Inappropriate response from teachers at Elementary School Summer Program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am sorry this is so difficult. Sounds like the camp is not designed with all the staff needed to provide one on one support for your son, and attending the camp is something he can’t deal with yet. I can’t blame the camp - they have to respond when a student threatens to harm themselves.

Camp? This is MCPS summer school we're talking about.

Nice try.

I’m a different poster, but the same response goes. There are inpatient hospitals and other supports for a child that is not stable. Was this child taken to the crisis center?

My only real issue with how the teachers handled this is that they did not involve the crisis center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your kid needs more support than summer school can offer if he's repeatedly threatening to kill himself. This is not typical behavior.

This. It sucks but it is true. And I just can't get up in arms. You want teachers to deal with this but they can't. They did the responsible thing by calling you. But now your kid knows if he threatens this he gets to go home so he is smart kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid needs more support than summer school can offer if he's repeatedly threatening to kill himself. This is not typical behavior.

This. It sucks but it is true. And I just can't get up in arms. You want teachers to deal with this but they can't. They did the responsible thing by calling you. But now your kid knows if he threatens this he gets to go home so he is smart kid.

Teachers can, and should, be empathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...the medication switch was from Adderall XR to Ritalin XR because DS was not eating on Adderall. That was it. Please do not assume that just because we are making a medication switch it was purely for direct treatment and not for addressing side effects of one medication.

Your child is suicidal. At 8. Your child needs more support than a summer school program can offer. Period.

10% of ES kids make suicidal statements. More make murderous statements. That's not the same as being suicidal.

Do you expect teachers to know how to handle multiple suicidal threats? This is not something they are trained for. And is not up to a teacher to decide whether a threat is real or not. That child should be taken to the crisis center.

How should MoCo handle those 10% of kids? MCPS doesn't have the resources.

MCPS actually has some excellent resources for kids with MH issues. But they aren’t in mainstream programs and definitely not in mainstream summer school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...the medication switch was from Adderall XR to Ritalin XR because DS was not eating on Adderall. That was it. Please do not assume that just because we are making a medication switch it was purely for direct treatment and not for addressing side effects of one medication.

Your child is suicidal. At 8. Your child needs more support than a summer school program can offer. Period.

10% of ES kids make suicidal statements. More make murderous statements. That's not the same as being suicidal.

Do you expect teachers to know how to handle multiple suicidal threats? This is not something they are trained for. And is not up to a teacher to decide whether a threat is real or not. That child should be taken to the crisis center.

How should MoCo handle those 10% of kids? MCPS doesn't have the resources.

MCPS actually has some excellent resources for kids with MH issues. But they aren’t in mainstream programs and definitely not in mainstream summer school.

MCPS doesn't have special placement options for the 10% of ES students who make suicidal statements. Nowhere close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here...the medication switch was from Adderall XR to Ritalin XR because DS was not eating on Adderall. That was it. Please do not assume that just because we are making a medication switch it was purely for direct treatment and not for addressing side effects of one medication.

Changing stimulants for a kid with anxiety can be really dangerous - as you found out when your child started to make suicidal threats repeatedly at school. Many psychiatrists won’t even prescribe stimulants for kids with anxiety. You can downplay this all you want but this was not a minor medication modification for your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...the medication switch was from Adderall XR to Ritalin XR because DS was not eating on Adderall. That was it. Please do not assume that just because we are making a medication switch it was purely for direct treatment and not for addressing side effects of one medication.

Changing stimulants for a kid with anxiety can be really dangerous - as you found out when your child started to make suicidal threats repeatedly at school. Many psychiatrists won’t even prescribe stimulants for kids with anxiety. You can downplay this all you want but this was not a minor medication modification for your child.

Source?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...the medication switch was from Adderall XR to Ritalin XR because DS was not eating on Adderall. That was it. Please do not assume that just because we are making a medication switch it was purely for direct treatment and not for addressing side effects of one medication.

Your child is suicidal. At 8. Your child needs more support than a summer school program can offer. Period.

10% of ES kids make suicidal statements. More make murderous statements. That's not the same as being suicidal.

