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This reminds me of the Newport News kindergartener who kept escalating until he shot his teacher.
https://apnews.com/article/virginia-school-shooting-boy-6-zwerner-richneck-eeeac96418220aee71cdd296c0089821 |
| I work at a different nearby elementary, and I can believe this all occurred. The thing is, the vast majority of our kindergartners and 1st graders are great. There are just a handful — maybe a couple in some classes, none in others — with serious emotional issues or undiagnosed disabilities. Yes, it’s more than we used to see. It’s hard. |
Contact your Senator and Congressperson. MCPS does not enforce because of their convuluted understanding of disability law. |
Very creative. But again, we're talking about a kindergartener. An adult assigned to a child should be able to prevent that child from obtaining and throwing an object like a water bottle. And a good paraeducator would be able to guide the child to calming strategies before a situation escalates to that level. That's literally the job. |
Since it’s so easy you try it. |
You do not appear to have sat down, no. |
I didn't say it was easy-- I said it was the job. Unfortunately, MCPS does a terrible job training paraeducators, and makes minimal efforts to appropriately pair paraeducators with students based on their skills and needs. |
Why are you so determined to underplay this, or blame the victims? I'm flummoxed about your motivations here. |
I'm not underplaying it. But the fault here rests with MCPS not providing appropriate supports in the classroom, not with the 6-year-old child that some have been demonizing. |
No, the fault lies in that MCPS has not provided the appropriate placement for the child. Gen Ed is not the appropriate placement for a child that injured staff to the point of needing stitches. Merely providing an aide is not enough either. A self contained, fully staffed special education classroom for those with disabilities is the appropriate placement. |
I think one of the challenges here is the mismatch between number of kids who might need that kind of classroom and the number of seats available. I've run into this situation a handful of times, and each time it involved a kid who was new to MCPS for some reason. Those numbers seem to be increasing over the last couple of years, but the number of seats is static. |
I agree. There was a girl in our K who was out of control—threw a heavy object at the teacher who had to go to the hospital as a result, explosive tantrums, threw metal water bottle (missed the student in this case), physically attacking other students. So all the same behaviors on this thread, though a different ES. The principal in this case however handled this situation well and the girl is no longer terrorizing the school. I like the girl and the family but she needs intervention. The principal can make a difference in how these cases are dealt with. A full metal water bottle is like a kettlebell. |
Not in mcps but this is a nation wide problem, and I say this as a parent of a child who requires a 1:1 aide. There are no placements for kids who are borderline. |
Fortunately Maryland has better gun laws. |
You can't reasonably jump to that conclusion without knowing more about the child's needs, and what strategies have succeeded or failed. Many of the risks are the same between the gen-ed and self-contained environments, ans many the same supports and services can be employed in both. |