my fear of here addiction was finally confirmed. Tuesday was a day of moving furniture and announcing how things were with the third Student having withdrawn. His desk had still the permission slips for the field trip the day before to the park for Autism Awareness Day. His family did not speak to her or pick up his work, his books or clear out his locker. He just simply was withdrawn, not just from the school but from the district. She informed me that she did not know why but that all his work must stay in the desk for “legal reasons.” Really? I immediately collected what I knew of and banded it together and put it on the Teacher’s desk. The custom being that it can be forwarded to the family, the new school to see what he was doing and how he was being graded/evaluated/assessed. She seemed relieved he was gone, he had clear problems with her and she with him and I assume the family realized that the full time Teacher was gone so they chose to remove him and with that WISELY so. Her systemic abuse of him and mockery of him was hard to take and it had spread to the other rooms with equal verve. The fourth boy who was there in the afternoons no longer came in electing to remain in another room and that left the two. Her direction of rage is now to the boy with the more obvious disabilities. She alternately brags how much she has reached him and in turn alternatively dismisses him and his family. There is endless trash talking and other directives that in the midst of her rants consists of anyone who disagrees with her. It explains why the week before the Vice Principal pulled me and another sub covering aside to inform us to be visible at all times, to do lunch duty and bus duty. These are the two areas where the supposed issues and conflicts occurred and with that I had never done them before and funny she did not care that many times I covered multiple classes, up and down stairs, no prep nor often a full lunch as I had to drag my stuff from room to room, try to fit in a bathroom break and ensure I was following the right schedule as SPED and Main are on two different ones. So sure, I will be as visible as possible. I did it once and then immediately took the next two days off. Not putting myself or anyone at risk. The aide in this room is however doing that and to herself thanks to her dependence on pain meds.
It is less about Race as the Teacher on leave is Indian descent, recently promoted to lead after another Teacher left at the end of the previous school year. There is confusion or a lack of explanation as how he was promoted as you still need a license but this is an issue that may be why suddenly the problem. I will say I have met and spoken to him many times and he is deeply annoying but not in a way that I feel he needs a “time out.” The other Aide (Mania) in my room has been in that room for years and knows the Teacher and is Latin but I don’t think they had any conflicts that contributed to his leave but then again she and that neighboring aide are the only two who communicate daily with the poor me mentality, so this is a coincidence right? But the allusions made that day when I subbed for of all people, Mania, by that Teacher I am now subbing for resonate with me as I watch his Aide’s mood swings and behaviors. Tuesday was hyper all Morning, telling me the plans, actually teaching the boys, moving furniture, followed by an afternoon when the pain meds were hauled out. Wednesday she admitted she took too many the day before and now feels exhausted. So I took over with the lessons I made and she spent the A.M. trash talking with some one who came by the room; Who and from where I have no clue as then she departed leaving me with the boys and her alone. By lunch she had to rest her head on the desk. I did partial lunch duty that day but in reality I took them to the Cafeteria and went to a coffee shop by the park they visited on Monday to get a needed caffeine fix. When I came back she was up and felt better. The kids had Health which she takes them too, and I simply refused to do her job again, and this meant I was finally alone for a few moments. She came back and with that said she was doing better asked me about the coffee where I got it and where it was. She then left to the next door room and said that she was going to go there after vacation with Whiny as she was too busy to do it sooner. (She is not doing it ever, this is a work relationship of sheer necessity) I do find it odd that Mania seemed to not know the neighborhood as she endlessly reminds me that she has been there for 26 years and used to walk to the river at lunch. Meaning literally towards a mall, across it, across light rail tracks then a road to the waterfront, a 20 minute or so walk on good days. I do feel that this is another memory tied to abuse. She endlessly talks about the past, her being a Teacher in NY before moving to the district in Jersey City and somehow is now a Teacher’s Aide. The stories often circle back to the present, about how fit she was and the accident changed her and that he was uninsured unlicensed driver who left them broke with medical costs. The anger is genuine and the pain real. That much is certain. Then in true addict fashion we go on a rant about the day ahead and what “we” are doing. It is a lather rinse repeat cycle of crazy. But the consistent factor is the vagueness on the actual accident itself. She is up for retirement and that same day of pain med fun times (Wed) the District Reps were there to assist those taking retirement. She forgot but she is retiring after next school year so that seems odd to process paperwork now. Unless she is planning to retire in December. This is a common thing that happens as the reality is that it doesn’t change or benefit you to stay through the school year itself you are not given “more” money. It is calendar year cycle and that is why many Teachers do not return after Christmas Break. This is a unique weirdness to municipal work in Education.
By Thursday “we” were wobbly and confused, telling me she was feeling drunk and losing balance. Shocking, no, not really. It was half day and I had planned Easter themed readings, coloring and Winne the Pooh movie. She had said that the Ice Cream from the money I gave her to contribute to Autism day – 10 bucks- was being saved for Thursday. Her buddy, Whiny, told her Wed was going to be the no work day (normally that is the last half day) and asked to have it then but she refused as she said she wanted to save it. I had been told by her that Wed we were having a free day, and also no more use of laptops but that lasted barely half a day so I just quit listening. It is why Wednesday I went forward with planned lessons. Funny that it was the same day a District person was there and witnessed me Teaching. It was in that conversation she hauled out her script, she trashed other Subs, the Department, the school and all while I am trying to teach and I can hear it all. I have told her repeatedly how Subbing works and horrid the gig is and that again it was forgotten or whatever lost in the miasma of her addled mind. I keep thinking can it get worse? And yes, it can. As anyone familiar with drug dependency, mental health issues there are many more problems than one realizes, it is akin to walking on a mind field. Today as the kids colored and watched a movie she did best coloring the work I had made for the kids, the ice cream never appeared as she never bought it or did and kept it. She had shitty candy and continued her abuse the one boy for having a lollipop earlier. Love that mixed message. Well it was given to him by another Aide in another room at 9 am, and it should not of, but then again there is no one in charge here at all. Watching her abuse this boy is in and of itself enough but her own behavior makes even the most damaged of children seem normal. Imagine being scolded and reprimanded every few minutes just for being you?
Thursday night I went to see a production of Drinking in America. This is a 30 plus year old monologue series written by Eric Bogosian. It was starring Andre Royo (formerly of The Wire) and was revelatory. Mr. Royo made this dated material absolutely contemporary and relevant. What was the offshoot was the fact that the 9 men he portrayed in the throws of addiction made me feel I was in the classroom with the Aide. It was 90 minutes of true education in the vise of entertainment.
I write this to heal myself. A couple of weeks ago after my first three days I had not put the puzzle pieces together and spent hours sleeping, canceling Opera tickets and sheltering in place. Now I had no issue putting together a weekend of activities and joining the living. I leave for Tosca in few moments as I close this piece knowing that in about 10 days I will be back for two more days of whatever or whoever I walk into. I had mentioned to the Secretary on Thursday how it was a mine field and she acknowledged that. On Tuesday, another Sub who had no afternoon classes was standing in the hallway when I finally pulled him in to my room during my prep asking if he needed help. He was told to hang out there if he was needed. This was new. Normally you go to the Library or the Teacher’s Lounge and wait it out. He was told to come to the STAR rooms with no direction nor anyone to report to. Not shocking as again there is no one in charge and frankly shitty communication so hence I make my own calls about what I will or will not do. So during our conversation I assigned him that room next door and bus duty and bathroom duty. He said he has subbed in the school for years, since 2017. Really? Great they were closed 2020 -2021 and so you have been here like all the rest not a lot. He runs a Sports Communication program or something and works during the classes, I have seen him and he does nothing more than take attendance and yell if the kids get too loud. This is is classroom management and he has no interest, but what Sub does? (I explained to Mania that anyone can be a Sub with fingerprint clearance, she says she is going to do it when she retires. DEAR GOD) With that as his skill set, he actually thinks he is good at the job. Okay, then. I said there is no management issues and that it would be good for him to meet and work with these kids. He disagreed and said he would not come back to the school if they put him in these rooms again. Okay, then. I truly think I need meds.
Addiction is crippling, to the individual, to their families/friends and to those with whom they work. In this case it is not just the adults, it is the children. The endless comments by the varying staff regarding down to the two remaining students when their rooms are bursting and the new Student who enrolled has refused to enter the room I think is quite telling. I do believe Autistic kids have a second sense that attunes them to those who are toxic. I had nor have any problems with the supposed challenging ones and that the other day the same Boy she claims is tracking back actually asked me politely including please and thank you over some simple requests. I wished the Vice Principal who berated and instructed me on my duties had that much grace. She failed to introduce herself nor ask me who I was in which to establish a proper professional communication. Hence the failed direction to the Sub standing in a hall and why I simply directed myself to take on what I will and will not do and the schedule. But it is the only think I have left is respect, first for myself.
I have no answers or even methods of coping. The reality is that AA says to take it day by day. I have no truck with that program and in fact feel it is a suit that needs some tailoring as it is not a size that fits all. With that I know what brings me joy and I have to remind myself that it is what matters. So go find Joy this Easter Weekend.
The Earthquake in Syria and Turkey has now led to at least 20K dead. I am not sure what to say but with Syria perpetually in a Civil War and the sanctions that have been a part of the US relations for decades for their support in Terrorism will mean that they will have to be temporarily removed and in turn coordination or efforts to assist a challenge. Turkey, a country we have had a very challenged relationship and largely strategic in nature has been tested with the war in the Ukraine and the NATO sanctions placed upon Russia, which Turkey has largely ignored and in turn Russia despite it all has managed to circumvent them to maintain their economy and war effort. All of this is part of our International news coverage which as I suspect few follow or actually read about. Putting Sunflowers on clothes or flying flags in windows is great and all but what actually do you know about the boots on the ground, the Americans and Europeans who have gone there to help, and in turn what is happening with regards to Russian misinformation, European reliance on them for power and in turn the overall costs that again are not new. We have had a myriad of problems with Russia for decades, Putin has fucked over five Presidents in our country, he has interfered in US elections through the use of bots to flood social media and in turn stir racial unrest. All of this AGAIN is well presented in varying media outlets but AGAIN most people simply refuse or at least even commit to reading, listening to or watching news for even 30 minutes. There are the 24/7 MSNBC, CNN and Fox watchers perpetuating the horseshoe effect that has individuals on either end of the spectrum spout the talking points sure they are getting truths and facts. And with that I move on.
I read three papers and currently flip through the Daily Memphian to read about Memphis and the reports on the Police Violence situation as the investigation is still ongoing. Since his funeral one other Police officer has been fired and the story that circulated aka “rumor” that Tyre was seeing one of the Officer’s ex’s of course has been dismissed but there was a Woman one of the Officers was pursuing or was acquainted with whom he sent the photos he took at the crime scene as Tyre lay dying. The New York Times wrote an extensive update on what transpired that night and the suppression evidence and lying that continued to cover up what really happened. Again, who will know the truth or will it ever get its day in court? Let’s hope.
This now brings me to the role of AI and how it too can be used to create a false narrative and it appear real. The story from the New York Times confirms how convincing it can be to create a newscast using bots aka DEEPFAKE and create a script, now thanks to CHAT AI to make it appear genuine. I will spend some time in another post discussing what I believe will end many writers careers and freelancing efforts with the creation of CHAT AI. The cuts across the white collar industries will only contribute to that with copy writers, content creators and the like being dismissed. There may be only one or two left on a team to do clean up and editing but I suspect more will follow across the board when it comes to this and the role of AI in production.
And with that I did have a “conversation” with a White Man in Manhattan who commented about me reading the NY Times in hand and I responded that I still subscribe to the print edition I like the feel of paper, the ability to spread it out and read story in succession as reading on the phone for me is challenging. He was reading his NYT on his phone and immediately informed me that Turkey/Syria was now at 20K. I knew immediately recognized that as a passive aggressive way of informing me that reading online was superior as it is in real time. I said I had heard on the radio coming over to the city that the death toll had risen and that this tragedy was again a sign of politics and war and the inability of country’s to maintain their labor and work force to promote stability to enact growth and change. It parallels our own country’s brain drains in red vs blue states and in turn also in the Latin countries. When people leave there is no imperative to grow but to maintain power and all at a sacrifice to a country’s own growth. He immediately did what I call the standard white person response – NO YOU ARE WRONG. I put that to the equivalent to the invite, “Hey let’s meet for coffee” and the response is, “I don’t drink coffee.” When you begin a dialogue in the negative you end something before it begins. So in this case I simply tried to explain what I have seen in Nashville and the South with people who want to stay but they eventually cannot as jobs and opportunities dry up, even basic services like grocery stores are lacking, so they leave and these great towns are dying. And then he launched into his story about Religion, working in upstate Pennsylvania and a watch maker he hired, to hiring workers to do things for him and telling me one negative story after another about all the people he knew including former College classmates he encountered at his reunion with their reliance upon religion. I wonder if it was less about them and more about him and he being an utter asshole. After about 5 minutes of this lecture (as that it was it was not a conversation) he jumped up and said, “Enjoy your roll and have a good day.” I looked at my plate which was down to scraps, as I had just sat there shoving it into my mouth to avoid speaking, ignoring my newspaper which is why I stopped in the first place. And I go, “I will and you too.” All I could think was how was this man whom I thought Gay, and usually they are not quite that angry or rude, confirms why I have to stop these random encounters, they are not productive, they are not healthy for me. This was just very New Yorker typical (they are either amazing or utter shit, no grey there) yet although during his rant I gathered he was from Maryland; with that I am not sure if he lives here but he had a white shi zu who seems to be his only friend (he was clutching that do like a child does a stuffed animal) so he had to actually live here or why the dog? And frankly why he felt the need to talk to me another. Don’t initiate a conversation when you have no intent of having one. I was relieved to see them both take a leave and while I too left shortly thereafter my morning not ruined but certainly not one I wished to extend. A bad taste remained, from neither the coffee nor the pain a raisin but from his vitriol.