Do you expect teachers to know how to handle multiple suicidal threats? This is not something they are trained for. And is not up to a teacher to decide whether a threat is real or not. That child should be taken to the crisis center.

How should MoCo handle those 10% of kids? MCPS doesn't have the resources.

MCPS actually has some excellent resources for kids with MH issues. But they aren’t in mainstream programs and definitely not in mainstream summer school.

MCPS doesn't have special placement options for the 10% of ES students who make suicidal statements. Nowhere close.

Not to hijack but really they do and my son was in one. It was excellent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...the medication switch was from Adderall XR to Ritalin XR because DS was not eating on Adderall. That was it. Please do not assume that just because we are making a medication switch it was purely for direct treatment and not for addressing side effects of one medication.

Your child is suicidal. At 8. Your child needs more support than a summer school program can offer. Period.

10% of ES kids make suicidal statements. More make murderous statements. That's not the same as being suicidal.

Do you expect teachers to know how to handle multiple suicidal threats? This is not something they are trained for. And is not up to a teacher to decide whether a threat is real or not. That child should be taken to the crisis center.

How should MoCo handle those 10% of kids? MCPS doesn't have the resources.

MCPS actually has some excellent resources for kids with MH issues. But they aren’t in mainstream programs and definitely not in mainstream summer school.

MCPS doesn't have special placement options for the 10% of ES students who make suicidal statements. Nowhere close.

Not to hijack but really they do and my son was in one. It was excellent.

Places for some, but not places for 10% of ES kids.

[Anonymous]

10% of elementary students are NOT making repeated suicidal threats. I’m a 5th grade teacher in the county and have had 2 in the past 20 years of teaching. And with those two children, I worked closely with the family to support them.

Covid did increase MH issues in younger children, but this is still very uncommon. If the OP is being told that this is normal, she is being misled.

Focus on supporting your son and not crucifying teachers for not knowing how to handle multiple suicidal thoughts within the first 13 days of summer school.

[Anonymous]

There are bad eggs in every group. I'm sorry you DC and your family were treated this way. You have to have very thick skin when your child has special needs because there are people out there with very little empathy for others. Hugs, OP

[Anonymous]

OP is totally focusing on the wrong things. Your kid needs serious help and the ding dong-ing around putting him in the wrong program while tinkering with his meds is just stupid and irresponsible. Now you just want to sit around and discuss giggling teachers. It’s unimportant.

The important thing is for you to admit your kid needs serious help and to focus on that.

[Anonymous]

OP I’m sorry this happened and I’m sorry you are getting this insane comments. I think you have been really clear that you are getting your child help and that’s not what this thread is about. Good for you for pulling your child out of a bad situation. I think notifying the principal was good but I don’t that’s too late to ask to have a call about this situation. The principal should be on warning that her teachers handled this really badly. I think expecting human decency is reasonable even if they aren’t given specific training in mental health. I hope your son is doing better now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am sorry this is so difficult. Sounds like the camp is not designed with all the staff needed to provide one on one support for your son, and attending the camp is something he can’t deal with yet. I can’t blame the camp - they have to respond when a student threatens to harm themselves.

Camp? This is MCPS summer school we're talking about.

Nice try.

I’m a different poster, but the same response goes. There are inpatient hospitals and other supports for a child that is not stable. Was this child taken to the crisis center?

My only real issue with how the teachers handled this is that they did not involve the crisis center.

I don't know if OP is a troll, but, I wonder about the story as presented. Teachers did not seem to be following procedure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am sorry this is so difficult. Sounds like the camp is not designed with all the staff needed to provide one on one support for your son, and attending the camp is something he can’t deal with yet. I can’t blame the camp - they have to respond when a student threatens to harm themselves.

Camp? This is MCPS summer school we're talking about.

Nice try.

I’m a different poster, but the same response goes. There are inpatient hospitals and other supports for a child that is not stable. Was this child taken to the crisis center?

My only real issue with how the teachers handled this is that they did not involve the crisis center.

I don't know if OP is a troll, but, I wonder about the story as presented. Teachers did not seem to be following procedure.

Why would they?