Strollerderby : school administration

Special Ed Kids Left Behind During School Evacuation

Jen Chaney — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:02:00 GMT

School administrators have to make some extremely tough decisions every day. But in the aftermath of countless, violent tragedies that have happened in our nation's high schools, deciding what to do in the wake of a bomb threat should be simple: you evacuate the building until police give the all-clear. End of story.

Well, that's not what happened at a high school in Texas, where the entire student body was required to leave except for the kids in a pair of special ed classrooms. As reported in this story, found via MomLogic, everyone at Hays High School in Buda, Tex., exited the premises about two hours after an anonymous caller phoned the school on Jan. 29 and said four pipe bombs were on campus. The students were required to stay outside for about an hour while police did a sweep. Meanwhile the eight special ed students stayed put in their rooms, based on the principal's assessment that it was too cold for some of the more physically challenged kids to remain outside for an extended period of time.

It's very easy to second guess a decision like this, especially when we don't know what other factors may have influenced the principal's judgment. That said, based on the facts presented here, this seems like a terribly insensitive call. For starters, it was 47 degrees out on the day this happened. Now I realize that in Texas, that might seem chilly, but those are hardly life-threatening conditions. And if some of the special ed students are particularly sensitive to cold, it seems that other precautions -- circulating them in and out of cars with the heat, on or sending them to another location (maybe a local library?) -- could have addressed that issue. In fact, I'd take it a step further and say that kids with physical disabilities, especially those who need extra assistance to leave the school, should have gotten out of there first, to give them a head start.

The bomb threat turned out to be unfounded. But in a situation like this, you have to assume it's real, which is exactly why the parents of those left-behind children are really angry. Other parents also aren't happy because no action was taken until two hours after the threat was made. The local sheriff's office is investigating and some of parents were scheduled to meet yesterday with the principal. I suspect she got an earful.

Image: Upslopes.com

School Has Autistic Child Arrested

JeanneSager — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:08:00 GMT

Charges of battery against an eight-year-old with Asperger's syndrome have been dropped, and her parents are now pursuing legal action against the Idaho school district that called law enforcement.

What's wrong with this picture?

Evelyn Towry was told she couldn't wear her special jacket in class last week, prompting the little girl (whose diagnosis of Asperger's falls on the autism spectrum) to become resistent and act out in the classroom. But instead of telling the child she could just wear her jacket, school officials said they called the cops, alleging she assaulted school staff during the incident.

She's eight. And autistic.

Shouldn't school officials, of all people, understand that?

While Asperger's syndrome falls on the milder end of the autism spectrum, its symptoms are akin to what many people identify with autism - a need for structure, difficulty identifying and expressing feelings. It's also classified as a disability, allowing children who have been diagnosed to qualify for special services from their local school district, including special consideration for their special needs.

So why should a jacket on a child with Asperger's syndrome become an issue? Even if this child were to have become violent, the details of the case would indicate that school officials set this child - who they knew had a difficulty expressing feelings - off. They caused the problem. That would seem a direct violation of civil rights section 504, which protects kids in schools from discrimination for their developmental disabilities.

Should autistic child bear some responsibility for their actions? By calling the cops and pressing battery charges, that's what the school district was suggesting - that Evelyn Towry was responsible for battery. But who's to blame? Should a school district be held liable for the action that caused the equal and opposite reaction?

Image: salem news

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Principal Censors Pro-Gay School Paper

JeanneSager — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:34:00 GMT

Two male students holding hands and a pro-gay editorial got a school paper yanked by administrators at a South Carolina school last month. Somehow, the principal is still claiming the school encourages diversity.

Apparently you can be different - just don't tell anyone.

Students at the Academy for Arts, Science & Technology near Carolina Forest have traditionally printed their paper on their own, using funds from ad sales to cover the cost of printing the quarterly paper. But when administrators, including Principal Ronnie Burgess, saw the picture of two male students holding hands and an editorial advocating for same-sex marriage, they told the kids the paper couldn't be distributed. They offered $500 in school funds to reprint the paper - without the editorial and picture.

