Suing Parents for their child's violent behavior?

[Anonymous]

Your school has failed you.

[Anonymous]

Was the student in your school last year? Was the behavior a problem then too? Did his teacher take any steps? I'd start with that, too. And just document everything. Keep a list of all his actions each day.

It seems pretty unusual that the administrators are not helping by at least having consults with the social/emotional folks, etc. I think at some point they can do that without the parents' permission.

This kind of behavior isn't THAT infrequent these days and I'd want to know how your school has handled similar situations in the past or currently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher, Calm down. You are upset at the wrong people. The problem is your school's administration. There are a lot of things they can do beyond the IEP process. You need to put a note into writing to your principal and cc the special needs office for your district. Explain the situation and tell them you need additional staffing to help with this issue and you need a consultation from a behavioral specialist who can help you with strategies to manage the child's behavior.

You should also look at what YOU are doing to trigger the behaviors if anything. I am not saying you are doing something wrong but you might be inadvertently upsetting the child.

Lastly, try to have some empathy. Your post comes off sounding kind of crazy. What kind of teacher would sue parents?

No. The teacher, like everyone else, deserves a safe work environment. If this child is injuring others, whether they are teachers or other kids, he needs to be put in a more appropriate environment, probably a self-contained class.

Your ignorance and prejudice is showing. You don't know what is going on with that child. If the parents are not willing to start the IEP process it could mean the parents are in denial and possibly in the wrong, or that they know something you don't know about how the teacher is dealing with their child that and that they don't trust her or the school.

I have been a teacher for many years and there are always two sides to the story. I have no reason to believe OP has created this situation but I have seen teachers who have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was the student in your school last year? Was the behavior a problem then too? Did his teacher take any steps? I'd start with that, too. And just document everything. Keep a list of all his actions each day.

It seems pretty unusual that the administrators are not helping by at least having consults with the social/emotional folks, etc. I think at some point they can do that without the parents' permission.

This kind of behavior isn't THAT infrequent these days and I'd want to know how your school has handled similar situations in the past or currently.

+1
Are you a new teacher? Is this a little kid like a kindergartener or 1st grader or a big 5th grader?

[Anonymous]

They can't put him in a special ed or ED classroom until he has an IEP, people.

Suspending a child with behavioral issues will likely increase the negative behavior, because he will think "bad behavior means I get to leave school".

OP, why hasn't the school system's behavioral psychologist done a Functional Behavioral Analysis? If this behavior has been going on for awhile, this should already have been done. No parental consent is required.

[Anonymous]

I don't think the OP sounds crazy at all. AT ALL. I can only assume the OP has exhausted every possible option. At this point, I'd recommend either a) suing the fuck out of your school district and b) go see a doctor, explain your PTSD symptoms and get placed on leave. Do whatever you need to do to do that. The child needs to be placed elsewhere and all other students and staff need to be safe. There are wonderful therapeutic schools that have incredibly low student to staff ratios and staff trained in safe physical restraint of students. This student needs a different placement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher, Calm down. You are upset at the wrong people. The problem is your school's administration. There are a lot of things they can do beyond the IEP process. You need to put a note into writing to your principal and cc the special needs office for your district. Explain the situation and tell them you need additional staffing to help with this issue and you need a consultation from a behavioral specialist who can help you with strategies to manage the child's behavior.

You should also look at what YOU are doing to trigger the behaviors if anything. I am not saying you are doing something wrong but you might be inadvertently upsetting the child.

Lastly, try to have some empathy. Your post comes off sounding kind of crazy. What kind of teacher would sue parents?

No. The teacher, like everyone else, deserves a safe work environment. If this child is injuring others, whether they are teachers or other kids, he needs to be put in a more appropriate environment, probably a self-contained class.

Your ignorance and prejudice is showing. You don't know what is going on with that child. If the parents are not willing to start the IEP process it could mean the parents are in denial and possibly in the wrong, or that they know something you don't know about how the teacher is dealing with their child that and that they don't trust her or the school.

I have been a teacher for many years and there are always two sides to the story. I have no reason to believe OP has created this situation but I have seen teachers who have.

You are wrong and it's too bad you are a teacher. I am the parent of a special needs child, have observed all kinds of "behaviors", and it sounds like a self-contained classroom is absolutely appropriate for this violent child - that plus an in-depth evaluation by a psychologist, that the school can provide for free if the parents can be persuaded to accept. The concept of "least restrictive environment" in the general ed. classroom only applies to children with very light behavioral issues or none at all.

Understand that we are not disparaging the child, but his actions, which may or may not be within his control.

[Anonymous]

MD and MoCo laws prohibit suspension of elementary students unless they do something like bring drugs, seriously injure someone or bring a weapon. This is what is wrong with laws that lean too far in one direction (be far right or far left.)

[Anonymous]

The issue is that placing a child in a special ed classroom without the parents consent for an IEP is very, very difficult and time consuming.

OP's school admin is to blame here. They are hoping the problem will just solve itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher, Calm down. You are upset at the wrong people. The problem is your school's administration. There are a lot of things they can do beyond the IEP process. You need to put a note into writing to your principal and cc the special needs office for your district. Explain the situation and tell them you need additional staffing to help with this issue and you need a consultation from a behavioral specialist who can help you with strategies to manage the child's behavior.

