Why are kids with extreme behavior issues being mainstreamed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few SES kids came to my kid's ES this year. They all have shadows. One of them seems to be violent and it is causing anxiety in several kids in the class. This kid has tried lifting a 3rd grader by the neck before. Not sure if the 3rd grader's parents were notified.

Today was a whole new issue. At recess this SES kid ran to another kid in same class who is bigger than him, and tried to tackle him but SES shadow pulled him away. Then he ran to another kid half his size, put his arm around that kid's neck and started punching him in the cheek with other hand. The shadow ran again and pulled him away. My kid says the other kid was crying. After this the SES kid went to teacher's bathroom and knocked a painting that was there.

A few hours later SES kid ran into the class where the 1st child whom he tried to tackle was, went up to him, put a pair of scissors against him and told him "I wanna F'ing kill you. This is attempted murder". The shadow pulled him away. The new teacher started crying.

If I were the parent of any of these other children, I would raise a stink.

What is the purpose of having these kids with extreme behavior issues mainstreamed at the risk of causing fear in other students as well as teachers? Shouldn't they be in self contained classes? There are 2 other SES kids who are not aggressive so those kids being mainstreamed makes sense. But this does not.

My kid likes the school but does not feel safe when things like this happen.

I guess we've been lucky that our title 1 school doesn't have these issues.

That you are aware of

Schools tend to bury these issues and hope nobody contacts the police.

Why would the school care? If this was a high schooler, then yes, the police could investigate and potentially charge the child with a crime. But since we're talking about a fifth grader, there's no chargeable offense to investigate. Do these posters really no understand that?

Attempted murder sounds like a police issue to me.

You're unhinged. This wasn't attempted murder. Don't be ridiculous.

Not the PP but this should be a serious wake up call. This child threatened the life of another. It isn't a joke. Next time they may not be so lucky.

Yes, but it doesn't help to say it is something that it's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few SES kids came to my kid's ES this year. They all have shadows. One of them seems to be violent and it is causing anxiety in several kids in the class. This kid has tried lifting a 3rd grader by the neck before. Not sure if the 3rd grader's parents were notified.

Today was a whole new issue. At recess this SES kid ran to another kid in same class who is bigger than him, and tried to tackle him but SES shadow pulled him away. Then he ran to another kid half his size, put his arm around that kid's neck and started punching him in the cheek with other hand. The shadow ran again and pulled him away. My kid says the other kid was crying. After this the SES kid went to teacher's bathroom and knocked a painting that was there.

A few hours later SES kid ran into the class where the 1st child whom he tried to tackle was, went up to him, put a pair of scissors against him and told him "I wanna F'ing kill you. This is attempted murder". The shadow pulled him away. The new teacher started crying.

If I were the parent of any of these other children, I would raise a stink.

What is the purpose of having these kids with extreme behavior issues mainstreamed at the risk of causing fear in other students as well as teachers? Shouldn't they be in self contained classes? There are 2 other SES kids who are not aggressive so those kids being mainstreamed makes sense. But this does not.

My kid likes the school but does not feel safe when things like this happen.

I guess we've been lucky that our title 1 school doesn't have these issues.

That you are aware of

Schools tend to bury these issues and hope nobody contacts the police.

Why would the school care? If this was a high schooler, then yes, the police could investigate and potentially charge the child with a crime. But since we're talking about a fifth grader, there's no chargeable offense to investigate. Do these posters really no understand that?

Attempted murder sounds like a police issue to me.

You're unhinged. This wasn't attempted murder. Don't be ridiculous.

Kids much younger have followed through in schools across the country.

Ok? That still doesn't make this particular incident attempted murder. Surely you understand the difference, don't you?

Close enough for me.

Perhaps, but for anyone with a better grasp of reality, including the police and justice system, these are very different things.

Pop a xanax and go back to drinking your boxed wine.

I think we found the parents of the violent child. You can minimize it and make jokes if you want.

