DC immediately fired a teacher recently who put her hands on a child and it was reported to the police immediately. Immediately. In DC. Putting your hands on anyone is assault, plain and simple. https://www.google.com/amp/s/wtop.com/dc/2017/11/police-dc-teacher-charged-assaulting-student-slapping-pushing/amp/ |
File a police report. Now. MCPS could care less about the SPED kids and that has to change. |
It's quite possible that the teacher does want to reach out and is terribly embarrassed. However, as you can see the number of posts here screaming for her head, it's hard to engage in what should be a normal interaction. She should apologize to you and your son. She should explain how she might mitigate this in the future, i.e., realizing when she might need a couple of minutes of deep breathing or a time out. It could be that she's been advised not to contact you for legal reasons. I wouldn't call CPS either. I wouldn't want CPS anywhere near my family, especially in Mont. Co! But, I would explain exactly what you said in your post to the school. |
Really because my kid has a teacher who insists on a hug from my child with autism. I told her we are fine with a high five and she said by the end of the year she expects a hug. Uh no. Boundaries lady. if my kid doesn't want to hug you, it's his right. He MUST greet you with a "hello." A hug is about YOUR needs not his. Is this a reportable offense. Hell no. It's just a lady who has creepy or at least very out dated ideas about what is appropriate behavior.his body. His choice. Call CPS? No way. Not every thing is worthy of ruining someone's career. In OPs case, how old was the teacher? I ask because decades ago what was considered OK in the classroom was different. |
No good deed should go unpunished I guess. |
This. Thank goodness they told you and thank goodness you have the right to inform CPS. School should report, too. |
I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the school doesn't care about your child. Many school policies, once invoked, are not the best for students, especially their social emotional health. Schools can be very inflexible in certain situations, to the detriment of students and teachers. Once this issue is resolved, in whatever transparent or opaque fashion, then you can better judge the school based on the ordinary day-to-day. |
Well then it will probably be handled as a personnel matter, in which case they won't tell you what the outcome was. Most likely the teacher will receive a reprimand that goes in her personnel file. A lot of a times that's enough to prevent a repeat. |
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OP, It sounds like the school is on top of it and is going to discipline the teacher even if it's only a verbal warning. I would be grateful they told you and move on.
This type of thing happened to my child a few years ago and the school ended up disciplining my SN child in K with speech delays for having a meltdown and running out of the room because she touched him. They didn't tell me that part. They just said he was not listening to directions and then had a meltdown. By the time he was able to tell us what happened and why he reacted so strongly (it was not like him to do that kind of thing) a week had passed and we didn't think it would be helpful to revisit the incident. We should have documented the issue and made sure it was addressed. I have to give your school a lot of points for telling you about this and taking it seriously. |
| PP here and it was also a specials teacher that did this to our child. I hope it's not the same one because I'm feeling horrible thinking it's possible the teacher does this to other SN kids and I could have prevented this. I don't want to get into specifics but what she did was very close to what happened with your child which was touching him in a manner that might have been considered okay when she was growing up but would raise a lot of alarm bells today. |
| I would be grateful to the homeroom teacher and the principal. I would ask the principal for details about the school procedure for handling such an issue. I would be careful to specify to the principal that I was not asking about what actions the school was pursuing with the teacher (since that would probably be considered a private employment matter) but what the documented procedure was. If I was satisfied with the procedure (probably), I would let the issue go. If I was not satisfied with the documented procedure, I would pursue that with the school board or report the incident to CPS with the caveat that I was not satisfied with the school's procedures for handling such issues. |
I would ask for a meeting with the principal and ask for full details on the protocol and whether it includes a (mandated) report to CPS. Give them the benefit of the doubt - the fact that the homeroom teacher handled it well and the principal called you shows, I think, that they are committed to doing the right thing. But I would demand transparency around the process. It may be that this special teacher is really great and had a weak moment, but they have to deal with the consequences before this person spirals out of control. |
If you think it's wrong then you are disgustingly complicit. And it's not "one incident", it's the one incident that another teacher observed and reported. |
We don't know if it's a one off or not. As PP said, that will be determined by the investigation. Teachers have civil service and union protections. The school has to follow it's own protocols, which usually spell out what's a firing situation or not. And whatever they do may be challenged, so discipline situations need to be handled carefully. |
I am a bit surprised at OP's post. As an MCPS specials' (PE, Art, Music) teacher, the homeroom teacher drops the students and leaves the room for 40 minutes until the special is over. The students remain with one teacher unless there is a 1-on-1 para for a student with a physical disability or severe cases of ADHD. OP's child is in the process of being diagnosed so he does not have a 1-on-1. In my over 10 years' of teaching at MCPS, I have not had any classroom teacher sacrifice prep. time to stay with the classroom during specials. There is more to this story. |