I truly exhaust myself trying to be “nice” and with that I want to move onto the subject about the shooting in Virginia with the six year old. After spending a day in an Autism classroom with four amazing young men on varying degrees on the spectrum I was looking forward to a couple of days of just being alone and keeping busy with things that matter. People not so much. As the Teacher of that room contracted Covid, meaning all them including the IA was exposed, I did not want to push my luck and I will test on Saturday to see how I am passing the 72 hour mark from exposure to contraction. So these next two days are not only necessary they put me less at risk. I think the IA was shocked that I was not planning to alter my schedule to be there Thursday and Friday as I told her that I already had obligations, she seemed to think that they were flexible and I would of course step in. Again, I have no obligation, no responsibility and am a GIG WORKER who works on my schedule not yours. But later during the day the VP was there for the afternoon and in an exchange with her the IA informed her that with all the Teachers out sick, on leave or for emergency reasons she was being placed in a place that led her to do more work that she was not paid for. I laughed to myself as I feel the same way. You want me to work, pay me, enable me with access to computers, a password, a locker to store my stuff and of course sick leave, health care and the rest. That.Will.Not.Happen. I cobbled together lessons for the boys, they really need constant reiteration and consistency, none that I have actually witnessed in my time in those rooms. So again lack of leadership and direction is evident. And my past exchanges on this subject I am more than aware of how incalcitrant Teachers are to change. This goes with my last post regarding the Doctor who admitted that many of the problems Doctor’s face are due to the lobbying by the AMA to keep the status quo. And it is always about money. Even the comment by the Doctor who said there is an ER that is no safe and that they will travel rather than go there. What does that say about those who don’t have said option?
And this goes not only with regards to medical care but to education and to the judicial system. Those safety nets that are designed to provide equity to those in need or demand are not treated equally. Access and availability are not parsed out fairly but in fact that is what is defined as systemic racism, they are designed to treat the poor, the less well off financially and in turn less educated in how the system works to be treated disparagingly, as if it was a type of intrinsic failure that led them there. And since most of those are faces of color the reality is that yes it is a form of Racism. I was a white woman when I was abused and mistreated by the hospital I was brought to be cared for. It is a public hospital in charge of treating the poor and has a history of issues and problems and it was only sheer fucking luck I survived. They threw me in the street sick and deranged and I sued them on my own. Why? Why not. The Police and the EMT who rescued me, did not help me but in fact went out of their ways to ensure I was further punished as if being in coma and not knowing or caring if I was to come out of it, decided to make sure if I did I would be punished. And I was. The numerous Judges, the Attorneys I hired and fired and the City Attorneys went out of their way to do little to nothing despite my pleas and the checks that cleared. NOT ONE. I was on my own so anyone who thinks I will ever lend a hand anymore is mistaken. I have nothing more to say on this subject but I will say that anyone who thinks that Politicians will change these broken systems are mistaken. Unless people band together to become a Citizen Lobbyist and take charge of their workplace, their community and organize to bring money, yes money, to the varying assholes who run for office and in turn demand and pay for their candidacy, then drive to get them elected and more George Santos’ will take office without shame or guilt.
And with that we should be able to have our children go to local schools, to not have to commute in which to find a basic education. I get that special programs may have to be divided up for financial reasons, that said a child needs to be in the community he/she lives in which to make friends, to build a history and establish roots. And what it says that when you don’t have an opportunity for education and in turn can drop out of school and be left alone to scrub together an existence allows one to remain ignorant. Lessons learned less about fact and more on lies, misinformation, and it opens the door to January 6th. Another Insurrectionist who was sentenced this week seemed to believe his ignorance was an excuse. Funny how hid did not understand anything about history and Democracy yet seemed to think that this was okay. He is married with a family, has a job and he seemed to know enough to get there and carry a Confederate Flag into the Capitol. To quote his Attorney: “He was taught that the flag was a symbol of an idealized view of southern life and southern heritage,” “Lacking an education beyond the ninth grade and lacking even average intellectual capacity, Mr. Seefried did not appreciate the complex and, for many, painful, history behind the Confederate battle flag.”” Really he didn’t know this as he never heard it ever? None of his family had? Yeah it is what I call “willful ignorance.”
And that same type of ignorance is what happened in Virginia at Richneck Elementary School on the day a six year old shot his Teacher. None of it makes sense and yet all of seems to be one of willful intent. He planned it, he discussed it, he demonstrated prior acts of violence and with that he waited until a moment arrived to KILL HER. Did I mention he was Six? When he was Five he strangled a Teacher. Again this is all odd as if he was trained to do this. As few six year olds I have met have that amazing skill set to find guns, unlock them, carry them and in turn use them. To strangle someone with that much force to render a Teacher near unconsciousness. He told classmates and with that his need for attention led him to share it with other Students, threaten them and in turn be dismissed without recourse. And his Parents brought him to school and after a brief period felt it was not necessary to accompany him any further. Really? There is so much missing from this story but what isn’t is that take a look at the School, the lack of training, the lack of doors, the entire inability to respond to a crisis. The Principal not in the loop and the VP running the show. I have seen this many many times. A young Teacher with no support system in which to help her and a class of 24 or more which is WAY TOO BIG for children that age and no IA’s to assist. This district sucks but hey the Governor has made sure no CRT is being taught! And all following a pandemic when this Boy was 4 he had no oversight nor care to diagnose what is happening and enters Kindergarten already in a state and progressed what appears to be a new school for First grade. Where were his history or file? This is not exclusive to this school, this is EVERYWHERE. And what is the solution? Vouchers for Private Schools or more Charters. Yeah that is the solution or in other words kick the can down the road. This is a child not a can of pop. And the affect of this on all the other children will only exacerbate what I have come to believe a loss of a generation interrupted due to the pandemic. Ages 2-20 will fucked up for years to come. And it is why I will not spend more than three days in a school as the adage goes: Company like fish stink after three days. And why I quit doing both Elementary and Middle school as they are not easy in the best of times and these are not the best of times.
How Richneck Elementary failed to stop a 6-year-old from shooting his teacher
By Hannah Natanson and Justin Jouvenal February 10, 2023 The Washington Post
Abigail Zwerner was frustrated.
It was Jan. 4. A 6-year-old in her first-grade class at Richneck Elementary School had stolen her phone and slammed it to the floor, apparently upset over a schedule change, according to text messages Zwerner sent to a friend.
Administrators, she wrote, were faulting her for the situation.
The 6-year-old “took my phone and smashed it on the ground,” Zwerner wrote in a text message obtained by The Washington Post, “and admin is blaming me.”
Two days later, the 6-year-old told classmates at recess he was going to shoot Zwerner, showed them a gun and its clip tucked into his jacket pocket, and threatened to kill them if they told anyone, according to an attorney for the family of a student who witnessed the threat, offering the first account of events leading to the shooting from someone in Zwerner’s class.
That afternoon, the 6-year-old did as he promised, authorities said — firing a bullet through Zwerner’s upraised hand and into her chest as she was midway through teaching a lesson.
Zwerner’s lawyer and other educators at the Newport News, Va., school have alleged the shooting came after school administrators downplayed repeated warnings from Zwerner and other teachers about the boy. The incident sparked a staffing shake-up at Richneck and the ouster of Superintendent George Parker III.
The Washington Post interviewed 34 people — including teachers, parents and children at Richneck — and obtained dozens of text messages, school emails and documents to reconstruct what happened inside Richneck that day and in the days and weeks before the shooting, revealing new details about the administration’s failure to manage the 6-year-old’s disciplinary issues and to respond to other reports of troubling student behavior.
The Post learned that the 6-year-old was moved to a half-day schedule due to poor conduct in early September,and was suspended for a day after slamming Zwerner’s phone. But educators had long been vexed by the student, who previously attempted to strangle his kindergarten teacher, according to two school employees and records obtained by The Post.
Diane Toscano, Zwerner’s lawyer, has said teachers relayed several warnings to administrators on the morning of the shooting, including at least three reports that the boy had a gun. The Post interviewed a kindergartner who said the boy threatened to punch her at lunch that day and that she informed a staffer — but that the staffer did little more than give the boy a verbal warning.
In the direct aftermath of the shooting, two second-grade classes were left briefly wandering the hallways in search of a safe place to hide because their classroom was not equipped with doors and they had not rehearsed safety drills, according to one second-grade teacher, one fifth-grade teacher and a parent of a second-grade student, as well as text messages obtained by The Post. A second-grade teacher told The Post she had asked to have doors installed but administrators refused, saying the doors would be too expensive.
Many people interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity because the district has asked teachers not to talk with reporters or because they wanted to protect their families’ privacy.
James Ellenson, an attorney for the family of the 6-year-old boy, declined to comment directly on the new reporting but said in a statement that Newport News schools “had a duty to protect all the parties involved, especially the child who needed to be protected from himself.”
Newport News school district spokeswoman Michelle Price declined to comment for this story, as did Parker, the former superintendent, and Toscano, Zwerner’s attorney.
‘We were scared’
Teachers’ fears about the 6-year-old date backto his kindergarten year, when he tried to strangle his teacher, according to a letter Zwerner’s attorney sent to the school system Jan. 24 announcing her intent to sue. The letter was first reported by the Daily Press.
“The shooter had been removed from the school a year prior after he chokedhis teacher until she couldn’t breathe,” says the letter, obtained by The Post through a public records request. It was not immediately clear how a boy so young could have choked an adult. The Post was not able to learn other details of the incident and authorities have not released information about the boy.
Early this fall, as Richneck teachers sought to settle their new crop of students inside the low-slung red-brick building nestled amid trees, news of the 6-year-old’s troubled history circulated swiftly among the staff, according to text messages between teachers.
Less than a week into September, officials switched the 6-year-old to a half-day schedule due to misbehavior — but administrators were already lagging in efforts to accommodate the student, according to Toscano’s letter and to text messages sent between Zwerner and a friend of hers who teaches at the school.
It was not clear what specific incident triggered the schedule change.Toscano wrote in her letter that the 6-year-old “constantly cursed at the staff and teachers and then one day took off his belt on the playground and chased kids trying to whip them.”
On Sept. 5, Zwerner wrote in a text message to her friend that officials were being slow to offer updates on how to handle the child.
“I still haven’t gotten any info about [the student’s] half day schedule,” Zwerner wrote.
The friend wrote back that the 6-year-old “needs to be half days … They better stick to that for your sake.” The friend added that administrators’ “communication and accountability aren’t good again this year.”
As the year progressed, concerns did, too.
Though the 6-year-old was a particular challenge, teachers alleged that administrators’ response to discipline issues was generally lackluster, both for Zwerner’s class of roughly two dozen students and elsewhere in the building.
Harold Belkowitz, an attorney for Richneck parents with a child in Zwerner’s class, said his clients’ child was physically and verbally bullied by classmates during the current school year.He said his clients raised concerns with Richneck and Newport News school officials “numerous times” but that administrators took no action to stop the behavior.
Text messages and a photo shared between teachers show that a student in Zwerner’s class reportedly hit a teacher so hard with a chair that her legs became dotted with green and purple bruises — and that, at another point, a kindergartner was accused of pushing a pregnant teacher to the ground and kicking her in the stomach so hard that she feared for her unborn child, two weeks shy of giving birth. It was not immediately clear how administrators responded to those episodes, although one educator wrote in a text this fall that the bruised teacher had “heard nothing from admin.”
On Nov. 9, the second-grade teacher wrote in a text message to a colleague that she was applying to work in another district because of “how bad the first graders are right now put together with the fact we don’t have doors.”
The second-grade teacher added, referencing administrative failures, “It’s only gonna get worse.”
‘Again nothing was done’
About two months later, on the morning of Jan. 6, the 6-year-old slipped his mother’s gun into his backpack before heading to school, Newport News police have said. Ellenson, the lawyer for the boy’s family, has said the weapon was kept in the mother’s closet under a gun lock. It remains unclear how the boy was able to obtain the weapon.
The boy arrived on campus around 11 a.m., passing a school sign that still wished students “Happy New Year” in capital letters. He was accompanied by his mother, according to a second-grade teacher who said she spoke with the mother in the hallway.
Before that day, due to an unspecified disability, the boy followed a special schedule in which his parents shadowed him to and during class, the family said in a statement last month. On Jan. 6, for unknown reasons, the parents discontinued that plan: “The week of the shooting was the first week when we were not in class with him,” the statement said.
Around 11:05 a.m., the boy was slated to leave Zwerner’s classroom and head along the gray-tiled hallway to lunch, which is held jointly for kindergartners and first-graders, according to a copy of a Richneck schedule obtained by The Post.
Inside the lunchroom, which a Richneck teacher said has white walls lined with posters advising students how to behave respectfully, a kindergarten student was sitting at her lunch table when she spotted the boy, she said in a video call with The Post this month. The girl was interviewed beside her mother; both spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their privacy.