I think we found someone who needs to increase her anxiety meds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few SES kids came to my kid's ES this year. They all have shadows. One of them seems to be violent and it is causing anxiety in several kids in the class. This kid has tried lifting a 3rd grader by the neck before. Not sure if the 3rd grader's parents were notified.

Today was a whole new issue. At recess this SES kid ran to another kid in same class who is bigger than him, and tried to tackle him but SES shadow pulled him away. Then he ran to another kid half his size, put his arm around that kid's neck and started punching him in the cheek with other hand. The shadow ran again and pulled him away. My kid says the other kid was crying. After this the SES kid went to teacher's bathroom and knocked a painting that was there.

A few hours later SES kid ran into the class where the 1st child whom he tried to tackle was, went up to him, put a pair of scissors against him and told him "I wanna F'ing kill you. This is attempted murder". The shadow pulled him away. The new teacher started crying.

If I were the parent of any of these other children, I would raise a stink.

What is the purpose of having these kids with extreme behavior issues mainstreamed at the risk of causing fear in other students as well as teachers? Shouldn't they be in self contained classes? There are 2 other SES kids who are not aggressive so those kids being mainstreamed makes sense. But this does not.

My kid likes the school but does not feel safe when things like this happen.

I guess we've been lucky that our title 1 school doesn't have these issues.

That you are aware of

Schools tend to bury these issues and hope nobody contacts the police.

Why would the school care? If this was a high schooler, then yes, the police could investigate and potentially charge the child with a crime. But since we're talking about a fifth grader, there's no chargeable offense to investigate. Do these posters really no understand that?

Attempted murder sounds like a police issue to me.

You're unhinged. This wasn't attempted murder. Don't be ridiculous.

Kids much younger have followed through in schools across the country.

Ok? That still doesn't make this particular incident attempted murder. Surely you understand the difference, don't you?

Close enough for me.

Perhaps, but for anyone with a better grasp of reality, including the police and justice system, these are very different things.

Pop a xanax and go back to drinking your boxed wine.

I think we found the parents of the violent child. You can minimize it and make jokes if you want.

I think we found someone who needs to increase her anxiety meds.

Shame on you and your violent offspring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few SES kids came to my kid's ES this year. They all have shadows. One of them seems to be violent and it is causing anxiety in several kids in the class. This kid has tried lifting a 3rd grader by the neck before. Not sure if the 3rd grader's parents were notified.

Today was a whole new issue. At recess this SES kid ran to another kid in same class who is bigger than him, and tried to tackle him but SES shadow pulled him away. Then he ran to another kid half his size, put his arm around that kid's neck and started punching him in the cheek with other hand. The shadow ran again and pulled him away. My kid says the other kid was crying. After this the SES kid went to teacher's bathroom and knocked a painting that was there.

A few hours later SES kid ran into the class where the 1st child whom he tried to tackle was, went up to him, put a pair of scissors against him and told him "I wanna F'ing kill you. This is attempted murder". The shadow pulled him away. The new teacher started crying.

If I were the parent of any of these other children, I would raise a stink.

What is the purpose of having these kids with extreme behavior issues mainstreamed at the risk of causing fear in other students as well as teachers? Shouldn't they be in self contained classes? There are 2 other SES kids who are not aggressive so those kids being mainstreamed makes sense. But this does not.

My kid likes the school but does not feel safe when things like this happen.

I guess we've been lucky that our title 1 school doesn't have these issues.

That you are aware of

Schools tend to bury these issues and hope nobody contacts the police.

Why would the school care? If this was a high schooler, then yes, the police could investigate and potentially charge the child with a crime. But since we're talking about a fifth grader, there's no chargeable offense to investigate. Do these posters really no understand that?

Attempted murder sounds like a police issue to me.

You're unhinged. This wasn't attempted murder. Don't be ridiculous.

Kids much younger have followed through in schools across the country.

Ok? That still doesn't make this particular incident attempted murder. Surely you understand the difference, don't you?

Close enough for me.

Perhaps, but for anyone with a better grasp of reality, including the police and justice system, these are very different things.

