Inappropriate response from teachers at Elementary School Summer Program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An SN child with insufficient supports in a mainstream classroom is a recipe for disaster. I thought SN parents knew to make sure proper accommodations are made.

I’m going to defend OP here. (I do not necessarily in her OP). Summer school is very different than the regular school year. If it’s her first time, they might not have realized that supports are not adequate and that you have to work with the summer program to develop the necessary supports. OP maybe should have ended things earlier but hindsight is 20/20. Nonetheless I do think her anger is misplaced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So. Wait. Am I understanding this right? The child was in serious crisis in his classroom and dad came to help and the teachers, also in the classroom and aware of what was going on were giggling and making jokes amongst themselves? If this is what happened this sounds like wildly inappropriate and immature behavior from those teachers. If they were joking about the child that is cruel but even if they weren’t it’s a bizarre time to start cracking jokes with each other.

The part in bold

[Anonymous]

So did he have similar incidents where he said he wanted to kill himself prior to this incident? If so, why would you send him back there?

[Anonymous]

There's something so off about this story. Doesn't sound like something that would ever happen the way it supposedly went down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So. Wait. Am I understanding this right? The child was in serious crisis in his classroom and dad came to help and the teachers, also in the classroom and aware of what was going on were giggling and making jokes amongst themselves? If this is what happened this sounds like wildly inappropriate and immature behavior from those teachers. If they were joking about the child that is cruel but even if they weren’t it’s a bizarre time to start cracking jokes with each other.

What if it was the 7th time that day the kid flipped out. Why do you assume to biased mom is giving the full story or not coloring her comments to make the outrage self fulfilling. Even assuming the whole story is true to the letter what if they really were just having a unrelated conversation while the dad talked the misfit off the ledge for the X time. Even as the A-hole of this conversation, I doubt somehow doubt the worst 20 something new teacher would openly mock a kid in front of their parents esp at a rich school. Most likely explanation is the kid is pissed he is at school in the summer and is lashing out and no one is prepared to handle it while the parents keep looking to blame someone/anyone.

Even if they weren't talking about the kid, that is scary sociopathic behavior to just joke around while someone in the room you are in is in crisis. What is wrong with you that you think this is professional behavior? Oh, wait, you're someone who would call a suicidal child a misfit. Question answered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do people have either impossibly high standards for teachers or, in some effort to be “pro teachers”, have lowered the bar to the floor? I would not want these teachers anywhere near my kids.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So. Wait. Am I understanding this right? The child was in serious crisis in his classroom and dad came to help and the teachers, also in the classroom and aware of what was going on were giggling and making jokes amongst themselves? If this is what happened this sounds like wildly inappropriate and immature behavior from those teachers. If they were joking about the child that is cruel but even if they weren’t it’s a bizarre time to start cracking jokes with each other.

What if it was the 7th time that day the kid flipped out. Why do you assume to biased mom is giving the full story or not coloring her comments to make the outrage self fulfilling. Even assuming the whole story is true to the letter what if they really were just having a unrelated conversation while the dad talked the misfit off the ledge for the X time. Even as the A-hole of this conversation, I doubt somehow doubt the worst 20 something new teacher would openly mock a kid in front of their parents esp at a rich school. Most likely explanation is the kid is pissed he is at school in the summer and is lashing out and no one is prepared to handle it while the parents keep looking to blame someone/anyone.

Good point. If the kid is, like, pretty much always a total bummer and the story is way too funny to wait to tell a good teacher would go ahead and have a laugh with her friend. It would not be fair to the other teacher to have to wait to hear the funny story.

[Anonymous]

A lot of speculation here. OP could easily speak with the teacher and would probably feel better. Or she could post here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I promise I am not MCPS, but I really think you’re taking this too far. You have no idea if the conversation had anything to do with your son. I’m not sure what led you to believe it did.

As another special needs parent, my advice is to learn to focus on the bigger things and let the smaller things go. Otherwise you will always be miserable. For me, it took working with my own therapist (and many years) to get there.

You are understandably stressed and summer school is clearly not providing enough support. However, going to the superintendent about a teacher giggling with another teacher seems over the top.

Focus on your child. His needs are not getting met. Period. If you want to talk to the superintendent about that, I would understand. But giggling? Move on.

Sad for your child that you are such an idiot and so clueless about how children pick up on the actions of adults. Work with your therapist for a few more years. Good luck.

Not PP but this is rude and uncalled for. The PP gave sound advice.

-another SN parent

Keep posting and sign your next one another another SN parent. Never sign your name or stand by your obnoxious comments.