The kindergarten student said she had long wanted to become friends with the 6-year-old. When she saw him that day, she said, she looked steadily in his direction to attract his attention.
Noticing her gaze, she said, the boy walked close to her table and asked, “What are you looking at, little girl?” before jumping forward and shoving himself close to her. He raised his fist to eye level and said, “I’m going to punch you in the face,” she recalled. Scared and sad, the girl raced from her table to grab the nearest school staffer, she said.
The school staffer warned the 6-year-old that punching another student could force a visit to the principal’s office, according to the kindergartner and her mother. The girl’s mother said the staffer spoke on the phone with her about a week after the shooting to try to explain the decision-making process in that moment — and to confess that the boy with the raised fist was the same one who, hours later, shot his teacher.
“They felt that they did the best they could by addressing it to the child,” the kindergartner’s mother said, declining to identify the staffer. “But I disagree.”
By 11:30 a.m., reports that the boy had threatened another child reached Zwerner, according to Toscano, Zwerner’s attorney. Toscano wrote in her letter to the school district that Zwerner took theinformation directly to Assistant Principal EbonyParker,who is not related to the former superintendent with the same last name.
Zwerner visited the assistant principal’s office and told her about the threat, reporting “that the shooter was in a violent mood,” Toscano wrote. “Yet … absolutely nothing is done.”
At 12:20 p.m., after the first-graders finished lunch and sat through a brief “Reading” period, they were supposed to head outside for recess, according to the Richneck daily schedule.
By this point, rumorswere spreading that the boy had brought a weapon to school, according to Toscano. One teacher searched the 6-year-old’s backpack at around 12:30 p.m., Toscano wrote, but found nothing.
Zwerner told a colleague she had glimpsed “the shooter take something out of his backpack and put it in his pocket” and feared it might be a gun, spurring that colleague to bring concerns to Assistant Principal Parker, Toscano wrote in her letter. But Parker ignored the teacher, Toscano wrote, suggesting the boy’s pockets were too small to contain a gun: “Assistant Principal Parker was made aware at the beginning of recess that Ms. Zwerner was afraid the shooter had a gun in his pocket. And again nothing was done.”
Meanwhile, outside at recess, the 6-year-old approached three other students and told them he intended to shoot Zwerner, according to Emily Mapp Brannon, an attorney who is representing the parents of four Richneck families. Brannon provided a statement that details an account of that day given by a boy enrolled in Zwerner’s class.
The 6-year-old showed his fellow students the gun, which he had concealed in the pocket of his jacket, revealing the clip, according to the statement.
“The shooter also threatened the other classmates that if they told on him, he would shoot them,” the statement says.
Two students immediately ran away terrified, according to the statement.
The statement said the boy told the shooter that he wanted to go play in another area of the playground and left for the monkey bars. Not long after, the boy told a teacher about the gun, Brannon said.
Toscano described a similar incident in her letter to the district, writing that a teacher alerted to the recess gun threat by a student told another teacher, who told Assistant Principal Parker. But Parker “responded that she was aware of the threat and the shooter’s backpack had already been searched,” according to Toscano’s letter.
Around the same time, a school guidance counselor also approached the assistant principal to warn her the student might have a gun — marking at least the third warning about a gun Parker received that day.
The guidance counselor “asked Assistant Principal Parker if he could search the shooter’s person for the weapon,” Toscano wrote. “Assistant Principal Parker’s response was no, because the shooter’s mother would be arriving soon to pick up the shooter.”
Parker did not respond to requests for comment for this story. An attorney for Briana Foster Newton, who was Richneck principal at the time, said in a statement that “it would be imprudent to comment on discussions that Mrs. Newton was not a part of.” She has said Newton, who has since been reassigned, was not told the boy might have had a gun that day.
At 12:50 p.m., first-grade recess wrapped up, per the school schedule. The first-graders filed back into Zwerner’s classroom for what was listed on the schedule as math class.
Shortly before 2 p.m., Toscano wrote in her letter, Zwerner “was sitting at her reading table when the shooter, who was sitting at his desk, pulled the gun out of his pocket.” He squeezed the trigger.
‘We all went under the teacher’s table’
Several things happened almost at once after the shot was fired, according to Newport News police. Surveillance video shows between 16 and 20 students fleeing the classroom to seek shelter across the hall. Another school employee ran into Zwerner’s room to restrain the student and continued holding him until police officers arrived on campus. The 6-year-old was ultimately taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation.
Zwerner was the last to leave her classroom, police have said. She made a right turn and traveled down the hallway before looking back “to make sure every one of those students was safe,” Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew has said.
The rest of the school was plunged into confusion and terror. Alyssa Dooley, who is 8 and in third grade, said a lockdown was announced over her classroom’s loudspeaker shortly after the shot was fired.
“We all went under the teacher’s table,” Alyssa said. “There was crying, and we were scared.”
Down the hall from Zwerner’s classroom, two classes of second-graders had no idea where to go, according to one of the second-grade teachers. Not only did their shared classroom lack doors, but the school had failed to hold a lockdown drill that school year, two Richneck teachers said, leaving the second-grade teachers without a plan.
The second-grade teachers began trying classroom doors until they found the computer lab unlocked, one said. They hustled students inside and sought to keep them calm for about an hour, according to the teacher and a parent of a second-grader, before the principal and police began circulating the building unlocking classroom doors. The adults led the children to the gym to await reunion with their parents.
At the same time, parents began learning of the shooting from news reports — frustrating some, who said they wanted to hear directly from the school.
Mark Anthony Garcia, a parent of a second-grade boy, said he learned of the shooting when his wife called him, herself having gleaned the news from local station WAVY-TV.
“My wife told me to get to the school because there was a shooter at Richneck Elementary,” Garcia said.
Garcia said he jumped in his car and sped to Richneck. He got about a mile and a half away before hitting a police roadblock. A woman said he could park his car in her driveway. He left the vehicle and hurried to the school, where hundreds of parents stood waiting in an area cordoned off by yellow police tape.
As the minutes ticked on, parents paced nervously. Others cried. Some were irate. By 2:45 p.m., Garcia said, police began reuniting anxious mothers and fathers with their children.
Garcia captured the moment on video.
“Everybody have their ID in their hand,” an officer shouted through a megaphone. She told the crowd to form a single line.
Parents burst through the yellow tape toward the school. One woman shouted, “Go! Go!”
Garcia said he met his son in the gym. He gave the boy a big hug and told him he was a hero.
Garcia and his son then drove to a gas station, where they met up with Garcia’s wife, who had been stranded on a different side of the school. The family spilled out of their cars and gathered in a group hug.
Then, together, the boy and his parents said a prayer.
As I struggle to return to the schools I went to Ferris yesterday and thankfully my bestie, the Admin who hates my guts was pulling an Elvis and was out of the building. I ran into the Art Teacher/White Male Activist yesterday who informed me her most recent decision was to not allow Coffee or Coffee Cups on desks. Okay that is significant, and by that I mean as in stupid. I knew she was a crazy bitch but this is just being petty and small. If they shoe fits you ain’t Cinderella.
I am mystified how Jersey City was under State control for 30 years. It never fails to amaze me how bad these schools really are. I am not sure the curriculum is just inadequate alone as overall schools across the city fail to offer extracurricular activities that often build schools and community, which includes State Athletic Champs, a full Band and Music Program that competes Nationally and Internationally. Some of the most respected music comps are just across the river, literally a day trip. Then we have Theater, irony again that the largest Theater org is across the river, and yet not one school has any established Performing Arts/Drama program. There are schools with full on pottery and tech equipment to produce Visual Art, yet none with any acclaim or note. Add to that the diversity that Jersey City touts as a plus has ZERO International Baccalaureate or Cambridge program, no Bi-lingual Ed program like Proyetco Saber or a World/International School with multi language programs and cultural based coursework. They are screaming dumps. I recall the empty endless rooms with outdated computer equipment which could be used to teach voc tech repair or in turn update to include a larger STEM program. NONE of those exist here. I thought for a minute I was back in Nashville, the schools here are that bad. The reality is that I cannot say anything about these schools in a positive manner and this is for a State supposedly ranked in the top 10, Tennessee was the bottom 10. I did find pockets of quality in Seattle but they were small ones, yet they existed despite the best efforts to seal them closed. Sometimes they tried but more often or not they failed in spite of the liberal leaning and endless cash infusions into the district. That is the problem, they tried too hard and too many times to constantly move the goal posts and with that provide a comprehensive education to all students, not just those who were labeled and treated as the label they were assigned. That is a major problem in almost all schools and districts across the country.
So when I read about the Silent Rooms in Jersey Schools I was not shocked. I recall the first time I witnessed one in action in an Elementary School in Seattle. A young Black male was put in the room where it was located inside the classroom and with that he banged, screamed, pounded the walls until he was exhausted and then only then he was let out. The lead Teacher and all the Aides were Black and I was the single white woman there. And I could not wonder what that would do if the racial dynamic was changed and it was a white staff who did this to a child of color. Or that child was Asian or White. Things would not go well. I think the grade was 3 or 4 and with that the school was located in a largely white wealthy neighborhood and yet the school population were not the students from the area. It was a Special Ed class and I knew that there had been a scandal regarding SPED in the district, and no less in my old neck of the woods, the View Ridge area. Again a largely white residential area, where another Elementary used said technique to quiet students and again a child of color. It is the most appalling thing I ever witnessed and next to spanking it has to be the most abusive. We got real problems in our schools, the books are not them.
Inside the quiet rooms
N.J. schools are locking kids in padded rooms. Are they breaking the law?
Published on Jun 19, 2022
By Kelly Heyboer| NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Ana Rivera has lost count of how many times teachers locked away her son.
It started in pre-K when he was shut inside the principal’s office after he would not calm down in class. It escalated in elementary school when the Passaic County boy, who was diagnosed with autism, was routinely dragged into a room the size of closet and locked inside.
At age 6, his family said he came home with so many bruises from being roughly restrained by teachers that they took him to the emergency room.
Every time his horrified mother asked teachers what was happening, she heard the same refrain: The little boy was too much to handle. He needed to be locked up.
“They say to me they restrain him when his life is in danger, or when other people’s life is in danger,” said Rivera, her voice rising in anger. “But it seems to me they just do it when they feel threatened. When he talks too loud. When he tries to scream. When he does some disruptive behavior.”
He was left alone inside a seclusion room, which his teachers called the Reset Room, so many times he finally left his latest school and enrolled in another private school for children with disabilities.
No one seems to be able to tell Rivera how much time her son, now 13, has spent locked away in a school’s version of solitary confinement during his years in New Jersey classrooms.
“They don’t have the data to tell me how often he’s been out of academic classes,” Rivera said. “How long did he stay over there?”
And Rivera said she wouldn’t be surprised if other parents are alarmed as they read her son’s story.
Although most families probably have no idea they exist,school isolation spaces — known as a seclusion closets or quiet rooms — are perfectly legal in New Jersey. While at least six other states have banned them outright, the rooms have been used for years in some public and private schools across the state to isolate violent or disruptivestudents as young as 4 or 5.
Kids are usually placed in the stark, empty spaces alone until they calm down. Sometimes the doors are locked. Other times, teachers or aides hold the doors shut while children pound on the walls inside, scream for their parents or wet themselves.
It’s something New Jersey educators rarely talk about publicly. And parents don’t usually see the rooms, which are often converted closets with walls padded with gym mats, on school tours.
If teachers do talk about the rooms, they usually refer to them with easy sounding names, like the Calming Space, the Reflection Room, the Chill Zone, the Blue Room or the Timeout Booth.
Some educators, who face the potential of violence in the classroom daily, said the seclusion rooms are vitally necessary to keep students and teachers safe when kids are putting themselves and others at risk. But others said the quiet rooms are instilling lasting trauma on some of New Jersey’s most vulnerable children.
The use of seclusion rooms has been on the rise in New Jersey schools since Gov. Chris Christie signed a 2018 state law outlining when they can be used, according to disability advocates. The law says isolation rooms should be a last resort when students are exhibiting violent behavior that put themselves or others in “immediate physical danger.”
But NJ Advance Media interviews with more than 30 parents, advocates, teachers and school officials reveal a darker reality. Some schools appear to be violating the law by locking kids — including nonverbal special education students — in quiet rooms for relatively minor offenses, such as refusing to do assignments, fighting with classmates or taking off their shoes in class.
All of this is happening with little or no supervision by the state Department of Education, which said it has no statistics on which of New Jersey’s nearly 600 school districts have seclusion rooms or how often they are being used.
And what little federal data there is on the use of seclusion rooms in New Jersey shows children with disabilities and minority students — especially Black kids — are being locked away by their schools at disproportionately high rates.
“People don’t understand. They are thinking it’s this nice little timeout room the kid can voluntarily go into and calm themselves down. And that’s not at all what’s happening,” said Peg Kinsell, director of public policy at SPAN, the state’s parent education center for families of kids with disabilities.
“If I did this stuff to my kids, they’d be calling DYFS on me. I can’t say my kid is melting down, so I’m going to lock them in a closet.”
Peg Kinsell, director of public policy at SPAN, a statewide advocacy group for parents.
Seclusion can be used by any school in grades pre-K through 12th grade, according to the guidelines. But, it is often the most vulnerable students, elementary school kids with autism and other disabilities that leave them unable communicate effectively, who are getting locked kicking and screaming into what is essentially school solitary confinement, she said.