Pop a xanax and go back to drinking your boxed wine.

I think we found the parents of the violent child. You can minimize it and make jokes if you want.

I think we found someone who needs to increase her anxiety meds.

Shame on you and your violent offspring.

I know, right? What ever happened to a good ol' fashion child lynching?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few SES kids came to my kid's ES this year. They all have shadows. One of them seems to be violent and it is causing anxiety in several kids in the class. This kid has tried lifting a 3rd grader by the neck before. Not sure if the 3rd grader's parents were notified.

Today was a whole new issue. At recess this SES kid ran to another kid in same class who is bigger than him, and tried to tackle him but SES shadow pulled him away. Then he ran to another kid half his size, put his arm around that kid's neck and started punching him in the cheek with other hand. The shadow ran again and pulled him away. My kid says the other kid was crying. After this the SES kid went to teacher's bathroom and knocked a painting that was there.

A few hours later SES kid ran into the class where the 1st child whom he tried to tackle was, went up to him, put a pair of scissors against him and told him "I wanna F'ing kill you. This is attempted murder". The shadow pulled him away. The new teacher started crying.

If I were the parent of any of these other children, I would raise a stink.

What is the purpose of having these kids with extreme behavior issues mainstreamed at the risk of causing fear in other students as well as teachers? Shouldn't they be in self contained classes? There are 2 other SES kids who are not aggressive so those kids being mainstreamed makes sense. But this does not.

My kid likes the school but does not feel safe when things like this happen.

I guess we've been lucky that our title 1 school doesn't have these issues.

That you are aware of

Schools tend to bury these issues and hope nobody contacts the police.

Why would the school care? If this was a high schooler, then yes, the police could investigate and potentially charge the child with a crime. But since we're talking about a fifth grader, there's no chargeable offense to investigate. Do these posters really no understand that?

Attempted murder sounds like a police issue to me.

You're unhinged. This wasn't attempted murder. Don't be ridiculous.

Kids much younger have followed through in schools across the country.

Ok? That still doesn't make this particular incident attempted murder. Surely you understand the difference, don't you?

Close enough for me.

Perhaps, but for anyone with a better grasp of reality, including the police and justice system, these are very different things.

Pop a xanax and go back to drinking your boxed wine.

I think we found the parents of the violent child. You can minimize it and make jokes if you want.

I think we found someone who needs to increase her anxiety meds.

Shame on you and your violent offspring.

I know, right? What ever happened to a good ol' fashion child lynching?

What ever happened to parents being responsible adults and the consequences for criminal behavior?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few SES kids came to my kid's ES this year. They all have shadows. One of them seems to be violent and it is causing anxiety in several kids in the class. This kid has tried lifting a 3rd grader by the neck before. Not sure if the 3rd grader's parents were notified.

Today was a whole new issue. At recess this SES kid ran to another kid in same class who is bigger than him, and tried to tackle him but SES shadow pulled him away. Then he ran to another kid half his size, put his arm around that kid's neck and started punching him in the cheek with other hand. The shadow ran again and pulled him away. My kid says the other kid was crying. After this the SES kid went to teacher's bathroom and knocked a painting that was there.

A few hours later SES kid ran into the class where the 1st child whom he tried to tackle was, went up to him, put a pair of scissors against him and told him "I wanna F'ing kill you. This is attempted murder". The shadow pulled him away. The new teacher started crying.

If I were the parent of any of these other children, I would raise a stink.

What is the purpose of having these kids with extreme behavior issues mainstreamed at the risk of causing fear in other students as well as teachers? Shouldn't they be in self contained classes? There are 2 other SES kids who are not aggressive so those kids being mainstreamed makes sense. But this does not.

My kid likes the school but does not feel safe when things like this happen.

I guess we've been lucky that our title 1 school doesn't have these issues.

That you are aware of

Schools tend to bury these issues and hope nobody contacts the police.

Why would the school care? If this was a high schooler, then yes, the police could investigate and potentially charge the child with a crime. But since we're talking about a fifth grader, there's no chargeable offense to investigate. Do these posters really no understand that?