The trolling is good with this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of speculation here. OP could easily speak with the teacher and would probably feel better. Or she could post here.

Don't you know it's more entertaining to post on DCUM than solve your problems in the time in takes to develop a 10-page thread on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So. Wait. Am I understanding this right? The child was in serious crisis in his classroom and dad came to help and the teachers, also in the classroom and aware of what was going on were giggling and making jokes amongst themselves? If this is what happened this sounds like wildly inappropriate and immature behavior from those teachers. If they were joking about the child that is cruel but even if they weren’t it’s a bizarre time to start cracking jokes with each other.

What if it was the 7th time that day the kid flipped out. Why do you assume to biased mom is giving the full story or not coloring her comments to make the outrage self fulfilling. Even assuming the whole story is true to the letter what if they really were just having a unrelated conversation while the dad talked the misfit off the ledge for the X time. Even as the A-hole of this conversation, I doubt somehow doubt the worst 20 something new teacher would openly mock a kid in front of their parents esp at a rich school. Most likely explanation is the kid is pissed he is at school in the summer and is lashing out and no one is prepared to handle it while the parents keep looking to blame someone/anyone.

Even if they weren't talking about the kid, that is scary sociopathic behavior to just joke around while someone in the room you are in is in crisis. What is wrong with you that you think this is professional behavior? Oh, wait, you're someone who would call a suicidal child a misfit. Question answered.

Quoting directly from the PP:

"DS, who had calmed down by then, asked why they were giggling."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You make no sense. The teachers don’t sound inappropriate. Is no one ever suppose to laugh around your kid?

You are clueless about appropriate behavior. Please tell me you are not a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS (age 8) has autism and ADHD and an IEP but attends a mainstream school with pull out services. He did not qualify for ESY but was recommended for the summer school program. He has not been supported well and has had multiple anxiety attacks where he said he was going to kill himself. We were called multiple times and each time we would rush there and he would calm down immediately. Our ABA therapist did an observation there and said DS was definitely not getting enough support and would just withdraw into a corner the whole day. This past Friday, he climbed up onto one of the cubbies and said he was going to jump and kill himself. We were called and while DH was comforting DS, the teachers started giggling. DS, who had calmed down by then, asked why they were giggling. The teachers looked surprised that he would ask and replied that they were laughing about a child that kicked a hornets nest and got stung. DS asked why someone getting hurt would be funny and they did not respond. This is completely inappropriate and to observe the teachers' behaving like this while we were there implies that it is way worse when we are not. We are definitely not sending DS back but also feel that we should not let this type of behavior go unaccounted for.

Be very clear that this forum is heavily trafficked by the MCPS public relations department. They are here 24/7 to beat back and bully parents who dare to speak about their child's public school education. The bullying responses you are reading (really don't read them) are straight from 850 Hungerford Drive in Rockville. That is the MCPS headquarters and the Board of Education offices. Board of Education staff have already been caught in the act of pretending to be parents in order to attack actual parents. It made the front page of The Washington Post when they were caught doing this.

You asked about the superintendent's e-mail. Here it is

[e-mail]

240-740-3020

What you described was completely inappropriate, unprofessional and cruel. Kudos to your super smart child. No wonder he's having a hard time in summer school. He's smarter than the people that are supposed to be his teachers.

Call the superintendent, file a complaint and if you don't get an appropriate response go to the media.

Link to the article?

Googled and found nothing.

[Anonymous]

I haven't read all the pages of comments but I can tell you from firsthand experience that summer school is typically staffed by teachers and aides who don't really want to be there and often aren't very good at what they are doing, add to that they think summer doesn't really need to be that good and you get what you get. Very common that there are too many kids to staff and most people don't care much because they just want their kid in some program over the summer, preferably one that doesn't cost anything.

[Anonymous]

How long was the entire episode? I am thinking pretty long. If the child started having issues, the school would have first tried to handle it. After they gave that some time, they would have called home. There would have been a time for dad to get there and then got dad to calm his son down. This is probably closer to an hour. If those teachers have been working the episode for awhile and finally saw that the child had calmed down, I can see them lowering their guards.

In fact, if they had just been intently staring at the dad/son and not saying a word, that might have been more triggering for the child.

It sounds like the situation was over or close to over and the teachers relaxed. These situations are very tense and staying alert for that long is hard. The child was calm enough to ask about it.

Just ask the teacher about it. And let her know how it felt to your child so that she can be more aware next time. This is way too many pages about this, yet I am drawn in as a parent of a child with school behaviors.