“If I did this stuff to my kids, they’d be calling DYFS on me,” Kinsell said, referring to the state’s protective services agency for children and families.
“I can’t say my kid is melting down, so I’m going to lock them in a closet. But we sure can in New Jersey (schools) — as long as it’s a kid with disabilities,” she added.
New Jersey public schools reported placing at least 1,150 students in seclusion between 2011 and 2017, according to an NJ Advance Media analysis of federal education data that shows for the first time how widespread seclusion rooms had become in local schools even before the new state law passed in 2018.
At least 34 large and small school districts — including Montclair, Little Egg Harbor, North Brunswick, Woodland Park, Northern Valley Regional, North Star Academy Charter School in Newark and many county school districts for special education students — reported using seclusionin 2017, the latest available data. Federal officials said that is likely a vast undercount because the numbers are only collected every other year and many schools are not providing accurate counts or any data at all.
About 91% of New Jersey students placed in seclusion had physical, emotional or intellectual disabilities, according to the NJ Advance Media analysis of the latest available numbers from 2017.
And Black students were the most likely to be placed in quiet rooms, accounting for 44% of the New Jersey students put in seclusion that year, even though they only made up about 15% of the school population, the data shows.
Though New Jersey has what is considered one of the best public school systems in the nation, the use of seclusion and restraint has rarely been publicly debated. The few statewide task forces that have been formed over the years to address the issue have produced little or been marred by deep splits between educators and advocates over whether seclusion is an absolutely necessary tool or a highly-abusive practice, participants say.
Some parents’ groups say it is time for New Jersey — a state with one of the highest autism rates in the nation and one of the highest percentages of special education students — to try again and rethink its law allowing seclusion and restraint. The current school guidelines do not contain many of the strict reporting rules and limits in other state’s laws.
Even prisons and mental hospitals have stricter regulations on seclusion than New Jersey schools, they say.
“It’s horrifying,” said Guy Stephens, founder of the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint, who successfully got seclusion rooms banned in his son’s school district in Maryland.
“Even as an adult, if someone forcibly threw me in a room and held the door shut, I’d be terrified. And when you’re talking about really young kids who don’t have the skills that an adult has, it’s even harder to imagine,” he added.
Stephens is among those pushing Congress to bypass the states and pass a nationwide ban on seclusion and all methods of restraint, including handcuffing and strapping students to chairs or having school staff hold them down. They cite national statistics that show the vast majority of kids locked in quiet rooms have disabilities and Black and Hispanic students are put in isolation at a greater rate than other kids.
“If you put those numbers to any other group, how could you not see that as discriminatory?” Stephens said. “It’s a civil rights issue. It’s a human rights issue. It’s a disability rights issue.”
Civil rights groups said it is no surprise Black students are being put in quiet rooms at much higher rates than other students in New Jersey and many other states. Black students have historically been suspended and expelled from school at higher rates than their white peers for the same behavior.
In January, the NAACP was one of 96 civil and human rights organizations that joined the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in calling on Congress to pass the bill banning seclusion rooms because of “bias ingrained in current school safety and discipline policies and enforcement of those policies.”
“The behaviors of children of color, children with disabilities, and LGBTQ youth are disproportionately criminalized, while white students or those who do not have a disability or are not LGBTQ and who engage in the same behavior are treated far more leniently,” the 96 groups said in a letter to Congress.
But some school officials said hold on: It would be a huge mistake to ban seclusion entirely. That would place teachers and other students in danger, force school officials to evacuate classrooms when students become violent and increase the need for teachers to call police for help.
Sure, it’s easy to say quiet rooms and restraint should be banned if you’re not the teacher, aide or school counselor getting hit, bit, kicked or threatened by an unpredictable student, some supporters say. In some cases, students are becoming violent multiple times a day.
Black students were the most likely to be put in quiet rooms. They accounted for 44% of the New Jersey students put in seclusion, even though they only made up about 15% of the school population.
Latest available N.J. data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights
In emergencies, students with severe challenging behavior must be kept safe, said Suzanne Buchanan, a psychologist and executive director of Autism New Jersey, the advocacy group that helped craft New Jersey’s 2018 law on seclusion in schools.
“Every situation is different and comes with a number of factors,” she said. “When you have children who are being aggressive dozens of times a day and presenting a dangerous situation, you have to keep people safe.”
Still, even supporters of seclusion say quiet rooms are being misused in New Jersey schools on a regular basis and no one, including state officials, is keeping a close eye on what is happening behind locked doors.
“All sides agree there is overuse of these procedures. And I would imagine that the vast majority of them fall closer to the abuse side of the spectrum than the safety part of the spectrum,” Buchanan said.
A view of the seclusion or timeout room built into the corner of a classroom at Monroe Township’s Whitehall Elementary School in 2018. The school later said it was eliminating the room after a parent’s complaint went viral on Facebook. (Monroe Township Public Schools)
Locked in the oversized closet
The short video animation was simple, just a seconds-long clip of a cartoon animal with big eyes cowering in a claustrophobic room.
But it was a trigger for Sarah Calkin-Ward’s daughter.
“Mummy, this is (me) in the Quiet Room,” the 8-year-old said when she showed her mother the online video a few years ago.
The girl, who has autism and a limited ability to communicate, didn’t say much more. But her words were alarming enough that her mother quickly Googled “Quiet Rooms” and emailed her daughter’s teacher.
She was devastated by what she learned.
School officials eventually sent her photos of their Quiet Room — a tiny, empty room with no furniture where teachers at the Monmouth County elementary school had allegedly been leaving the third grader on a regular basis when she screamed or was disruptive in her special education class.
“It was a closet. It was an oversized closet,” Calkin-Ward, of Atlantic Highlands, said through tears. “I didn’t even know these things existed, let alone they were doing this to my child.”
Officials with the Henry Hudson Tri-District, which includes Atlantic Highlands, did not respond to a request to comment.
“As soon as I found out about the room I was like you don’t have my permission to put my child in that room or anything like it,” Calkin-Ward said.
But the school didn’t need her permission.
“It was a closet. It was an oversized closet … I didn’t even know these things existed, let alone they were doing this to my child.”
Sarah Calkin-Ward, mother of a third-grader, after receiving photos of the school’s quiet room
Under the state Department of Education’s guidelines on the use of seclusion in schools issued after the law was passed in 2018, schools can either restrain kids or place them in seclusion any time teachers and school officials believe the student or others are in danger.
The guidelines define seclusion as the “involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room or area from which the student is physically prevented from leaving.”
Restraint is defined as physically holding a child to keep them from moving or using a mechanical device, such as handcuffs or straps.
Students are not usually restrained once they are placed inside seclusion rooms. But teachers and school security personnel often have to put kids in holds or restraints to drag them inside, advocates say.
New Jersey parents should be notified every time their child is put in a quiet room or restrained by teachers, handcuffs, straps or other means, according to state guidelines.
But, several families, including many who asked that their names not be used because they feared speaking out against school districts where their kids were still enrolled, said they were either not notified when their children were put in seclusion or received minimal information when they were restrained by school officials.
One Morris County mother flipped through the reports dating back to kindergarten that she was sent for all the times her son was restrained, usually by teachers or school officials putting him in a “basket hold,” where they grabbed him from behind, crossed his arms across his chest and brought him somewhere to calm down.
Restrained in 2018, she reads from her timeline of reports. Restrained in 2019. Restrained in March 2021 for 11 minutes with bruising all over him. Restrained in May 2021 with bruising all over him.
“A bunch of times we had to ask for the paperwork. We didn’t get it right away,” said the Morris County mother, whose now 10-year-old son has ADHD and autism. “This paperwork that they give us is crap. It basically says he tried to kick me, so that’s why he was restrained. Well, what happened before that?”
She asked that her name not be used because she is currently finalizing a deal with her public school district to pay for a private school for children with disabilities for her son.
She asked about restraint and seclusion when she went on tours of some of New Jersey’s top private schools for special education students.
One had a stark quiet room. The next had a padded room “that looked like a prison cell,” she said. It seemed impossible to find a private school for students with disabilities in the area that didn’t have some form of a quiet room, although all promised they used the technique rarely.
“I don’t think restraint should happen. I don’t think seclusion should happen. I think they should have a safe place where they could go to on their own,” she said.
An example of a padded “Quiet Room” used to seclude violent or disruptive students in schools. The photo was used to illustrate a report by the federal Government Accountability Office that found many schools are underreporting how often the rooms are used. (Government Accountability Office)
‘The Wild West’
It’s unclear when schools first started using seclusion rooms in schools. For decades, New Jersey was one of the only states in the nation without any law either allowing or prohibiting isolation rooms and restraint in schools.
Some disability advocates referred to it as “the Wild West” because New Jersey schools could lock students in rooms and restrain them as often and as long as they wanted, without any rules on when to check on them, how to document the incidents or how much to tell parents.
“To find out that the Department of Education had zero regulations, I was astounded … They could use restraint and seclusion at their own discretion,” said Eric Eberman, director of public policy at Autism New Jersey, who spent 20 years working in programs for children and adults with severe challenging behavior.
Autism New Jersey began lobbying in 2018 in favor of legislation that made it illegal to use restraint and seclusion in schools except in emergency situations.
The legislation sailed through the state Senate and Assembly with little public discussion. It was one of more than 100 bills signed into law by Christie in his final hours as governor.
The law said schools should only place kids into involuntary seclusion “from which the student is physically prevented from leaving” in an emergency in which people were in immediate physical danger. The law differentiated seclusion from a less severe “time out,” which was defined as placing students in non-locked spaces to calm down.
Some advocates viewed the law as long overdue protection for New Jersey students.
“We helped craft the bill so there could be some regulation around these very risky procedures that were completely unregulated, undocumented, no parent notification, no standards on when they should be used — and more importantly when they should not be used,” said Buchanan, executive director of Autism New Jersey.
But the law split New Jersey’s disability community. Some groups viewed it as a disaster. While other states were banning seclusion and restraint in schools, New Jersey lawmakers had essentially endorsed the practices and encouraged districts to set up policies outlining when teachers could use them, they said.
“We think it’s abhorrent. Restraint and seclusion were a problem before this bill, but this memorialized it into law — that it was allowed,” said Kinsell, director of public policy at SPAN, the state’s federally-designated education center for parents of kids with disabilities.
“We checked and the New Jersey Department of Education does not collect this data at a statewide level.”
Mike Yaple, a state Department of Education spokesman, when asked if the state knew how often kids were put in quiet rooms in New Jersey
State regulations say schools should be collecting data on how often they use seclusion and restraint, but there is no requirement that those numbers be made public. The state also does not keep track of how often schools are using quiet rooms or restraining students and no mention is made of it in the annual statewide report on school discipline.
“We checked and the New Jersey Department of Education does not collect this data at a statewide level,” said Mike Yaple, a spokesman for the department, who declined to comment further on the use of seclusion in New Jersey.
Schools are required to report the data every other year to the federal Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, but those numbers have not been publicly updated since 2018. A recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog agency, found the nationwide seclusion data was filled with inaccuracies and underreporting.
“You really can’t start to really sort of make sense of it or what’s going on until you have some data,” said Eberman, director of public policy at Autism New Jersey. “I think that would be instrumental in terms of improving oversight and reducing the use of restraint and seclusion throughout the state of New Jersey.”
Blowing up the ‘Calming Corner’
The “Calming Corner” in her son’s kindergarten classroom initially seemed harmless, said one Brick Township mother. It was a cozy space with a beanbag chair and stuffed animals.
But, as her son — who has autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder — was sent to the corner more and more by his teacher, the corner got more and more stark.
Eventually, the school stripped it down to a bare space, blocked by a wood bookcase on one side and an aide holding up gym mats on the other to keep her kindergartener from escaping.
“It was an everyday thing. The moment he would say no or wouldn’t do anything, they would shove him in that corner,” his mother said. (Brick Township school officials did not respond to requests to comment on the district’s use of seclusion.)
One day, the boy told teachers he wanted to “blow up” the Calming Corner to save his classmates from ever having to go into it, his mother said. That was considered enough of a threat that the school required he get a psychological evaluation before he could return to class.
“It traumatized him. Now, he feels like if he does something wrong, someone is going to come and hurt him.”
A Brick mother whose Kindergartener was repeatedly barricaded in a “Calming Corner”
The boy, now in second grade, was eventually moved to a private school in Monmouth County at the district’s expense. But he has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder after his time in the Calming Corner, said his family, who asked that they not be named to protect his privacy.
“It traumatized him. Now, he feels like if he does something wrong, someone is going to come and hurt him,” his mother said.
Another mother in Montclair said a kid doesn’t have to be put inside a seclusion space to be affected by the practice. Her autistic child was never disruptive enough in class to end up in the quiet room in elementary school. But other children in the class were left screaming in the room on a regular basis. (Montclair school officials declined to comment on their use of seclusion at the school, except to say the district is following the law.)
When he moved to an out-of-district private school for students with disabilities he continued to see other children locked inside that school’s quiet room, his mother said.
“It’s literally caused our kid trauma, even though they weren’t put in one of these rooms,” she said. “You know you have a fellow child (in the room) and they could be you.”
The mother said she tried to look for a school that did not have a quiet room. But it was too difficult to find a specialized school for students with disabilities in the area that doesn’t use isolation spaces.
“There’s just not options — because pretty much every school has it,” said the Montclair mother, who now homeschools her child.
