When does the chair thrower have to leave school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Threads like this pop up from time to time and are almost never productive or helpful - just filled with generalizations or hearsay that don't reflect the actual law, policies, or contexts that schools and families are working within. I wish Jeff would do more to moderate or remove them because they are ableist and often inaccurate.

Also, we're talking about a child in your school community who needs support - maybe use that framing instead of "chair thrower." It's not like there are one-size-fits-all spaces in self-contained classrooms or good special ed private schools for every student who would benefit from them.

The only good advice here is what a PP said about documenting and sharing with the teacher/principal factual info about the impact on your own child.

This comment exemplifies a certain mindset: the problem is not that there's a child acting violently in the classroom, endangering themselves and others and that getting them in the right classroom setting basically requires moving mountains or is impossible. The problem is you noticing and trying to call attention to it. The solution is to police your speech to make sure you can't call children who throw chairs, chair throwers and make sure you can't make anyone else aware of this problem in case someone might actually want to do something about it...

Telling parents who are trying to protect their children from violent classmates that they are the problem is the surest way to make sure they bail on public education entirely.

[Anonymous]

Never. In MCPS a child was recently sent to the ICU after being struck by another child. Nothing will happen.

https://mocoshow.com/2025/10/23/community-rallies-around-student-in-intensive-care-after-serious-injury-at-middle-school/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never. In MCPS a child was recently sent to the ICU after being struck by another child. Nothing will happen.

https://mocoshow.com/2025/10/23/community-rallies-around-student-in-intensive-care-after-serious-injury-at-middle-school/

“Bone fragments entered his brain”. Dear lord. I’m sure this was not the first time the aggressor acted out.

But sure, we’re all ableist for being concerned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Threads like this pop up from time to time and are almost never productive or helpful - just filled with generalizations or hearsay that don't reflect the actual law, policies, or contexts that schools and families are working within. I wish Jeff would do more to moderate or remove them because they are ableist and often inaccurate.

Also, we're talking about a child in your school community who needs support - maybe use that framing instead of "chair thrower." It's not like there are one-size-fits-all spaces in self-contained classrooms or good special ed private schools for every student who would benefit from them.

The only good advice here is what a PP said about documenting and sharing with the teacher/principal factual info about the impact on your own child.

This comment exemplifies a certain mindset: the problem is not that there's a child acting violently in the classroom, endangering themselves and others and that getting them in the right classroom setting basically requires moving mountains or is impossible. The problem is you noticing and trying to call attention to it. The solution is to police your speech to make sure you can't call children who throw chairs, chair throwers and make sure you can't make anyone else aware of this problem in case someone might actually want to do something about it...

Telling parents who are trying to protect their children from violent classmates that they are the problem is the surest way to make sure they bail on public education entirely.

Agreed. There is only empathy for the child with the behavioral issues, and the parents of the child with the behavioral issues.

There is no empathy for the many children whose schooldays are consistently derailed by violent behavior, or the teacher who must daily figure out how to protect herself and the other kids from a violent child who cannot be removed from her classroom, or the parents of these other children who are doing what they can to support their kids at home but simply don't have good answers to "what should I do when Larlo throws a chair at my head?" or "why do I have to sit on my hands and wait in silence in the classroom every time this happens, when I didn't do anything wrong" (that was a real question my kid asked me when the behavioral disruptions in her 2nd grade classroom were so bad that they teacher had a protocol that involved all the kids literally sitting on their hands and putting their heads down when one of the two children in class who were having issues became violent, so that the teacher or aide could tackle that kid and drag them from the classroom).

We can't ONLY care about the kids with the biggest issues. And teachers will keep leaving the profession, or refusing to join it, if we don't listen to their concerns on this.

The problem is the insistence on mainstreaming even when it's clearly not working. Other associated problems: a shortage of Sped teachers, zero accountability for parents, a mishmash of laws/agencies addressing the problems of school age children with huge gaps (schools are often trying to coordinate with parents, other guardians, CPS, law enforcement, family court, etc., and those groups may not be working well together or may be working specifically against each other).

We need to have compassion for more than just the kid throwing the chair. I can have compassion for that kid while also recognizing that everyone else has needs that should be met as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Threads like this pop up from time to time and are almost never productive or helpful - just filled with generalizations or hearsay that don't reflect the actual law, policies, or contexts that schools and families are working within. I wish Jeff would do more to moderate or remove them because they are ableist and often inaccurate.

Also, we're talking about a child in your school community who needs support - maybe use that framing instead of "chair thrower." It's not like there are one-size-fits-all spaces in self-contained classrooms or good special ed private schools for every student who would benefit from them.

The only good advice here is what a PP said about documenting and sharing with the teacher/principal factual info about the impact on your own child.