Attempted murder sounds like a police issue to me.

You're unhinged. This wasn't attempted murder. Don't be ridiculous.

Kids much younger have followed through in schools across the country.

Ok? That still doesn't make this particular incident attempted murder. Surely you understand the difference, don't you?

Close enough for me.

Perhaps, but for anyone with a better grasp of reality, including the police and justice system, these are very different things.

Pop a xanax and go back to drinking your boxed wine.

I think we found the parents of the violent child. You can minimize it and make jokes if you want.

I think we found someone who needs to increase her anxiety meds.

Shame on you and your violent offspring.

I know, right? What ever happened to a good ol' fashion child lynching?

What ever happened to parents being responsible adults and the consequences for criminal behavior?

Isn't it terrible to be constrained by the rule of law?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few SES kids came to my kid's ES this year. They all have shadows. One of them seems to be violent and it is causing anxiety in several kids in the class. This kid has tried lifting a 3rd grader by the neck before. Not sure if the 3rd grader's parents were notified.

Today was a whole new issue. At recess this SES kid ran to another kid in same class who is bigger than him, and tried to tackle him but SES shadow pulled him away. Then he ran to another kid half his size, put his arm around that kid's neck and started punching him in the cheek with other hand. The shadow ran again and pulled him away. My kid says the other kid was crying. After this the SES kid went to teacher's bathroom and knocked a painting that was there.

A few hours later SES kid ran into the class where the 1st child whom he tried to tackle was, went up to him, put a pair of scissors against him and told him "I wanna F'ing kill you. This is attempted murder". The shadow pulled him away. The new teacher started crying.

If I were the parent of any of these other children, I would raise a stink.

What is the purpose of having these kids with extreme behavior issues mainstreamed at the risk of causing fear in other students as well as teachers? Shouldn't they be in self contained classes? There are 2 other SES kids who are not aggressive so those kids being mainstreamed makes sense. But this does not.

My kid likes the school but does not feel safe when things like this happen.

I guess we've been lucky that our title 1 school doesn't have these issues.

That you are aware of

Schools tend to bury these issues and hope nobody contacts the police.

Why would the school care? If this was a high schooler, then yes, the police could investigate and potentially charge the child with a crime. But since we're talking about a fifth grader, there's no chargeable offense to investigate. Do these posters really no understand that?

Attempted murder sounds like a police issue to me.

You're unhinged. This wasn't attempted murder. Don't be ridiculous.

Kids much younger have followed through in schools across the country.

Ok? That still doesn't make this particular incident attempted murder. Surely you understand the difference, don't you?

Close enough for me.

Perhaps, but for anyone with a better grasp of reality, including the police and justice system, these are very different things.

Pop a xanax and go back to drinking your boxed wine.

I think we found the parents of the violent child. You can minimize it and make jokes if you want.

I think we found someone who needs to increase her anxiety meds.

Shame on you and your violent offspring.

I know, right? What ever happened to a good ol' fashion child lynching?

What ever happened to parents being responsible adults and the consequences for criminal behavior?

Isn't it terrible to be constrained by the rule of law?

Laws without morals are useless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few SES kids came to my kid's ES this year. They all have shadows. One of them seems to be violent and it is causing anxiety in several kids in the class. This kid has tried lifting a 3rd grader by the neck before. Not sure if the 3rd grader's parents were notified.

Today was a whole new issue. At recess this SES kid ran to another kid in same class who is bigger than him, and tried to tackle him but SES shadow pulled him away. Then he ran to another kid half his size, put his arm around that kid's neck and started punching him in the cheek with other hand. The shadow ran again and pulled him away. My kid says the other kid was crying. After this the SES kid went to teacher's bathroom and knocked a painting that was there.

A few hours later SES kid ran into the class where the 1st child whom he tried to tackle was, went up to him, put a pair of scissors against him and told him "I wanna F'ing kill you. This is attempted murder". The shadow pulled him away. The new teacher started crying.