Burgess said he was afraid the original paper would be "disruptive."

"I had some concerns about the content of the article and how it might impact students here and what the community concerns might be when the article was distributed," he told the Myrtle Beach-based Sun News. I'm not surprised that an administrator is afraid of community backlash (even homophobic, small-minded backlash), but what floors me is the rest of Burgess' statement to the paper: "At the academy we encourage diversity, we don't look to silence student voices, we hope to facilitate their expression."

So you encourage diversity, by telling gay teens they can't be pictured in the school paper? Sadly, this message hurts not only the gay kids but every student at the academy who is being provided with an example by the authority figures they're supposed to look up to and follow of "making the gays disappear." The move tells the kids of the academy that differences of opinion should be responded to by putting up money to make them go away.

The staff of the school paper is fighting adminstration on this one. They've cried censorship. Unfortunately, the teenage students are serving as better examples of who their peers should "grow up to be" than school administrators.

Image: Myrtle Beach Online

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Vice Principal Makes Kids Eat Off the Floor

Kelly Mills — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:28:00 GMT

Sometimes I feel like a bit of a tool for reporting on all these wretched teachers and school administrators when there's plenty of decent ones who don't make the news, but I find these stories strangely compelling. Maybe it's the sense of anxiety I have as a parent, sending off my kid and telling her to listen to other adults who I may or may not always agree with. And I can guarantee you I would not agree with anyone making my child eat off the floor as punishment, as one vice principal at a Philadelphia elementary school did.

Part of what makes this story particularly wretched is that it sounds like these kids were particularly vulnerable to the unfair treatment because they were ESL students, many from other countries, and in some cases the families were unaware of the punishment. The incident that prompted the vice principal to make an entire elementary school class eat their lunches off the cafeteria floor? One kid was changing the water cooler jug and it spilled. The good news is that the woman was put on administrative leave while the matter is investigated.

Principal Pulls Awesome Stunt To Boost Grades

Kelly Mills — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:33:00 GMT

What can I say? I'm a sucker for serious dedication to kids and a flair for showmanship. In an effort to boost grades and win better behavior from students, Principal Bob Vicari has basically made students offers they couldn't refuse: Improve, and I'll take one for the team. In his six years as a middle school principal, he's rewarded students for meeting his challenges by lettting them peg him with water balloons and smash pies in his face, and he's moved his office to the roof--twice.

So how do you top that? Well, this time he promised to eat bugs if students stepped up. And actually a record number of them made the honor roll, so he chomped down live crickets three times, one for each grade. "I was told you have to floss afterwards because the legs get caught between your teeth," he quipped to students. It's truly a nice story to read, and he sounds like a helluva guy.

Kid Tattooed In Class, School Admin Not Happy

Kelly Mills — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:36:00 GMT

Back in my day, if a high school kid wanted a tattoo, you had to go to some dirty, scary hole-in-the-wall and say "yes" when asked if you were over 18 and then some shaky-handed speed freak would do that little rose on your ankle or whatever. That's why kids today are lucky. Tattooes are so acceptable you can even get them in your classroom. Yep, feel free to have that that old-school apple with the banner that says, "Hot for Teacher" inked right at your desk, as long as you have permission from your parents.

Okay, maybe it didn't go down exactly like that, but a high school student recently got tattooed during class and the school administrators are not happy. A cosmetology teacher invited a tattoo artist to speak to the students, and during the lecture one kid got permanent eyebrows tatted on. Of course, a classroom is not exactly a sterile, clean environment, so this isn't recommended. The school did not have advance knowledge of the tattoo plans, and my favorite quote is from the spokesperson: "It's not part of the curriculum for that class. That class is focused on hair and nails." Aw yeah. Teasing and spraying is okay, but not ink.