Disruptive student in class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread has convinced me to train my kid in martial arts for self defense at school. What a sad state of affairs.

Don’t believe everything you read online! I have two sons who have never encountered anything like this in all their years.

You are lucky!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I substitute at our W cluster elementary and kids hit kids almost every day. Most of the time it's not a hard hit, and it's a trip to the admin and some kind of consequence like missing choice time and I think that's appropriate.

Suspension is not appropriate for most kids because it just teaches them that hitting gets them the reward of not having to go to school.

The thing that worries me about OP's case is that the child has hit kids multiple times in one week and school just started. Most of the kids who get sent to admin for hitting do it once or twice. Maybe another time they may have pushed a kid but it's unusual for a child to hit different children that many times in one week.

That would probably lead to an emergency meeting with parents, implementation of an individual behavior or management plan and a discussion about whether special needs testing needs to be done.

If a child is not diagnosed with special needs at the time the family is called in this can be a difficult meeting because many parents are really scared of having their child labeled as special needs so they become oppositional at the meeting and start blaming the school, the teacher or other kids.

The parents of the kids who already have IEPs or 504 plans are usually really apologetic and have already taken measures with private therapists to address the issue.

Yes this is my concern, it is already happening. And it's not just one child he targets. I don't know what triggers him, so I worry about my child, the children he hits,, plus the other students having to witness this.

[Anonymous]

Why the hell is this kid still hitting? He's in third grade. He isn't a toddler.

I never used to be one for retaliation, but I'm beginning to think sometimes the hitter needs to be hit back ONCE. Actions have consequences.

I know, I know... that's completely the wrong approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why the hell is this kid still hitting? He's in third grade. He isn't a toddler.

I never used to be one for retaliation, but I'm beginning to think sometimes the hitter needs to be hit back ONCE. Actions have consequences.

I know, I know... that's completely the wrong approach.

My DH and 2 boys are skilled fighters capable of choking someone out and breaking arms, and will fight back if someone hits them. My boys are good natured and will never start a fight, and will not go overboard unless necessary. If the school is unable to control their students, and my kids need to defend themselves against a hitter, they know they have my full support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why the hell is this kid still hitting? He's in third grade. He isn't a toddler.

I never used to be one for retaliation, but I'm beginning to think sometimes the hitter needs to be hit back ONCE. Actions have consequences.

I know, I know... that's completely the wrong approach.

My DH and 2 boys are skilled fighters capable of choking someone out and breaking arms, and will fight back if someone hits them. My boys are good natured and will never start a fight, and will not go overboard unless necessary. If the school is unable to control their students, and my kids need to defend themselves against a hitter, they know they have my full support.

To add an example—I posted this elsewhere, but my son had to deal with this boy who was slapping and hitting a bunch of children. The bully slapped my son, and my son responded with a welt under the bully’s eye. As a result, the bully stopped attacking others, and my son became a hero, the others were so thankful he put a stop to it. All the kids defended my son’s actions to their moms and the bully’s upset mom.

[Anonymous]

I'm a former MCPS admin who resigned from my elementary school position because I couldn't deal with how tied my hands were when trying to lead a school building. Our schools look so much different now than they did ten years ago. The disruptive behavior and defiance are taking a toll on all of our educators and the students who are there to learn. We place too much emphasis on schools to solve our societal issues. The fact that I would have to call my director to get permission to suspend a kid for hitting a teacher was the straw that broke the camel's back. When you go through your admin program MCPS tells you that they pay us for our judgement. The reality is, optics are everything and they will do whatever they can to keep those suspension numbers down. I spent most of my day babysitting kids who couldn't stay safe in their classes.
I've noticed a lot of people who post on here are quick to jump on the IEP train but don't realize that there's a timeline for all of that and you can't just have a student be placed in an alternative program two weeks after starting the process. I had a student who was coded with emotional disabilities but central office kept the child at our school rather than our neighboring SESES program. Code doesn't drive a student's placement. I give credit to all of the MCPS staff who are sticking with it but it just wasn't worth it any more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a former MCPS admin who resigned from my elementary school position because I couldn't deal with how tied my hands were when trying to lead a school building. Our schools look so much different now than they did ten years ago. The disruptive behavior and defiance are taking a toll on all of our educators and the students who are there to learn. We place too much emphasis on schools to solve our societal issues. The fact that I would have to call my director to get permission to suspend a kid for hitting a teacher was the straw that broke the camel's back. When you go through your admin program MCPS tells you that they pay us for our judgement. The reality is, optics are everything and they will do whatever they can to keep those suspension numbers down. I spent most of my day babysitting kids who couldn't stay safe in their classes.
I've noticed a lot of people who post on here are quick to jump on the IEP train but don't realize that there's a timeline for all of that and you can't just have a student be placed in an alternative program two weeks after starting the process. I had a student who was coded with emotional disabilities but central office kept the child at our school rather than our neighboring SESES program. Code doesn't drive a student's placement. I give credit to all of the MCPS staff who are sticking with it but it just wasn't worth it any more.