I draw the line at violence. I care that a classroom of kids no longer feels safe. If that makes be "ableist" because that kid is not "able" to stop being violent, then that word is meaningless nonsense.

I can accept all sorts of things that happen in a mainstreamed classroom, including that my kids go to school with kids several grades behind and that their teachers have very little individual attention to give to my kids because of it. I do not accept violence, especially repeated violence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never. In MCPS a child was recently sent to the ICU after being struck by another child. Nothing will happen.

https://mocoshow.com/2025/10/23/community-rallies-around-student-in-intensive-care-after-serious-injury-at-middle-school/

“Bone fragments entered his brain”. Dear lord. I’m sure this was not the first time the aggressor acted out.

But sure, we’re all ableist for being concerned.

Go Fund Me for the family.
https://mocoshow.com/2025/10/23/community-rallies-around-student-in-intensive-care-after-serious-injury-at-middle-school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s going to take several interventions and documentation from the teacher and the school as well as communication and cooperation from parents. You have a better chance of success asking for your child to be moved to a different class.

I disagree that it would be easier to get your kid moved to another classroom unless, perhaps, they are specifically a target. My daughter had a literal chair thrower (hit the teacher) in her 2nd grade classroom. Document, document, document. After the third in-school suspension (one instance involved him choking a child, another involved him telling a child he was going to bring a knife to school and stab him with it in graphic detail), it triggered some kind of automatic assessment even without parental permission, and the child ended up with a 20 hour/week 1 on 1. The difference for both the class and the child was night and day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Threads like this pop up from time to time and are almost never productive or helpful - just filled with generalizations or hearsay that don't reflect the actual law, policies, or contexts that schools and families are working within. I wish Jeff would do more to moderate or remove them because they are ableist and often inaccurate.

Also, we're talking about a child in your school community who needs support - maybe use that framing instead of "chair thrower." It's not like there are one-size-fits-all spaces in self-contained classrooms or good special ed private schools for every student who would benefit from them.

The only good advice here is what a PP said about documenting and sharing with the teacher/principal factual info about the impact on your own child.

Too bad. One throw and the child should be removed from the classroom for the rest of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never. In MCPS a child was recently sent to the ICU after being struck by another child. Nothing will happen.

https://mocoshow.com/2025/10/23/community-rallies-around-student-in-intensive-care-after-serious-injury-at-middle-school/

I hope charges have been filed against the other kid.

[Anonymous]

But back to the original question: in our case the chair thrower was never removed in DCPS. My child experienced severe anxiety and didn’t want to attend school. We left DCPS.

[Anonymous]

General question because we deal with a violent child every single year in school between my kids- if my child is hit by another child do I need to go through school? Can I call the cops? Isn’t it assault? If my child ended up in the ICU can I file charges and sue? It’s not the first time the school has seen the kid be violent, they did nothing to protect my child, and I think they’re negligent? And if it’s something lesser like a black eye from a chair thrower- can I still go to the cops?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:General question because we deal with a violent child every single year in school between my kids- if my child is hit by another child do I need to go through school? Can I call the cops? Isn’t it assault? If my child ended up in the ICU can I file charges and sue? It’s not the first time the school has seen the kid be violent, they did nothing to protect my child, and I think they’re negligent? And if it’s something lesser like a black eye from a chair thrower- can I still go to the cops?

You do not need to go through the school. You can and should file a police report.

[Anonymous]

We have a chair thrower as president and a lot of the country is tolerating it. A lot of people didn’t vote for him or didn’t vote, but these convos are often terribly disingenuous.

How can we expect children to behave when there’s a toddler throwing tantrums every day at the White House?

I bet there’s a lot of crossover between people who want to see this boy punished and not work to help him with people who think it’s NBD for Trump to bully and tear down half the country (or class).

We have to decide what are values are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a chair thrower as president and a lot of the country is tolerating it. A lot of people didn’t vote for him or didn’t vote, but these convos are often terribly disingenuous.

How can we expect children to behave when there’s a toddler throwing tantrums every day at the White House?

I bet there’s a lot of crossover between people who want to see this boy punished and not work to help him with people who think it’s NBD for Trump to bully and tear down half the country (or class).

Yea, no. You just won worst take of the thread, which is quite a feat given the anti-“ableist” woke word salad up above.

We have to decide what are values are.

[Anonymous]

I think sometimes parents of really smart and well-behaved kids have difficulty seeing the full picture with respect to a problem child. Is the other child a 5th grader or something more like a 1st grader? Does the other child occasionally have full-on sensory-related fight or flight meltdowns? Is the classroom teacher somewhat inexperienced and not the absolute best at maintaining calm routines and expectations? If the child is younger, this type of behavior can be outgrown.