Following the law
To get an idea of what these rooms look and feel like, NJ Advance Media contacted 30 New Jersey public school districts, private schools and charter schools that have reported using seclusion rooms to ask if we could see their isolation spaces. All either declined or did not even respond to the request.
A few sent brief statements saying their use of seclusion rooms is legal.
“Montclair School District follows applicable laws, Department of Education guidelines, and Montclair Board policies and regulations with respect to restraint and seclusion,” said a statement from Montclair Superintendent Jonathan Ponds, who was among more than two dozen superintendents who declined to be interviewed on the subject.
“Our students’ health and safety are always our utmost priority,” Ponds’ statement said.
ASAH, the non-profit group that represents New Jersey’s private schools for students with disabilities, also defended the use of seclusion rooms in its schools.
“Our schools serve New Jersey students with the most significant psychiatric, psychological, developmental, and intellectual disabilities. Some students are referred because they engage in disability-related self-injury and/or dangerously aggressive behaviors,” said John Mulholland Jr., the group’s executive director.
“At times, these students may require emergency intervention, including the limited use of clinically-indicated and properly conducted seclusion, in order to ensure their safety and the safety of others,” he added.
Several current and former school employees said they were not surprised officials did not want to talk publicly or open their doors to a reporter.
A former kindergarten teaching assistant in Montclair said she didn’t even know her school had a seclusion room until she started hearing students screaming through the wall of the classroom next door three years ago.
“I could hear, ‘Let me out!’ and ‘Help!’ Mostly just screaming,” said the teaching assistant, who asked not be identified because she feared retaliation for speaking out.
She eventually learned the classroom next door had a padded seclusion closet for a program for students as young as 5 who struggled to manage their emotions. The padded room was used on a daily basis to the confusion of the kindergarteners next door, who did not have a seclusion room in their classroom, but could hear kids in the class next door begging for help through the wall, she said.
“We have kids screaming and crying in there for 30 minutes,” she said. “My kindergarteners would say, ‘What are they doing to him?’ That broke my heart.”
The teaching assistant said she tried to raise an alarm about the district’s seclusion rooms with the school board, superintendent and local groups for families of special education students. She collected photos of scratches on the wood seclusion room doors, presumably from kids trying to claw their way out.
But she said she was mostly rebuffed and told she was overreacting. Some parents in town lashed out at her for questioning the methods of special education teachers they felt were helping their kids.
Eventually, she left the district.
Some school districts have eliminated their seclusion rooms after the community questioned if they were necessary.
In Gloucester County, officials in the Monroe Township school district drew national attention in 2018 when a parent posted photos on Facebook of a closet-sized padded room built into the corner of his son’s elementary school classroom after the third grader came home saying he’d been put “in jail” by his special education teacher.
After the controversy, the district said it was ending the use of the “timeout” space. Monroe Township school officials did not respond to a request to comment further.
Looking at the science
Some researchers say there is no evidence placing students in padded rooms helps their behavior in any way. In fact, it may be harmful, said Robin Roscigno, a Rutgers University researcher and scholar who specializes in the history of autism intervention in the U.S.
“It’s not well studied, the emotional effects of seclusion on children. Most of the studies that are done are studies of the efficacy of behavior reduction,” said Roscigno. “There isn’t a lot of data on what this does to a child’s emotional state.”
Roscigno, who is autistic and the parent of an autistic daughter, said she worries that New Jersey’s seclusion law is too vague. It does not say how small a quiet room can be, how long kids can be left locked inside, how much parents must be told or who is making sure state guidelines are followed.
The New Jersey law also doesn’t address how much light should be provided in quiet rooms, she said.
“We need that law to be much, much, much, much more detailed and really to have a lot more teeth to it. Because right now all it’s really done is to greenlight restraint. It hasn’t really curbed its use. In fact, I think it’s probably increased it,” Roscigno said.
Greg Santucci, a pediatric occupational therapist who first saw a seclusion room about eight years ago while working in New Jersey schools, said he also has seen no research that supports putting students in isolation.
“None of that is based in the neuroscience,” he said.
His own work with students shows students can build emotional regulation skills to help them meet teachers’ expectations without constantly restraining or isolating them, he said. Though he has seen quiet rooms used in schools across the state, there are plenty of districts in New Jersey not using seclusion at all that seem to be getting along fine.
“This is a ‘Field of Dreams’ idea: If you build it, they will come,” Santucci said. “If you build a seclusion room, teachers will use a seclusion room. So, don’t build it.”
“There is no other solution than a complete ban,” Santucci added.
Holding the door shut
When kids were put in the storage closet-sized “Chill Zone” in one North Jersey public elementary school, a veteran teacher’s aide said he was the person who held the door shut.
“I would put my foot against it,” said the longtime paraprofessional in his 60s who said he spent years dragging kids into the seclusion room in the special education program at his school. (He asked that his name not be used because he still works in the district and was not authorized to speak.)
The small, empty, padded room did not have a lock. So, the aide would wedge his foot against the door for as long as it took for the kids, who were as young as 5, to calm down. He’d watch them through a small window in the door.
“They’d be ripping things down, banging, screaming, hollering,” he said. “We had kids in there who would urinate all over the wall.”
Other kids would be given their lunch in the room, then smear the food on every surface or rip the padding off the walls.
In his first year in the classroom, the aide thought the “Chill Zone” was a good place, he said. The room was used rarely and the kids put inside would eventually calm down. But, the following year he was assigned to a less experienced teacher who would place students in the special education program in the room nearly daily for taking off their sneakers in class, refusing to do their school work, throwing things in class or getting aggressive with other students.
“My overall impression of the room was it did more harm than good over time,” he said. “In my mind, I’m thinking no way, this is no good … If a kid needs quiet time, we have other open classrooms.”
He eventually moved to another school in the district, where seclusion rooms are not used.
Some advocates for special education students say many New Jersey schools appear to be violating the 2018 state law that says students should only be placed in seclusion if they or others are in “immediate physical danger.”
Renay Zamloot, a veteran non-attorney advocate who represents families of special education students in disputes with their schools, holds up file after file of cases she’s handled involving New Jersey kids placed in seclusion. (She asked that the students’ names and school districts not be named to protect their privacy.)
In one case, a young girl with autism insisted on carrying around a small notebook every day with stickers of children and animals inside she called her “friends,” Zamloot said. One day, her teacher said the girl had to leave the ever-present notebook behind while the class went to a school assembly.
“For some reason, the teacher chose this hill to die on on that day. I don’t why she did. She told her she couldn’t bring her ‘friends’ with her to the assembly,” Zamloot said. “It turned into a power struggle. The child started to scream and cry, ‘I want my friends. I want my friends!’ She was restrained and then she was dragged off to the seclusion room.”
In another file, Zamloot reads from the case of a student with autism in a Central Jersey school district whose parents came to her for help after their son was repeatedly placed in seclusion. The district had kept careful notes of how long the boy was kept in the room each day.
“He was banging his head against the wall, taking his clothes off, screaming and crying and begging to be let out of the room. And he was in there for hours.”
Renay Zamloot, a veteran education consultant who represented the family of a Central Jersey boy with autism repeatedly locked in his school’s quiet room
“I went into this room too. It was a little cement box that had a wooden door with a viewing window that was too high for the student to look out of,” Zamloot said.
“By the time I got involved, he was banging his head against the wall, taking his clothes off, screaming and crying and begging to be let out of the room. And he was in there for hours. He was urinating on himself. He was saying, ‘I’m hungry and I need water.’ He was just in there for most of the school day,” she added.
In both cases, Zamloot helped the families secure deals with school officials in which the students were eventually moved to out-of-district schools at the expense of taxpayers.
“Most of the cases of restraint and seclusion that I have been involved with could have been prevented had the school district simply conducted the appropriate assessments and provided the necessary positive supports, services and strategies,” she said.
In some cases, students’s needs were not being met in mainstream public schools and they found a better fit in out-of-district schools for children with disabilities that were better equipped to offer them the services they needed, she said.
But, not every family has the time or the money to fight their school district if their kid is being put in quiet rooms. Families with socio-economic disadvantages, including non-English speaking parents and undocumented immigrants, don’t always know where to start, Zamloot said.
Ana Rivera, the Passaic County mother whose son has been repeatedly put in seclusion since he was in pre-K, said she and other immigrant parents struggle to find Spanish-speaking advocates and groups for non-English-speaking families of kids with disabilities.
She said she went to multiple agencies and disability groups before she eventually found a free legal services group for low-income families to help her negotiate a new school placement and special education services to keep her son out of quiet rooms.
“There are not many bi-lingual advocates,” said Rivera, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic. “At the end of the day, families have to stay and deal with this because they can’t afford legal representation.”
Lawsuits and legal bans
Georgia banned seclusion in its schools a few years after a 13-year-old boy hung himself when he was left in a windowless, cinderblock timeout room in his school in 2004.
Other states have similar bans, including Florida, Hawaii, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Advocates are trying to get similar laws passed in other states, including Illinois, where a 2019 investigation by ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune found more than 20,000 students had been placed in seclusion in a little more than a year.
Some families are trying to close quiet rooms by filing lawsuits or alerting the federal government to alleged abuses. Last year, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia — one of the nation’s largest public school districts — agreed to phase out seclusion by 2023 to settle a lawsuit filed by parents and disability rights activists.
Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland also recently agreed to stop using seclusion and restraint as part of a settlement with the federal Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office after an investigation found schools “unnecessarily and repeatedly secluded and restrained students” thousands of times.
But many activists say relying on state and local reforms is not working. They are pushing for Congress to pass a bill, called the Keeping All Students Safe Act, that would make school quiet rooms and restraint illegal nationwide.
“Punishing bad behavior is a healthy, human response.”
Max Eton, research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, urging Congress to vote against a bill that would ban quiet rooms nationwide
At a recent Congressional hearing on the new bill, some lawmakers expressed strong support. But others, including several Republicans, argued all decisions on whether to allow seclusion and restraint should be left to local school boards with the input of parents and teachers.
“When teachers don’t have the chance to use their good judgement, the rest of the class will suffer,” said Max Eton, research fellow at the the Washington D.C.-based think tank American Enterprise Institute, who testified against the legislation.
Removing quiet rooms and restraint would lead to a surge in “room clears,” a term used for evacuations of classrooms when a student is out of control, Eton said. That would mean other students would have their lessons interrupted every time a classmate lashes out.
Removing the student disrupting the class makes more sense, he said.
“Punishing bad behavior is a healthy, human response,” Eton testified.
Some New Jersey families of students with severe intellectual disabilities say they are also fighting any attempts to impose a complete ban on seclusion and restraint in New Jersey.
The reality is some parents with severely disabled kids have to send students to schools out of state when their states ban seclusion and restraint, said one Warren County mother. Her two sons have autism and were born with a rare genetic disorder in which one of the boys repeatedly banged his head and hurt himself and others.
Without padded rooms and restraint, he probably could not have gone to school in New Jersey, said the mother, who now works as an advocate for families of other “outlier” families she said are often forgotten in the debate over whether seclusion should be banned in schools.
“I really want all the voices to be at the table when this legislation is being talked about,” she said.
Front line injuries
People who work on the front lines in New Jersey schools also ask that they are not forgotten in the debate over seclusion and restraint.
About 14% of K-12 teachers reported an injury or other physical violence from a student during the pandemic, according to a national survey by the American Psychological Association released earlier this year. The numbers are higher for school psychologists (18%) and other school staff (22%).
“I have definitely had students throw objects, pick up chairs, throw desks,” said one behavior analyst who spent decades working in multiple suburban schools in New Jersey. “I am frequently involved in situations that are very physically intense.”
She was injured once or twice a year while trying to deescalate emotional situations involving students, though nothing serious, she said. But some of her colleagues suffered concussions.
“I have definitely had students throw objects, pick up chairs, throw desks.”
A behavioral analyst who was injured once or twice a year while working in suburban New Jersey schools
In her schools, restraint was limited, but necessary, she said.
“It is only used as a last resort to maintain safety,” said the behavior analyst, who asked that her name not be used. “Sometimes a student needs to be separated from their classmates to maintain safety.”
The reality is that many students with disabilities would not be able to be educated in their local public schools if teachers and school staff could not use restraint and seclusion, said a former Central Jersey school psychologist and case manager who oversaw autism and behavioral disability classrooms.
“We were very fortunate to be able to keep kids in district. And sometimes that meant because on occasion we needed to use restraint. Had we not been able to do that, we didn’t have another option, all those kids would have been out of district, which presents a lot of challenges,” said the school psychologist, who asked that his name not be used because he now works as a consultant hired by parents.
It is possible to have counselors and psychologists try to verbally calm a child down. But that is not always possible in New Jersey schools where staff is overworked and stretched too thin with administrative tasks and large caseloads.
“The National Association of School Psychologists recommends a 500-to-1 student to school psychologist ratio. And only about 22% of schools in New Jersey meet that ratio,” he said. “And we’re ninth best in the country.”
The New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest union representing teachers and school employees, did not respond to requests to comment on the use of seclusion and restraint in schools.
A walk to the ‘Zen Den’
Calkin-Ward, the Monmouth County mother who learned her 8-year-old daughter was being put in a quiet room at her public school on a nearly daily basis a few years ago, recently got an email from her daughter’s new teacher.
The girl, who now attends The Shore Center in Tinton Falls, became agitated in class that day when she was asked to read aloud and was taken to the school’s Zen Den, the teacher said.