Thank you for being brave enough to share the handcuffs you were suffering with.

These are the systemic and bureaucratic obstacles to making our school system great and effective. How can we dismantle them when the BoE refuses to do its job of holding MCPS accountable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I substitute at our W cluster elementary and kids hit kids almost every day. Most of the time it's not a hard hit, and it's a trip to the admin and some kind of consequence like missing choice time and I think that's appropriate.

Suspension is not appropriate for most kids because it just teaches them that hitting gets them the reward of not having to go to school.

The thing that worries me about OP's case is that the child has hit kids multiple times in one week and school just started. Most of the kids who get sent to admin for hitting do it once or twice. Maybe another time they may have pushed a kid but it's unusual for a child to hit different children that many times in one week.

That would probably lead to an emergency meeting with parents, implementation of an individual behavior or management plan and a discussion about whether special needs testing needs to be done.

If a child is not diagnosed with special needs at the time the family is called in this can be a difficult meeting because many parents are really scared of having their child labeled as special needs so they become oppositional at the meeting and start blaming the school, the teacher or other kids.

The parents of the kids who already have IEPs or 504 plans are usually really apologetic and have already taken measures with private therapists to address the issue.

Yes this is my concern, it is already happening. And it's not just one child he targets. I don't know what triggers him, so I worry about my child, the children he hits,, plus the other students having to witness this.

The school should be having a meeting with the parents, ASAP. Of course, this may have already happened, maybe even last year, and for whatever reason the student was not moved to a self-contained program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a former MCPS admin who resigned from my elementary school position because I couldn't deal with how tied my hands were when trying to lead a school building. Our schools look so much different now than they did ten years ago. The disruptive behavior and defiance are taking a toll on all of our educators and the students who are there to learn. We place too much emphasis on schools to solve our societal issues. The fact that I would have to call my director to get permission to suspend a kid for hitting a teacher was the straw that broke the camel's back. When you go through your admin program MCPS tells you that they pay us for our judgement. The reality is, optics are everything and they will do whatever they can to keep those suspension numbers down. I spent most of my day babysitting kids who couldn't stay safe in their classes.
I've noticed a lot of people who post on here are quick to jump on the IEP train but don't realize that there's a timeline for all of that and you can't just have a student be placed in an alternative program two weeks after starting the process. I had a student who was coded with emotional disabilities but central office kept the child at our school rather than our neighboring SESES program. Code doesn't drive a student's placement. I give credit to all of the MCPS staff who are sticking with it but it just wasn't worth it any more.

It’s pretty disturbing that a former principal doesn’t seem to know what LRE means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why the hell is this kid still hitting? He's in third grade. He isn't a toddler.

I never used to be one for retaliation, but I'm beginning to think sometimes the hitter needs to be hit back ONCE. Actions have consequences.

I know, I know... that's completely the wrong approach.

My DH and 2 boys are skilled fighters capable of choking someone out and breaking arms, and will fight back if someone hits them. My boys are good natured and will never start a fight, and will not go overboard unless necessary. If the school is unable to control their students, and my kids need to defend themselves against a hitter, they know they have my full support.

https://www.reddit.com/r/iamverybadass/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a former MCPS admin who resigned from my elementary school position because I couldn't deal with how tied my hands were when trying to lead a school building. Our schools look so much different now than they did ten years ago. The disruptive behavior and defiance are taking a toll on all of our educators and the students who are there to learn. We place too much emphasis on schools to solve our societal issues. The fact that I would have to call my director to get permission to suspend a kid for hitting a teacher was the straw that broke the camel's back. When you go through your admin program MCPS tells you that they pay us for our judgement. The reality is, optics are everything and they will do whatever they can to keep those suspension numbers down. I spent most of my day babysitting kids who couldn't stay safe in their classes.
I've noticed a lot of people who post on here are quick to jump on the IEP train but don't realize that there's a timeline for all of that and you can't just have a student be placed in an alternative program two weeks after starting the process. I had a student who was coded with emotional disabilities but central office kept the child at our school rather than our neighboring SESES program. Code doesn't drive a student's placement. I give credit to all of the MCPS staff who are sticking with it but it just wasn't worth it any more.