You should also look at what YOU are doing to trigger the behaviors if anything. I am not saying you are doing something wrong but you might be inadvertently upsetting the child.

Lastly, try to have some empathy. Your post comes off sounding kind of crazy. What kind of teacher would sue parents?

No. The teacher, like everyone else, deserves a safe work environment. If this child is injuring others, whether they are teachers or other kids, he needs to be put in a more appropriate environment, probably a self-contained class.

Your ignorance and prejudice is showing. You don't know what is going on with that child. If the parents are not willing to start the IEP process it could mean the parents are in denial and possibly in the wrong, or that they know something you don't know about how the teacher is dealing with their child that and that they don't trust her or the school.

I have been a teacher for many years and there are always two sides to the story. I have no reason to believe OP has created this situation but I have seen teachers who have.

You are wrong and it's too bad you are a teacher. I am the parent of a special needs child, have observed all kinds of "behaviors", and it sounds like a self-contained classroom is absolutely appropriate for this violent child - that plus an in-depth evaluation by a psychologist, that the school can provide for free if the parents can be persuaded to accept. The concept of "least restrictive environment" in the general ed. classroom only applies to children with very light behavioral issues or none at all.

Understand that we are not disparaging the child, but his actions, which may or may not be within his control.

Ditto and ditto, but there are definitely teachers with small behavioral repertoires who can make kids with behavioral issues act out. Some teachers don't have the skills to handle some kids. Regardless this situation sounds like a real shit show and I can't imagine the parents are happy with the situation either.

What exactly is the school administration doing, OP?

[Anonymous]

OP here, thank you to everyone responding. I cannot go into specifics but I have a paraeducator in my room and the behavior is the same and worse if the paraeducator has lunch or out sick or has professional development. I have been documenting since September. It's very difficult for a school system to force parents hands for IEP services. A school cannot evaluate without parents permission and to go around parents the school needs weeks of interventions , tried best educational strategies and parent outreach. I am not in my first year of teaching, I am a veteran. Teaching and educational laws have changed drastically for the worse since we were children.

The other dilemma that I am currently facing is that I am in my evaluation year. My admin has tried to support me but their hands are tied by educational laws, etc. I'm struggling with wanting to go to the union but I also don't want to piss off my admin because then I'd be dealing with a dangerous student and an admin who would potentially give less support.
I figure if I sue then I could get the courts to force the parents into getting their kid evaluated by outside sources which would then help the student and the school district. I am happy to set court case precedents if necessary. I really don't want to go on leave the rest of the year because the rest of my students are a joy. Why should their education suffer because of one student?

[Anonymous]

Your school administration needs to provide a backup staff member if there's a correlation between the aide being out.

[Anonymous]

Oh man op, I’m sorry! I’ve been there a couple of times myself. I would absolutely recommend getting parent volunteers in so that they can see what is happening and then make it clear to them that you are doing everything you can and that they should take their concerns to admin. In my experience, this is the only thing that brings about change. I also suggest reaching out to your union. Yes, the child needs help. But you have rights as well. So do the other children in your class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you to everyone responding. I cannot go into specifics but I have a paraeducator in my room and the behavior is the same and worse if the paraeducator has lunch or out sick or has professional development. I have been documenting since September. It's very difficult for a school system to force parents hands for IEP services. A school cannot evaluate without parents permission and to go around parents the school needs weeks of interventions , tried best educational strategies and parent outreach. I am not in my first year of teaching, I am a veteran. Teaching and educational laws have changed drastically for the worse since we were children.

The other dilemma that I am currently facing is that I am in my evaluation year. My admin has tried to support me but their hands are tied by educational laws, etc. I'm struggling with wanting to go to the union but I also don't want to piss off my admin because then I'd be dealing with a dangerous student and an admin who would potentially give less support.
I figure if I sue then I could get the courts to force the parents into getting their kid evaluated by outside sources which would then help the student and the school district. I am happy to set court case precedents if necessary. I really don't want to go on leave the rest of the year because the rest of my students are a joy. Why should their education suffer because of one student?

You don't want to talk to your union rep because you don't want to piss off the school administration but you think everything will be fine with your administration when you sue the parents of a student? You're either really clueless or a troll OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you to everyone responding. I cannot go into specifics but I have a paraeducator in my room and the behavior is the same and worse if the paraeducator has lunch or out sick or has professional development. I have been documenting since September. It's very difficult for a school system to force parents hands for IEP services. A school cannot evaluate without parents permission and to go around parents the school needs weeks of interventions , tried best educational strategies and parent outreach. I am not in my first year of teaching, I am a veteran. Teaching and educational laws have changed drastically for the worse since we were children.

The other dilemma that I am currently facing is that I am in my evaluation year. My admin has tried to support me but their hands are tied by educational laws, etc. I'm struggling with wanting to go to the union but I also don't want to piss off my admin because then I'd be dealing with a dangerous student and an admin who would potentially give less support.
I figure if I sue then I could get the courts to force the parents into getting their kid evaluated by outside sources which would then help the student and the school district. I am happy to set court case precedents if necessary. I really don't want to go on leave the rest of the year because the rest of my students are a joy. Why should their education suffer because of one student?