The Zen Den is an alternative to a seclusion room used at The Shore Center, a public school for students with autism run by the Bayshore Jointure Commission. Unlike padded quiet rooms, the Zen Den is filled with sensory items to help students calm down. No child is ever locked inside or left alone, school officials said.
“Students may utilize the Zen Den as a place of comfort; it is never used as a punishment. The students are not confined in the Zen Den and are not in the room alone,” school officials said in a statement.
Calkin-Ward’s daughter was placed in the room for two minutes, then she calmed down and agreed to do the assigned reading, her teacher said in her daily email to the family.
After the trauma of learning her daughter was placed in a quiet room repeatedly at her old public school in Monmouth County, this new approach at her new school seems less harsh, Calkin-Ward said.
“It’s a really big difference from just shoving a kid in a room and shutting a door on them, which feels like punishment and isolation,” she said.
Still, her daughter remains traumatized by her memories of the quiet room. Though it’s been years since she was last in the room, she still talks about it several times a week and only recently began to be able to enter elevators and small spaces again.
Calkin-Ward said she doesn’t favor banning seclusion entirely in New Jersey schools. But, like many parents, she said it’s time for people to talk openly about quiet rooms and for the state to better monitor what schools are doing.
It’s also time to start speaking for the kids with disabilities who can’t speak for themselves, she said.
“If somebody had done something or said something, my daughter wouldn’t have gone through this,” she added, crying. “It still affects her… It’s done irreparable damage.”
I find it amusing that our own Criminal Justice system is flawed without any idea on how to repair and our schools have long been labeled as the school to prison pipeline so naturally the idea is to stave off that flow by offering a better plan in which to accomplish said goal. That has fallen under the concept of “Restorative Justice.”
As a City who is embracing said standard I sort of laugh that in this case the adage “Charity begins at home” might apply. Right now we have a close friend and resource to our current Superintendent being charged with four counts of Perjury. Whoops. We had two recent resignations/retirements du to Sexual Harassment and one of the accused decided on the way out the door to lay down some allegations of his own with regards to the districts hiring policies. Hell hath no fury y’all!
This week I went to a school that is using rewards and tickets for instilling quality behavior so every classroom has monetary incentives spelled out that kids can earn an in turn purchase many options from candy to no homework as ways to encourage and develop what is called “Positive Behavior” or the current acronym craze PBIS.
That in my day was called Carrot and Stick and I recall when I discussed this very option at a School when I was interviewed for a job (in Seattle) I saw the exchange of glances between the two women and knew immediately that I would not be hired. Well guess that might be because I did not use the appropriate language and in today’s climate it is what words you use not the content of them.
Millennials are obsessed with words. Shut up is upsetting where as shut the fuck up even worse! Sorry but saying to a kid you need to shut up is not the same but what.ever. Tone, manner, non verbal cues should all be a part of the discipline process and how many of you have observed those mixed messages yourself and isn’t that all part of the current wave of confusion with regards to sexual abuse and harassment?
I have heard and personally experienced Teachers and Administrators bending over backwards to believe students when they accuse, excuse and justify their behavior often blaming the authority figures as the reason they are the problem. Funny how that works out when the allegations are serious as in the case of sexual abuse with regards to Larry Nassar then it was hands off unless of course you were Larry Nassar who actually abused the girls in the presence of their parents/guardians. That is some type of arrogance and superiority that transcends reality.
So what we know here is that restorative justice is selective justice and mirrors the reality of the larger system it emulates.
I have never seen anything like the micro management and rules that dominate schools here. Lines painted in the halls which students must follow in class change times. Times for water, locker and bathroom breaks. Yelling and constant reprimanding and verbal discipline demanding quiet and accommodations that include quiet at lunch with organized and in turn scheduled play time. Food that is literally slop and then selling kids at break times sweets and junk food to satiate hunger and raise money for the school. It is a bizarre contradiction that fairly dominates the Southern mentality.
Money is the driver of this bus here. ** On a side note** Irony again, as they had a Mass Transit meeting Saturday at Belmont University that of course fear and loathing drove the conversation about expanding a system that is 20 years behind the times. I read a Tweet from an attendee that summarized the event as one full of misinformation and emotionally false claims that led to nothing being achieved or in other words a standard public pandering session. I used to go to all of them until I realized that the decisions are made and unless the race card is thrown down with validation (as in the case of Ft. Negley as they had Archaeologists claim there are human remains there – no actual digging took place it was just the confirmation of it by smart white people that was enough to stop that bullshit plan).
The are much like going to a Nashville Public School. I walk into classroom after classroom that some are almost cookie cutter like in the way materials are taught and rooms are administered. And why? Because that way the data that emerges, from test scores to discipline issues are achieved to the benchmarks set by the Principals and their Administrators. Imagine you are rated as a Parent when your child chooses to have a meltdown in public and the next day the Cops arrive and take your kids because you were “observed” failing to properly discipline and manage your child. Or you are a CEO and your pay is linked to all of the staff of the entire company’s annual performance evaluations and in turn they were averaged, examined by a metric set by arbitrary standards by someone whom you have never met nor worked in your industry, done your job and your employees are actually in China and don’t speak English. Sure that works!
That describes the state of education in America and Nashville is ground zero for some of its most crazy arbitrary standards from testing to teaching evaluations. I laughed at school choice organized this week at the Fairgrounds. Yes the school choices here in Nashville are so large the same fairgrounds where the monthly flea market, tractor pulls and car races are also held. There is an average of 80 schools for parents in which to choose. And of course families who work evenings, have child care issues, don’t speak English rarely attend, cannot understand the data and metrics presented and of course comparing apples to oranges always works out. And the best here is that the testing data is this year is new and the tests from the prior year were not the same, neither of them scored properly or actually evaluated correctly but sure. Or the current literacy program that just began in the start of the school year and has massive problems in roll out. Or the STEAM program that well had both heads leave the district, one of his own volition the other… well. Then we have schools that have had immense Teacher and Administrator turnover so the same agents for testing were not there the last year, the school is under-enrolled or has a larger portion of language learners or special education students or in the case of charters that do not take said students so they can alter the data to reflect a more strident cohort. But the nice thing is that the classrooms with immense discipline, uniform policies and testing emphasis is coming to a school near you.
I did mostly Special Education gigs this week and was in a SPED room this week that I had been in earlier in the year and since then they are on Teacher number three, some of the students have been switched or left, but it is still largely an Autism room with three children who are utterly unable to speak and seem to have no ways to communicate to the staff; then we have two kids with varying other needs and one clearly a discipline issue but could be mainstreamed to a lower grade to at least get some academic focus. But the reality is that once again I witnessed a child who I believed was molested. But again this is a challenging dilemma. She masturbates constantly and seems to gravitate to the other boy who is like her only less violent and she tries to masturbate him. These are 12 year olds and of course with special needs the issue of sex education is difficult but her sexualized behavior demonstrated some experience and knowledge beyond self exploration. I mentioned in passing to the instructional assistant and she said the Mother doesn’t know why she does that as she doesn’t do it at home. Hmm really? Is she a patient of Dr. Nassar? But there are so many other problems with this child – She is extremely aggressive, violent outbursts pulling hair and hitting, trying to leave the room. Again, this is common but with clear well established plans this could be handled. I suggested weighted blankets as the most useful. But I have seen this sad chaos and confusion in many SPED rooms and again tone of voice and hand gestures can often stop this. Getting the child to break the grip she had on my scarf was a matter of easily pressing on the wrist that I was familiar with from acupressure and in turn is not physical abuse in the least as you cannot rationalize with children who are not intellectually at the same level as their peers.
I just feel bad daily but this day I just walked out and thought never again. I can go back to the school but not for this room as it is too upsetting. The other members of the team and the school are aware of the depth of the problems but again how aware they are about some of the behaviors I am not sure, I dropped the pearl and left it at that. But we all know that is room is not funded sufficiently from staff to tools necessary to make it work on a daily basis.
But that is in every classroom, mainstream or other wise. The needs and demands of the students transcend any I have seen or experienced in my years in a classroom. I laugh at the people in Seattle as they have no clue what real poverty is and what it does to a community at large as it does here in Nashville. I walk in classrooms and pretend to give a shit but in my heart I just know this a temporary stop in life and my bus will come soon enough. Just not on a Nashville street as they are afraid of buses. Again race and money dictate all the beliefs and policies of the South.
I am afraid in the schools. And why they are dangerous places and guns are only part of it. Want to restore justice. Figure out that it is outside the doors that are the real problem and until you solve those you will be largely unsuccessful within in them.
Is Discipline Reform Really Helping Decrease School Violence?
A lack of concrete information about student misconduct—and how to address it—may be hindering efforts to make campuses safer.
Thomas Mukoya / Reuters Sascha Brodsky Jun 28, 2016 Education The Atlantic
The allegations sound like a parent’s nightmare. Roughly two dozen children at New York City schools were hit, kicked, and bullied by fellow students while administrators stood by, according to a recent class-action lawsuit.
“The data we have seen shows a clear and undeniable escalation of violence in New York City schools,” said Jim Walden, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the suit, which is being backed by the charter-school advocacy group Families for Excellent Schools. The suit claims that the New York City Education Department isn’t doing enough to stop the violence.
The complaint details a litany of violent behavior. In one case, a 9-year-old boy in an East Harlem school was repeatedly bullied even when the teacher was in the classroom. The bully, according to the lawsuit, “repeatedly kicked him on his body, and verbally harassed him.” The boy’s mother tried to get the principal to intervene but was allegedly met with indifference.
The suit is among the signs of rising concern about violence in schools, partly driven by mass shootings like the one in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. In response to such fears, school administrators are instituting a wide range of tactics to boost safety, including by installing metal detectors and hiring security guards. Schools are also turning to social-reform programs such as those that embrace the restorative-justice model, an approach that emphasizes bringing together the perpetrators and victims of misconduct through meetings and discussions.
But a lack of hard data and conflicting views on safety measures make it difficult to assess whether school violence is in fact increasing—and whether those measures are actually effective. Some observers worry that the absence of concrete information and confusion over the amount of violence in schools are hindering efforts to reduce violence and bullying.
Despite the concerns expressed by parents like those in the lawsuit, many experts say that the incidence of school violence is dropping. New York City school officials contend that violence on campus is on the decline, a trend that experts say is mirrored across the country.
At the local level, statistics on school violence can vary depending on the source. Walden pointed to state statistics showing that the number of violent episodes in New York City schools rose 23 percent from the 2013-14 school year to the one that ended in June 2015. But the New York City school administration uses police data showing that crime in the city’s schools declined 29 percent from the 2011–12 school year to the 2014–15 year. Some observers have said that the state data does not make a distinction between minor disciplinary problems in schools and more serious acts of violence and bullying. Critics also emphasize that the state data isn’t verified.
Nationally, though, most experts say it’s clear that school violence is on the decline even if that’s not the public perception. “In general, schools are far safer now than they were 20 years ago,” said Dewey Cornell, a clinical psychologist and education professor at the University of Virginia. “Every major study in recent years has shown that schools are much safer than the communities around them. Students are much more likely to be injured in restaurants than on school grounds.”
Stephen Brock, a professor at California State University, Sacramento, who has studied school violence, said that the pervasive media coverage of school shootings and other violence has led to misperceptions about danger in schools. “So much of this kind of news coverage has led many people to conclude that schools are horribly flawed, violent institutions,” Brock said. “But if you take a step back, what you will find is that the overall rate of violence in schools is declining.”
The 2015 Indicators of School Crime and Safety Report, an annual study produced by the National Center for Education Statistics released in May of this year, found that between 1992 and 2014, the number of students who were victims of crimes at school declined 82 percent, from 181 incidents per 1,000 students in 1992 to 33 incidents per 1,000 students in 2014.
Still, critics of such studies say that many are flawed because school violence is often underreported. An audit last year by the New York’s Office of the State Comptroller reviewed incidents of violence in 10 public schools in New York City and found that nearly one-third of all incidents went unreported. According to the review, school officials failed to include over 400 reportable incidents on forms that are used to tally incidents of violence, and many of the incidents that were reported were not correctly categorized.
Walden said that many school principals don’t report school violence in order to make their schools seem safer. Anne Gregory, a professor at Rutgers University who studies school discipline, also cited anecdotal evidence suggesting administrators underreport such incidents, but added that there have been no scientific studies showing such underreporting.
While most experts seem to agree that violence in schools is decreasing, less serious offenses, such as the bullying mentioned in the lawsuit, may be on the rise. Sixteen percent of students nationwide reported student bullying that occurred at least once a week at school, and 5 percent reported student verbal abuse toward teachers at least once a week, according to the Indicators of School Crime and Safety Report.
Just as school-violence rates are contentious, though, data on bullying trends are also subject to dispute. Experts caution that measuring the incidence of bullying can be difficult because the definition is sometimes unclear. As awareness of bullying has grown, more students are reporting incidents, Cornell said. That’s important, he added, particularly because “when we intervene with bullying, we have the potential to prevent more serious acts of violence.”
Then there’s the question of whether new efforts to improve school climate are actually effective. Even if violence is indeed declining, schools still aren’t entirely safe: About 65 percent of public schools recorded at least one violent incident in the 2013–14 academic year. Among the approaches gaining popularity is restorative justice, which encourages offenders to take responsibility for their actions and aims to help them avoid future offenses through mediation. How schools actually use restorative justice varies but a key component involves students and teachers sitting in a “restorative circle,” in which the student who has caused harm hears the views of peers. “There is a lot of hard work to be done to make sure restorative justice works. You can’t just declare it’s the school policy.”
