My youngest goes to school with a boy who has autism and my oldest also had an autistic boy in her class a few years back. These children have carers to help them so it’s no big deal… or so I thought. Today after school one of the mothers asked me to sign a petition requesting that this boy be removed from the school. I couldn’t believe it but then again I didn’t know what was going on. Apparently this boy is quite violent and has bitten and attacked the other kids without provocation. He has made some of the children bleed and apparently the kids are scared of him. The teachers have a book in which they document all the incidences and there have been quite a lot. The children exclude him because of this behaviour and I think this simply makes the situation worse. It’s a sticky situation because on one hand I understand his parents just want their boy to be “mainstream” but his agression and violence are causing distractions in the class as well as fear in the children. I have not signed the petition yet because my daughter is not scared of him and he hasn’t hurt her… yet. I’m just not sure how I would feel if it were MY child everyone wanted to boot out. This is not a black and white situation and I’m not sure what to do… is there a right and wrong here?
If someone or kid touched my child God help them! But on the other hand excluding him now could turn him into one of those freaks that keeps a hate list and comes to finish off the job when he’s older. And lets face it…kids are cruel, he would be getting a bad time at school, how do you know that these kids he has bitten didn’t tease him earlier?
hmmm that is a tough one. I think unless we are all in the situation we can’t really make a good judgement call on it. I can’t imagine signing a petition to evict a child from school, but then I can’t imagine sitting idly by if it was my child who had he had been rough with. In your scenario, since Natalie clearly isn’t worried about him then it’s not in her best interests to sign the petition, having said that if in future he does do something to her you will have to reflect on the choice you made now. I don’t think I could ever sign a petition to further alienate an already alienated child, but perhaps he would be less alienated and more comfortable at a school for high needs kids (do they still have them these days?).
Yes it is a tough one. Apparently there are schools around here that are just “special schools” so I’m not sure why he is not already in one of those. He came to us from a special education pre-school because he turned six… too old for pre-school classes. If he was a regular student he would have been expelled by now. Unfortunatly for him his violent and disruptive behaviour is not really fair to the other kids and teachers so he may have to go.
poor kid
I’m sorry BUT he is NOT normal! and SHOULD not be in that school! sad BUT true!!