If I were the parent of any of these other children, I would raise a stink.

What is the purpose of having these kids with extreme behavior issues mainstreamed at the risk of causing fear in other students as well as teachers? Shouldn't they be in self contained classes? There are 2 other SES kids who are not aggressive so those kids being mainstreamed makes sense. But this does not.

My kid likes the school but does not feel safe when things like this happen.

I guess we've been lucky that our title 1 school doesn't have these issues.

That you are aware of

Schools tend to bury these issues and hope nobody contacts the police.

Why would the school care? If this was a high schooler, then yes, the police could investigate and potentially charge the child with a crime. But since we're talking about a fifth grader, there's no chargeable offense to investigate. Do these posters really no understand that?

Attempted murder sounds like a police issue to me.

You're unhinged. This wasn't attempted murder. Don't be ridiculous.

Kids much younger have followed through in schools across the country.

Ok? That still doesn't make this particular incident attempted murder. Surely you understand the difference, don't you?

Close enough for me.

Perhaps, but for anyone with a better grasp of reality, including the police and justice system, these are very different things.

Pop a xanax and go back to drinking your boxed wine.

I think we found the parents of the violent child. You can minimize it and make jokes if you want.

I think we found someone who needs to increase her anxiety meds.

Shame on you and your violent offspring.

I know, right? What ever happened to a good ol' fashion child lynching?

What ever happened to parents being responsible adults and the consequences for criminal behavior?

Isn't it terrible to be constrained by the rule of law?

Laws without morals are useless.

Yes, we should definitely get rid of laws and let those who claim to be pure at heart do whatever they want to fifth graders. Brilliant idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few SES kids came to my kid's ES this year. They all have shadows. One of them seems to be violent and it is causing anxiety in several kids in the class. This kid has tried lifting a 3rd grader by the neck before. Not sure if the 3rd grader's parents were notified.

Today was a whole new issue. At recess this SES kid ran to another kid in same class who is bigger than him, and tried to tackle him but SES shadow pulled him away. Then he ran to another kid half his size, put his arm around that kid's neck and started punching him in the cheek with other hand. The shadow ran again and pulled him away. My kid says the other kid was crying. After this the SES kid went to teacher's bathroom and knocked a painting that was there.

A few hours later SES kid ran into the class where the 1st child whom he tried to tackle was, went up to him, put a pair of scissors against him and told him "I wanna F'ing kill you. This is attempted murder". The shadow pulled him away. The new teacher started crying.

If I were the parent of any of these other children, I would raise a stink.

What is the purpose of having these kids with extreme behavior issues mainstreamed at the risk of causing fear in other students as well as teachers? Shouldn't they be in self contained classes? There are 2 other SES kids who are not aggressive so those kids being mainstreamed makes sense. But this does not.

My kid likes the school but does not feel safe when things like this happen.

I guess we've been lucky that our title 1 school doesn't have these issues.

That you are aware of

Schools tend to bury these issues and hope nobody contacts the police.

Why would the school care? If this was a high schooler, then yes, the police could investigate and potentially charge the child with a crime. But since we're talking about a fifth grader, there's no chargeable offense to investigate. Do these posters really no understand that?

Attempted murder sounds like a police issue to me.

Op here. I want to clarify. He put the scissors against the other child and threatened him saying "I wanna f***ing kill you. This is attempted murder" and was pulled away by aide. He did not actually stab the other kid who is much bigger than him. I doubt that qualifies as attempted murder even for an NT kid.

At 10-11 years old, I believe he just needs placement elsewhere, and not a police report. Kids with these kind of behavior issues need self containment. There is a behavior support specialist listed on school website. Not sure if that person oversees all these SES kids or just this one kid.

That person oversees all the SES kids and their paras at your school. There is also a program director as the county level. I believe it is Sandi Ives. Any correspondence you have with the behavior support specialist at your school should also be cc’d to the principal and the country behavior support director.