While many school districts are embracing restorative justice, there’s little hard data to show the approach is effective in reducing violence. Anecdotal evidence suggests that restorative justice can reduce violence in schools through exercises like group discussions that build empathy among students, Gregory said, but she and other education researchers are quick to say that there have been few carefully designed studies to back up these claims. By teaching problem-solving strategies as part of a restorative-justice program, schools can “head off fights that are brewing and other acts of violence,” she added.
In other countries that have established restorative-justice programs “there is a lot of evidence to show that when restorative-justice programs are implemented, suspension rates go down,” Gregory said. She pointed to New Zealand as an example. In 1989, the country redesigned its juvenile-justice system based on restorative-justice principles and has since“seen plummeting juvenile violence as well as arrest and incarceration rates,” Gregory added.
Chicago Public Schools have, unsurprisingly, seen a drop in suspensions since implementing restorative-justice practices; such tactics are often explicitly adopted as an alternative form of discipline. One report found that in the 2013–14 school year, 16 percent of high-school students received an out-of-school suspension, down from 23 percent in 2008–09. “There’s been enormous progress in reducing disciplinary problems in Chicago schools since we started practicing restorative justice,” said Nancy J. Michaels, the associate director of the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation in Chicago.
In Los Angeles, restorative-justice programs have been hailed as a success for shrinking suspension rates, too. A recent report found that restorative-justice programs and other disciplinary initiatives have led to a 92 percent decrease in the number of days lost to suspensions. The city plans to establish restorative-justice programs in all schools by 2020.
In classrooms, however, not everyone is on board with the restorative-justice approach. In both Chicago and Los Angeles, some teachers have criticized the method for reducing their ability to maintain discipline. Some teachers have also complained that there hasn’t been enough training and resources available to correctly implement the new approach.
Schools, according to Gregory, are most effective in implementing restorative-justice practices when teachers are given enough instruction on how to use the approach. “There is a lot of hard work to be done to make sure restorative justice works,” she said. “You can’t just declare it’s the school policy.”
As part of his vow to avoid overly punitive discipline, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is funding pilot programs in restorative justice. Brady Smith, the principal of the James Baldwin School in Manhattan, said that restorative-justice practices have contributed to a decrease in disciplinary actions against students. “We hardly have any suspensions,” Smith said. He pointed to restorative-justice circles as among the most powerful tools. “Children in our society are so rarely given a chance to speak up,” Brady said.
At Ebbets Field Middle School in Brooklyn, which adopted restorative justice this past school year thanks to a grant from the Brooklyn Community Foundation, suspensions have dropped by more than 30 percent compared with the year before, according to Michelle Patterson Murray, an assistant principal at the school.* In touting the approach’s effectiveness, she cited a recent incident in which a student stole an item. “Rather than call her parents or apply for a suspension, we sat in a circle and talked about how her action damaged the trust of the community,” Patterson said.
Still, as New York and other cities jump onto the restorative-justice bandwagon, education researchers say carefully-designed studies need to be done to prove the approach’s effectiveness. Catherine Bradshaw, an education professor at the University of Virginia, is conducting a randomized study on the effects of restorative-justice practices on school discipline. The three-year study, funded by a $13 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, is looking at 40 schools in Maryland, 10 of which are using restorative justice. “There’s a lot of energy and buzz around” the practice, Bradshaw said. But, she added, “we can’t find effective ways to reduce violence without taking a systematic, scientific approach to understanding and evaluating the tools that we are using.”
Brock, of Cal State, said that it’s critical to educate the public and administrators on the level and type of violence occurring in schools. “Fear is not the answer. Facts are the answer,” he said. “Otherwise we are finding the wrong answers to the wrong problems.” Instilling a psychological sense of security in schools can be as important in ensuring school safety as physical measures like metal detectors, he continued. “If you create a place where kids feel that adults care about them as a person and want to connect with them, it increases the probability that if there is going to be act of violence, then adults will know about it and act to stop it.”
While many schools are trying to change the way they discipline students, others are spending millions on physical protection like security cameras and armed guards. But Brock warned that physical protection has its limits. He said that data from studies is inconclusive on whether such measures are effective in preventing violence.
“There is only so much you can do before a school becomes like a prison,” Brock said. “You have to make sure you aren’t inadvertently creating a space that is not conducive to learning.”
I am either relieved or saddened to see that the problems that are facing our overwhelmed system of education are similar to those being faced across the pond.
The Guardian covers issues surrounding education both here and in Europe and they are finding the number one problem facing children today is stress. Gee back in my day it was what was for lunch and did someone want to be my friend. I was never good at the latter and the former was always Peanut Butter no jelly or crust on my Sammy.
But now suddenly children are to answer that ubiquitous question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” With a theoretical explanation and justification on how they plan to make their life goals attainable and the time frame in which said accomplishments will be made. So much for being Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief.
Add to this the relentless push of the parent, the obsession by the community on how the school is being served and if it is serving too much white privilege, not having enough diversity and of course all on the backs of Teachers making wages that today are laughable. And all while Teaching is now under a gun as a fewer people want to be Teachers and even fewer are those of color. Well who in their right mind would do this job today? If you wanted to be a Teacher do your homework and some research first and find out that in order to pay for your degrees you will need to be paid wages that amount to six figures, which you will not see until the 15-20 year mark if you remain in said position.
Teachers who are the 20 year mark are already weighing their options and leaving in droves. And that is both here and in Jolly Old England, where it there is also less jolly.
There is not one falsehood or parallel from that essay that I could easily repeat here and find similar views in schools across America.
I laughed when Tennessee once again the foot in the boot to crush realities is having a massive recruitment phase to find new Millennial interested in Teaching. What they neglect to mention is that the State has long been the lowest on the scale for Teacher pay, Graduation rates, College attendance and of course racial equality with regards to the above. Read that great book Making the Unequal Metropolis and ask yourself would you really want to teach here?
Actually the kind that would not do any of that would fit right in. We don’t want em too smart they might figure it out.
Which brings me back to the Guardian and this interesting essay by a young woman who did get an education and figured it out. It’s not the schools stupid it is luck by birth or by happenstance and that is the great magic equalizer.
The truth be told that even those who do win the lotto few actually do make it out. We have the free Community College via the Tennessee Promise and they are touting its success while in reality it has moderate success but it is better than nothing. And again hard to know as it is only two years old but hey they are rolling with it to now expand this to Adults to further their education and training. Funny is this not a Government program and entitlement? I admire this but everything here is so shoddy and always up for a debate with lunatics who seem to run our State Legislature I don’t see this being some crown jewel on which to emulate. History here runs deep in the red sea and this seems too progressive frankly.
Education is socialism. It is Government run, it is free and it crosses all lines in which anyone can attend, including the undocumented. And over the decade like the health trade it is being co-opted by the elite to generate profit. On the backs of the sick and children we will make our numbers regardless. Education is money for those in the game of it and by that I mean the Moneygame.. its Moneyball without the baseball part.
Many many ed bloggers write about the subject and this is not news – fake or otherwise. As I said in another post I was in a SPED Resource Room, largely for Autism but we had a parade of kids of varying levels of intellectual capabilities also drop in and out for the day. Now some kids could be trained to do very rudimentary jobs and the reality is that having them “mainstreamed” is just fine and the idea of the RR is to take the Student’s work, review, re-teach and add on basic information to build a coping skill set. During this time the schools are testing and I watched a woman attempt to test a high on the spectrum Autism child for reasons unclear. She was attempting to test all of them. The point?
And the point of pretending that we are going to educate these kids to be mainstreamed into society is absurd. Many simply wont. So the discipline and the lessons should be focused on survival, adaption, coping and management. Helping a child have a moment in the day when they can be themselves is enough. But in little big-town we have no clue what that means. I get exhausted being lectured as an adult I cannot imagine what it is like as a child. The one boy who was seriously on the Spectrum ran endlessly in the classroom but when outside in the yard he sat still. I only managed that once by having him sit on my lap while he did a puzzle, the rest of the time you could see in his eyes how he wanted to be chased as just a way of having control, including eating play dough. I felt bad for him but it was exhausting just after two days I can’t imagine it every day. He needed true one on one help, a nap time, and real exercise, nutritious food and then go home. He cannot be “normal” but he can be himself. The real push should be just lessons in communication in order to learn how to express needs and wants and perhaps build to do more over time.
We keep believing the mantra this is about choice and schools with competition will do better? How? As we have seen it is easy to cherry pick as Charters have and dump the challenges and in the meantime how is a Public School to compete? With what, big Bilboards that say: We are the Bestest School in the SITY? And yet I have actually read an interview with a former Principal at a high risk low labeled high school speak of how he “rebranded” it and made it popular. Then promptly within two years left for greener more suburban pastures. Hmm..
And we have the issue of separation of Church and State which comes perilously close to merging with School vouchers and federal funds funding non secular education. The ACLU does a great take down with regards to this issue. But you can find numerous counter arguments and facts and data that will contradict one and counter another but in all reality we are asking schools to do and be too much. There are numerous stories as this from burned out Teachers and
I truly want noting to do with them. As I look back in Seattle with regards to their schools, their fighting Charters, the suits for funding I have actually never seen anything change for the better. Well the high school I started at 20 years ago was a dump and by adding the prestigious International Baccalaureate Program it changed – to two schools in one – but it was better than the one is was before.
But in reality all schools struggle with that. They fall into a trap and they never emerge unless some expensive fix is thrown at it to make it seem it has improved but it is just another type of band aid and sometimes it works. The one thing about my old school is it has changed and it hasn’t. They have both good Teachers, bad Teachers, okay ones and a Principal that you may like or don’t but he was there 20 years ago when I was, just as a VP. And he saw that within two years that same Principal received a vote of no confidence and was fired. So his longevity speaks volumes in a system that churns and burns them.
Ask yourself if the problem is the Teacher’s and their Union or is it more societal and without that target who can you point fingers to? The reality is that they are an easy excuse and available, easy to find and blame when all else fails. I am not responsible for your child nor is the “union” and we are not responsible for the way he or she turned out. You are and you can blame your place in society on those who sold you lies and enabled you to believe the biggest myth – that Education is the equalizer. No, not its not.
I feel as if I am Waldo and spend most of days wondering where I am.
This weekend was my attempt at moving towards writing full time. I went on a retreat to a writer’s colony outside of Sewanee a town infamous for it’s celebration of writers. I had no expectation nor actual belief I would write a word nor would I like it. I was write, okay play on words which is what a writer should do. I wrote some but it was what I thought and I will leave it at that.
I have been framing my book in my head for so long it is a matter of just doing it but I think like anything it is best from my home, my office where I have a sanctuary and room of one’s own. I don’t feel the muse or urge to strike me elsewhere I just need to do it and like all things in my life, I am my own distraction.
I came to Nashville for many reasons and stumbling on the writing community was just that a stumble. There is nowhere near this in Seattle but I had not ever looked nor thought to, I was too busy fighting all the time for my survival and little did I know that is what I do here just differently. I may be actually moving past this now as I have a better understanding of the nature of the climate here and by that I don’t mean the weather.
The constant question is “Do I like it here?” I don’t think so but I also am not vested into it as if it would matter. My surgery is getting closer to happening and from that healing and recovery and then hopefully I can move on in every sense of the word.
Writing is now almost to the level of need, a true desire to express my thoughts, put them on a page, throw them out there and see what it brings back. I have had enough ill wind in the last 5 years that any more at this point is just a minor breeze. How to tell that story, however, is the one that I suspect will be my most challenging. But that too will wait for another time and another place.
I had never participated in many retreats in my life, I figured what I am retreating from but I have been a runner. In schools I changed them often and laugh when an aides says, “that is a runner.” Yes I get it I really do. I run still as an adult and I am the Loneliest Runner who has never stayed in jobs, relationships or places long. And I overstayed my welcome in Seattle by about a year. I had been planning to move to Denver when the invitation for that fateful drink led me to near death and destruction and it is the one time I wonder what if when it comes to all of that. To this day I know that not one person believed me about what happened and if they did they were never going to allow me the satisfaction of that truth or that I was telling the truth. So living here in the South and finding that truth here takes on a whole new meaning has placed me in a tough place. So, Nashville I am afraid is not the place where I can check the bags I dragged her and let them stay here. We will have to move on.
I finally figured out that the South is a place of permanent melancholy, the history, the music, the weather and the odd resentment and isolation from America that led it to nearly cede from it may be why a Century later little has changed. It explains the reverence for the Military, the Police and the constant belief that the Government is the problem and not the solution all while being the part of the country most reliant upon it. The South the constant contradiction.
And as I sit here in a Special Needs classroom with a mixture of learning disabilities most on the spectrum I am not sure how I feel. In Seattle these rooms gave me hope in Nashville despair. The lack of funding, the lack of trained qualified educators or what I suspect individuals frustrated and isolated ones, coupled with aides that have little to no training nor actual concern for the well being of their students contributes to that despair. That and the overwhelming focus on discipline which dominates the Southern focus on education across the board that turns schools into half military academies/prisons doesn’t do much to foster optimism.