It’s pretty disturbing that a former principal doesn’t seem to know what LRE means.

LRE doesn't mean allowing disruptive and/or violent, aggressive students to remain in a classroom and continuing to hurt others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a former MCPS admin who resigned from my elementary school position because I couldn't deal with how tied my hands were when trying to lead a school building. Our schools look so much different now than they did ten years ago. The disruptive behavior and defiance are taking a toll on all of our educators and the students who are there to learn. We place too much emphasis on schools to solve our societal issues. The fact that I would have to call my director to get permission to suspend a kid for hitting a teacher was the straw that broke the camel's back. When you go through your admin program MCPS tells you that they pay us for our judgement. The reality is, optics are everything and they will do whatever they can to keep those suspension numbers down. I spent most of my day babysitting kids who couldn't stay safe in their classes.
I've noticed a lot of people who post on here are quick to jump on the IEP train but don't realize that there's a timeline for all of that and you can't just have a student be placed in an alternative program two weeks after starting the process. I had a student who was coded with emotional disabilities but central office kept the child at our school rather than our neighboring SESES program. Code doesn't drive a student's placement. I give credit to all of the MCPS staff who are sticking with it but it just wasn't worth it any more.

It’s pretty disturbing that a former principal doesn’t seem to know what LRE means.

LRE doesn't mean allowing disruptive and/or violent, aggressive students to remain in a classroom and continuing to hurt others.

No, but it certainly doesn't mean you'd expect a student with special needs to be pulled out of a general education classroom as a first step. You are only supposed to remove students when services/supports don't work in the general education setting.

And certainly you wouldn't expect the code to be the primary factor driving placement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a former MCPS admin who resigned from my elementary school position because I couldn't deal with how tied my hands were when trying to lead a school building. Our schools look so much different now than they did ten years ago. The disruptive behavior and defiance are taking a toll on all of our educators and the students who are there to learn. We place too much emphasis on schools to solve our societal issues. The fact that I would have to call my director to get permission to suspend a kid for hitting a teacher was the straw that broke the camel's back. When you go through your admin program MCPS tells you that they pay us for our judgement. The reality is, optics are everything and they will do whatever they can to keep those suspension numbers down. I spent most of my day babysitting kids who couldn't stay safe in their classes.
I've noticed a lot of people who post on here are quick to jump on the IEP train but don't realize that there's a timeline for all of that and you can't just have a student be placed in an alternative program two weeks after starting the process. I had a student who was coded with emotional disabilities but central office kept the child at our school rather than our neighboring SESES program. Code doesn't drive a student's placement. I give credit to all of the MCPS staff who are sticking with it but it just wasn't worth it any more.

It’s pretty disturbing that a former principal doesn’t seem to know what LRE means.

12:05 here - very familiar with LRE as I taught in SESES. Nice try couch warrior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a former MCPS admin who resigned from my elementary school position because I couldn't deal with how tied my hands were when trying to lead a school building. Our schools look so much different now than they did ten years ago. The disruptive behavior and defiance are taking a toll on all of our educators and the students who are there to learn. We place too much emphasis on schools to solve our societal issues. The fact that I would have to call my director to get permission to suspend a kid for hitting a teacher was the straw that broke the camel's back. When you go through your admin program MCPS tells you that they pay us for our judgement. The reality is, optics are everything and they will do whatever they can to keep those suspension numbers down. I spent most of my day babysitting kids who couldn't stay safe in their classes.
I've noticed a lot of people who post on here are quick to jump on the IEP train but don't realize that there's a timeline for all of that and you can't just have a student be placed in an alternative program two weeks after starting the process. I had a student who was coded with emotional disabilities but central office kept the child at our school rather than our neighboring SESES program. Code doesn't drive a student's placement. I give credit to all of the MCPS staff who are sticking with it but it just wasn't worth it any more.

It’s pretty disturbing that a former principal doesn’t seem to know what LRE means.

12:05 here - very familiar with LRE as I taught in SESES. Nice try couch warrior.

That only makes it more disturbing that you don't understand it. I'm glad you left the system. You shouldn't be anywhere near kids with special needs.

[Anonymous]

If you are who I think you are then you have a terrible reputation in MCPS, admin. Your answer to every special needs kid was to try to ship them out of your school and you violated laws numerous times by trying to do that. the compliance office was investigating you but then you left.