[Anonymous]

As the parent of such a kid who doesn't minimize violence - the criminality is beside the point. There are no places for these kids to go. It's prison or mainstream. There's private placement if you're very savvy. Most people can't.

I think it's partly optics and partly cost and partly lack of will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As the parent of such a kid who doesn't minimize violence - the criminality is beside the point. There are no places for these kids to go. It's prison or mainstream. There's private placement if you're very savvy. Most people can't.

I think it's partly optics and partly cost and partly lack of will.

You can’t terrorize the normies. It has to be controlled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the parent of such a kid who doesn't minimize violence - the criminality is beside the point. There are no places for these kids to go. It's prison or mainstream. There's private placement if you're very savvy. Most people can't.

I think it's partly optics and partly cost and partly lack of will.

You can’t terrorize the normies. It has to be controlled.

These problems start young an the system tries to gaslight the parents and minimize them. For example, at one point my son didn't get an aide because that would be too restrictive. He was 5 at the time. (He has one now. But first we had to document evidence that he couldn't manage without one.)

It's not reasonable to expect parents to write off a 5 year old because the system doesn't work. The kids get pushed through the system.

[Anonymous]

There's a lot going on in this thread, but I'll tread OP's question as honest - why does it seem like there are a lot more violent kids in the classroom today?

The answer is complicated, and not all at MCPS's feet, but some of it is.

Not MCPS's Fault

First of all, there's the after-effects of COVID. While a lot of us were able to work from home and supervise our kids, the pandemic was extremely traumatic for many communities. Poor families lost access to childcare while still needing to report to work, and deaths from COVID disproportionately fell on Black/brown and working class communities. So, you have trauma, and you have a lot of kids who were essentially unsupervised for more than a year or missed critical periods of socialization.

Also as a result of COVID, childcare centers closed or made their ratios smaller, which limited the access some of these kids had to folks who could spot learning disabilities or emotional disregulation. So instead of getting identified for early intervention at 3 or 4, kids are turning up in MCPS for Kindergarten with serious issues and no diagnosis or plan to get a diagnosis.

MCPS's Fault

The move to a "home school" model. Someone upthread made a point of differentiating between kids with learning differences and kids with behaviors, but that's not the right frame. Kids with "just" learning differences turn into kids with behaviors when their needs are not met. Previously, MCPS would collect the kids with learning differences into a smaller number of schools, and then give those schools additional resources to meet the kids' needs. It wasn't a perfect system, but it was better than the current model in which every kid is attending their zoned ES and no one has the resources to meet their needs. Reinstating the LAD program would do a lot of good, and it is very possible that some of the "behaviors" would decrease if kids are getting an appropriate education.

Abdication of any attempts at discipline. Many of the challenges we see in the older grades are not about frustration, or trauma. They are about kids who haven't been given any boundaries or held to any sort of expectations. Administrators and teachers aren't given the tools they need to deal with kids who are choosing chaos and violence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot going on in this thread, but I'll tread OP's question as honest - why does it seem like there are a lot more violent kids in the classroom today?

The answer is complicated, and not all at MCPS's feet, but some of it is.

Not MCPS's Fault

First of all, there's the after-effects of COVID. While a lot of us were able to work from home and supervise our kids, the pandemic was extremely traumatic for many communities. Poor families lost access to childcare while still needing to report to work, and deaths from COVID disproportionately fell on Black/brown and working class communities. So, you have trauma, and you have a lot of kids who were essentially unsupervised for more than a year or missed critical periods of socialization.

Also as a result of COVID, childcare centers closed or made their ratios smaller, which limited the access some of these kids had to folks who could spot learning disabilities or emotional disregulation. So instead of getting identified for early intervention at 3 or 4, kids are turning up in MCPS for Kindergarten with serious issues and no diagnosis or plan to get a diagnosis.