These very same issues existed in Seattle and it was there I saw a black box room or the “padded cell” where I witnessed a child be placed in it screaming and beating the door for what seemed hours but it was only minutes until he exhausted himself and stopped only to be released. To this day the purpose was for what? These were a problem through the district and through lawsuits and media attention the State passed a law regarding the issue. But on average the Aides and Teachers were clearly better educated or at least seemed to be. And again the Union was a strong advocate not just for the Adults but the kids whom they were in charge of. I may be right now seeing this in rose colored glasses as I had not been in many SPED rooms in my last years in Seattle so I am not sure how truly good or truly awful they really are. But the concept of resource rooms and integration and segregation are very different here and that truly marks my concerns. And again here in the South denial is swept under the rug, with truth and along with it admission of guilt and responsibility. To think that all these kids need is a “strong hand” is not only disturbing it is tragic.
Last night in Nashville I watched the local news and they were covering the issue of corporal punishment as a matter of issue regarding SPED and how while it was legal it was disproportionately directed towards kids with special needs. And of course the news is always full of some story where a Teacher was caught on camera hitting a special needs student. And the issue of cameras in classrooms I think is a worthy one but like Police body cams it will mean actually someone reviewing them and using them to educate and inform a tool that is one focused on the safety and protection for all. I don’t see that happening so what goes on in the SPED room stays in the SPED room and that is a whole ball of wax.
And the classroom I have been in the last 2 days I watched as the women were struggling with discipline to the point I wondered if they did in fact hurt the children or were on best behavior when a Sub is there. I don’t think they liked the kids at all and this was a job just a job. The idea that writing happy faces, sad faces in their notebooks to be sent home somehow taught the families what? And in turn the endless parade of kids with varying levels and types of learning disorders only further confused me and if it confused me a functioning adult, what is it doing to the kids? I had two kids who simply refused to do any tutoring activity they wanted to play so let’s head back to your class and perhaps just work with the regular class and do work as I was not going to just let them do nothing. Of course that was not what the Teacher wanted, they are discipline problems to her not just kids who need specialized lessons that she and the SPED teacher could work together and devise, then in turn have it checked and retaught in the resource room, much more effective plan. But no, that hour was one or in this case two less problems were gone so she complained when I returned them a half an hour earlier than “scheduled.” Yes well again I have no real tools, no real lessons or plans in which to make this work so which is and in that case I would be happy to take them to the outside or to the library and at least make it useful. This is what SPED has become, a piecemeal program that serves some and not others and none of them well.
Autism is the most complex. And we need to be honest, kids on the spectrum if they cannot communicate but can function make sure the staff and child have a clear method in which to do so. Half talking, half using talking boards is not the answer. One therapist said if they had tools (aka smart pads) to encourage words and speaking that would help them immensely as they only had a hour a day in which to develop language and that is not every day so these kids needs are not being met. Then there are those who will never speak and likely never learn more than rote. This is always a tough balancing act and one former SPED Teacher said it is setting everyone up for failure.
At this school the aides kept talking about the kids from last year were “better.” Right there it said this is a broken program. In an elementary school in a largely Autism program they should just have the same kids K-5 year to year, so where were they? A new crew every year? But I truly don’t get their SPED programs here. No kids in Elementary and particularly on the Spectrum were integrated or mainstreamed except with an Aide accompanying them at all times. And to integrate them with functioning but learning disabled kids seems confusing to both the kids and adults and it is not easy and needs careful structure.
This is a complex balancing act as how to distinguish needs, to create functioning plans and classroom order means wearing too many hats but then again I have not been in classic SPED rooms in years so this might be the new normal. But it is a juggling act to find the right balance. But with the current political climate and the new Secretary of Education who has a very similar ethical style and education found in the South (aka religious based) and her lack of familiarity nor interest in upholding federal laws regarding education, such as The Americans with Disability Act, I worry if what I see here will become the standard and that standard with regards to it has a spotty if not inconsistent history of application across the country. This article in the Atlantic discusses how this issue is not just about the classrooms that are for the disabled as it relates to the school community overall and how we perceive discipline and in turn education and those two factors are not mutually exclusive.
So the child with Autism, the child with ADHD are often classified and treated in the same way behavioral issues are and they are not the same; however, they are often the same when it comes to color and class and in turn access to adequate resources. To say the lines are blurred would be on thing to say they exist at all another. What I have been seeing that is that the kids labeled “disabled” here seem to be thought of is a “problem” that needs resolution and in turn that is via discipline not advocacy and assistance to have just part of the day some functioning lessons, some normalcy and possibly growth. The things any parent wishes for a child.
The salary, the lack of training and education, the job itself is not for the faint of heart and while I have tons of one and less of the other as in money I have to set boundaries and clear lines not in sand as to what I will or will not do. So once again I cancelled the jobs that were left at this school as I really did not get what was going on in this room and wondered why the long term sub who agreed to finish the remaining school year for the Teacher who was going on Maternity Leave was not there to start immediately and then only do one day that week. Why one would agree only then work on and off the last two weeks seemed to once again fit the So, Nashville ethos here. These kids and school need consistent presence and someone willing to do the heavy lifting, but then again logic and critical thinking are one synapse off here. But then I also feel that this woman is not coming back and has not been honest to her colleagues, her school or the families, the room is full of empty boxes, the lack of actual lessons in place, workable and teachable items are lacking so I am not sure what to make of it but once again I want no part of it. I cannot look at the faces of these children in need and think short term. Sorry but they deserve better.
So while I want to sweep Nashville under the same broom of doom and gloom that dominates this system of education here, I have to remind myself that this is not the exception but the rule and the ruler used to slap hands and bring kids down still exists here and elsewhere.
ACLU: Teachers abuse kids with disabilities Unsettling evidence suggests that corporal punishment policies are targeting the most vulnerable children.
by: GreatSchools Staff | March 4, 2016
Landon K., an autistic 6-year-old, was a first-grader in Mississippi when an assistant principal administered an approved punishment: striking the child on his bottom with an inch-thick paddle.
The incident terrified the child, causing him to lose control. “He was screaming and hollering,” Landon’s grandmother Jacquelyn K. later told the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “It just devastated him.”
Landon was so upset by the paddling he had to be sedated by ambulance workers.
Sound like one of those rare cases of abuse that grab headlines but are basically unprecedented? Unfortunately, the facts are a little more disturbing.
It’s well documented that children with disabilities are at risk for bullying by other students. But it’s not just kids who can be cruel. Teachers and administrators also disproportionately single out disabled students for violent punishment in the name of discipline.
Landon is just one of the tens of thousands of children with disabilities who are paddled at school in the United States every year, according to a new report by the ACLU. “Impairing Education: Corporal Punishment of Students With Disabilities in U.S. Public Schools” (pdf) found that students with disabilities are more likely to be paddled than others and that some children are hit for exhibiting behaviors directly resulting from their disabilities. Corporal punishment in our schools
Questionable reprimanding of students with disabilities is hardly limited to paddling. According to the report, they have been hit with rulers, grabbed with force enough to bruise, pinched, struck, and thrown to the floor — all by teachers and administrators. And the ACLU isn’t the only one raising the alarm about the issue: so is the federal government. An explosive report (pdf) issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in May 2009 documented hundreds of cases of abuse and even death resulting from restraint and seclusion used in public and private schools and treatment centers over the past 20 years. Almost all those cases involved children with disabilities.
Among the horrors the GAO report uncovered was the case of a 14-year-old boy with post-traumatic stress syndrome in Texas who died when a 230-pound teacher placed the child face-down on the floor and lay on top of him. The teacher was punishing the 129-pound student for not staying seated in class. While the teen’s death was ruled a homicide, a grand jury did not indict the teacher, who is currently teaching in Virginia.
Only 15 states currently have policies on when and how restraint and seclusion can be used in school — that leaves 35 where it’s up to the teacher’s discretion (and potential misjudgment). But in the wake of the GAO report, in August Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asked all state school chiefs to submit their policies on restraint and seclusion. As a result many states have formed task forces to create new policies.
The battle over paddling
“Restraint should only be used when a child is a danger to himself or others rather than used to punish or for compliance,” says Nadine Block, a former school psychologist who is now serving on a task force developing such a policy for Ohio schools. Teachers and administrators should also be trained on how to safely restrain children, she argues.
But even if all states clarify their policies on restraining students, it won’t help children like Landon who are paddled (or, in the vernacular of some administrators, “popped”) by their teachers. Currently, 20 states — from Idaho to North Carolina — still permit corporal punishment in schools. According to the Center for Effective Discipline, an advocacy group working to eliminate paddling in schools, 223,190 children were hit during the 2006-2007 school year, with certain states turning to the paddle more often than others. Three-quarters of the paddling incidents reported to federal officials occur in just five states: Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia. In Mississippi, some 7.5% of students were hit; in Arkansas 4.7%. Since the early eighties, the frequency and prevalence of corporal punishment in U.S. schools has been steadily dropping.
Disproportionately singled out
While students with disabilities make up just 14% of the nation’s student population, they represent about 19% of the students who suffer such corporal punishment, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Education.
In some states, students with disabilities are far more likely to be on the receiving end of the stick than their peers; Tennessee students with disabilities are spanked at more than twice the rate of the broader student population.
Children diagnosed with autism, Asperger’s syndrome, or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are the most likely to receive such physical discipline from teachers and school officials, according to a new report (pdf) from the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, an advocacy group for special education students.
Why? “Their behaviors are more challenging,” explains Block, who is also the executive director of the Center for Effective Discipline. “They’re more difficult to work with in many cases. Over the years, more of those kids are in regular classrooms, and many teachers lack training in how to deal with them.”
Long-term effects
Being paddled, much less physically restrained or locked in a room alone for hours, can change how a student feels about his or her education. After being paddled, Landon was terrified to go to school.
“The next day I tried to take him to school, but I couldn’t even get him out of the house,” says his grandmother. “We carried him out of the house; he was screaming. We got him to school but had to bring him back home.”
According to experts, long-standing fears are an all too common reaction. “Children are afraid to go to school when they’ve been paddled,” says Block.”It sets up an adversarial and alienating relationship for the child.”
Eventually, Landon’s grandmother withdrew the traumatized boy from school, fearing for his physical and mental health, despite threats from truant officers that she could go to jail.
“If I felt he would have been safe in school, he would have been there. I’m sure they would have paddled him again. I don’t trust them,” she says. “And the sad thing about it — he can learn. He can learn.”
I hear that mantra every time someone on the talking head shows wants to defend their proposition, belief, supposition or whatever shit they want to shove down your throat that this is about future generations. We need to ban that phrase too.
In the last week I have been overwhelmed with articles and tragedies that are about children. A 14 year old boy who brutally raped a 8 year old girl and informed authorities that he had raped many girls, his brother was a convicted rapist and clearly when you do hear the phrase “rape culture” this is where it applies. It is clearly obvious that something is very wrong in that home. What of course goes unexplored and unexamined that not one but two boys from the same family feel it is okay to rape and abuse girls and women. The 14 year old was tried as an adult and sentenced to an adult prison. He will come out at 21 more damaged then he went in with no rehabilitation nor mental health assessment and in turn those needs met so expect more if not worse, in other words a “career felon.”
This followed the histrionics here about the alleged sexual assault on a field trip at a local school here two years ago and a family so aggrieved that despite their pleas locally through official channels, they did manage to get the Dept. of Education to include the school on the list of those who failed under Title IX (this is the same statue that is being applied in the College cases). Of course the peasants here just finding this out, thanks to the new news forum – Facebook – are screaming Monster and running into the woods with lights and pitchforks in hand with no Monster clearly identified and when we all know it is the Doctor Frankenstein who created the beast. In this case we are not even sure who is the Doctor, so its off with all of their heads, a pox on all their houses. Of course this family no longer live in the State and the little girl who is now becoming a woman at one point I suspect would like to move on and heal but no we need revenge. Adam Walsh has never rested in his grave his father John has ensured that.
And again if anyone thinks I am talking out of my ass, the answer is no. No one knows better than I how hard it is to seek help, file lawsuits and face immense challenges to do so and finally at some point you want to heal and move on with life and leave the punishment and in turn forgiveness to a higher order or power.
And then we have a family being charged for their care of their Autistic sons. The diagnosis of Autism rivals ADHD when it comes to labeling those whose thinking process is different. The spectrum is now so long it needs Neil deGrasse Tyson to measure it in relation to the Cosmos.
When you work with Autistic kids you can see where that line falls and it is not that long or complex. Many can communicate and process and many cannot at all. So the care and in turn educational needs do vary on a case by case basis. And we all know how well that works out in America – one size, one shoe, fits all.
So when I read about this family my heart broke in two. They were beyond the tether attached to the rope which is affixed to the ever increasing spectrum. So prosecuting them perhaps was a way to rescue them from this, their sons were not rescued. Clearly they are now attached to a system that will neglect and in turn imprison them the same way our prisons are largely used to house the mentally ill.
And the needs for kids who are special also run a wide spectrum so another article about another child whose needs were not met, the bureaucracy that stifled no strangled the child to die on his own spit is just another example of how parents desperately will do whatever they need to help their child and find a system so broken, so damaged that the children seem less so in comparison.
We have more acronym named groups then there are those whose groups they serve. The all start with the best of intentions then they are absorbed into the system they were fighting in the first place. And nothing changes. But for the requisite 15 minutes they get the attention that they deserved and the rest of us get to gnash our teeth, blog incessantly, create a social media campaign and feel better. Then live goes on and the road is patched til the next storm creates a new pothole and we start all over again.
Off the Rack Publishing 