MCPS's Fault

The move to a "home school" model. Someone upthread made a point of differentiating between kids with learning differences and kids with behaviors, but that's not the right frame. Kids with "just" learning differences turn into kids with behaviors when their needs are not met. Previously, MCPS would collect the kids with learning differences into a smaller number of schools, and then give those schools additional resources to meet the kids' needs. It wasn't a perfect system, but it was better than the current model in which every kid is attending their zoned ES and no one has the resources to meet their needs. Reinstating the LAD program would do a lot of good, and it is very possible that some of the "behaviors" would decrease if kids are getting an appropriate education.

Abdication of any attempts at discipline. Many of the challenges we see in the older grades are not about frustration, or trauma. They are about kids who haven't been given any boundaries or held to any sort of expectations. Administrators and teachers aren't given the tools they need to deal with kids who are choosing chaos and violence.

This is an excellent post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few SES kids came to my kid's ES this year. They all have shadows. One of them seems to be violent and it is causing anxiety in several kids in the class. This kid has tried lifting a 3rd grader by the neck before. Not sure if the 3rd grader's parents were notified.

Today was a whole new issue. At recess this SES kid ran to another kid in same class who is bigger than him, and tried to tackle him but SES shadow pulled him away. Then he ran to another kid half his size, put his arm around that kid's neck and started punching him in the cheek with other hand. The shadow ran again and pulled him away. My kid says the other kid was crying. After this the SES kid went to teacher's bathroom and knocked a painting that was there.

A few hours later SES kid ran into the class where the 1st child whom he tried to tackle was, went up to him, put a pair of scissors against him and told him "I wanna F'ing kill you. This is attempted murder". The shadow pulled him away. The new teacher started crying.

If I were the parent of any of these other children, I would raise a stink.

What is the purpose of having these kids with extreme behavior issues mainstreamed at the risk of causing fear in other students as well as teachers? Shouldn't they be in self contained classes? There are 2 other SES kids who are not aggressive so those kids being mainstreamed makes sense. But this does not.

My kid likes the school but does not feel safe when things like this happen.

Never had this at my kids MCPS schools so seems to be isolated.

Are you in an affluent area? The SES kids with shadows are all new to the school. No idea where they went to school before since they don't interact much with my kid. Maybe MCPS is trying out something new. I just wish it wasn't at our school. Last year was uneventful. Our Principal is very inclusive and we like him. I believe he will do what is right for the rest of the kids and get this kid moved.

From what my child says, I think there are about 7 or 8 kids with shadows across the grades who came in new this year. Three in the 5th grade, 2 are fine and then there is this kid. I believe they are allowed to do what they want and shadow/aide follows them everywhere. A younger kid with a shadow, in another grade, caused a school lockdown by trying to run out of the school and many teachers had to restrain him.

It sounds like they have disbanded a special ed program elsewhere or moved it to your school and it's not working.

There was an SES program at my child's school and it was never like this. You barely noticed any difference between the kids in the SES program and the other mainstreamed kids. If there was a child close to a meltdown a para would help them leave the classroom and they would return when they were better. DC was friends with some of these kids and really I couldn't tell which kids were in the program and which were not. I've never heard of any violence towards other kids. Most of these kids ended up "graduating" from the program and just became regular mainstream students. I did hear of one that went to a more restrictive placement but that was an exception. This was over six full years.

Has someone contacted the district special ed superintendent to send more resources to the school or talked to the person who runs the SES program there about what's going on? The problem is not the kids. It's that someone is not allocating sufficient help for those kids.

You may be right. I see a "Behavior Support Teacher" and a lot of "Paraeducator Spec Ed" on our school directory.

I have no idea if anyone has contacted district special ed superintendent.

According to my kid, this child has had 2 aides/shadows recently. My kid thinks the new person could be the Dad because they look like Dad and son, but who knows. If it was really the Dad, I guess he now has a case for his child to be moved instead of waiting one year like the PP said, since he was there during the recess event. The Principal has not addressed the recess event though and I'm surprised because the entire grade witnessed that and kids talk.

OP you don't need to wait one year for a child to be moved. Make no mistake parents in this situation are BEGGING for their children to be moved but it requires documentation and sign off from the district which can take a lot of time.