My 7 year Old Suspended for four Days MCPS
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Anonymous
OP here: Thank you so much for this. I'm hopeful that once the exact issues are determined we will see improvement. This has all come on so quickly. |
Anonymous
You threw that in - whether it's true or not - to make it seem like it wasn't really your DS's fault for all the events that occurred after that. |
Anonymous
I have to be honest. I have a 7yr old boy with ADHD/Anxiety/ASD. I read the OPs account and I am impressed by how detailed it is coming from a 7r old. My 7yr old would boil this down to "I was at recess and I didn't do anything" Then after extensive prompting from me, I would be offered "well, I was throwing rocks and mulch". And this would go on and on. There is no way that I would get a full story about standing line for a special, someone telling him AGAIN to go to the office (he would have to have remembered the first time), telling me he asked to stay in class, etc. For the OP, look on the positive side of this. The 4 day suspension will help your IEP case. It's sad that this is the way it is, but it's true. Because of his behavior, for 4 days, he was unable to access the curriculum. I do agree though that 4 days is too long. It's not that the child should not be disciplined for his behavior but after 4 days of school suspension, plus a week off for vacation, he's not going to remember any of this. |
Anonymous
OP here: I reported what my son said occured and the chain of events. I'm not removing or assigning blame to anyone. |
Anonymous
OR we could adequately fund special education programs and staff them with enough qualified staff. But them what would happen to the enrichment and gifted programs? I agree, no child should be subjected to physical abuse from another student. But putting all the SN kids together doesn't really take care of that, does it PP. I mean, unless you don't care about SN kids getting hurt. |
Anonymous
| OP, my 2nd grader has also been suspended twice but each time it was for a matter of hours, not days, and there was aggression to teachers involved. I didn't see anywhere that you have discussed this with your principal. If you are not seeing eye to eye with your principal you can contact your cluster supervisor and you can find that phone number on the MCPS Special Education webpage. 4 days is exceptionally punitive. Is your child working on grade level? What about all the make up work? Personally I would raise hell for a four day suspension, especially since, for little kids, it means nothing to them but a vacation. Have you considered getting an advocate to help in this whole process? |
Anonymous
+1000 I am so tired of people with neurotypical kids trolling on this site - as well as other totally unconstructive posts like the criticizers of OP. OP came here to get help from helpful SN parents. |
Anonymous
Exactly. And even if your son didn't report correctly what the sub said, what's key here is that he THOUGHT he was being mocked, and how that interpretation and feeling lead to his meltdown. (Again, this is NOT to excuse his behavior, but to understand it and prevent it in the future.) |
Anonymous
+1, at our school this is what they do. They dump all kids in a SN classroom with a few other kids and they dumb down the SN kids assuming that their SN impact their educational ability. My child had issues with another kid in the classroom. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior but this was a one time incident to a teacher, not another child. My child was attacked daily. Huge difference. I had to fight to get him out of that classroom. OP, don't rely on MCPS to fix this. Get an outside evaluation either though a developmental ped (good place to start) or a psychologist as another suggested or a full psycho-educational or neuropsych evaluation. Then get private services, especially if your insurance will pay. More importantly, this is not a good classroom fit if child was not acting out last year and is now. I'd insist child be changed classrooms. Kids react differently to different teaching styles and this teacher may be a great teacher but not great for your child. Then, take the private evaluation and then advocate for changes as then you will have proof. Its ok to let them start but do get a second opinion. I would fight the suspension as you don't want it on the record. The real issue to me is child is young, very young and its unfair to say go to the office and then get mad when he doesn't go as there is no adult support or supervision. Someone should have stepped into the situation other than that paraeducator and deescalated it and walked him to the office. I don't like how little support there is in the lunch room, play ground, bathrooms and other areas where kids that age still need supervision. |
Anonymous
I know my child would say someone is yelling if they slightly raised their voice at that age so I'd be careful with both sides of the story and assume both are not being accurately reported. However, it is this person's job to deescalate the situation as that is what she was hired to do (although to her credit she probably does not have a huge amount of training) and deal with it. It sounds like she escalated and he freaked out and at that point once the meltdown started he did his best to deescalate and reasonably continue with his day. |
Anonymous
OP here: I did discuss this with the principal and even offered to spend the day with him on Friday (since he was getting his testing done on Thursday and wouldn't be there anyway) and she rejected this offer. I have written to her again appealing the suspension and have a meeting tomorrow morning. I will try contacting the cluster supervisor. He is above grade level in all subjects, reads 2 years above and is in enriched math. |
Anonymous
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OP -- when you contact the cluster supervisor, please inform that person that the school is evaluating your child for a potential disability. Also let them know you are having your child evaluated privately and let them know that the school knows this. This is very important information that they need to know.
Request that they participate in the meeting if at all possible in person or by phone! They may not be able to be there but it shows that you want them there. |
Anonymous
Yep, I had the same thoughts. 4 days is obscene for a 7 year-old. I would raise holy hell. Sounds like you are getting him the help he needs, which is good. |
Anonymous
OP here: Thanks for this, I've just called his cluster supervisor, talked to her secretary and she is supposed to be calling me back about this situation. |
Anonymous
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OP, have you received written notification of the suspension, number of days, code, and the reasons for it, etc.? A lot of times schools just ask you to pick the SN kid up because documenting it as a suspension actually hurts the school. In your situation, I am a little suspicious that, knowing you have a pre-planned day off for testing on TH, that they think they can just pressure you to keep him home off the books on fri too.
The bottom line is that SN kids have a right to access school. The fact that you were discussing an FBA even before this incident means that the school was on notice that they potentially had an SN kid here. Schools have a "child gind" duty - the obligation is on them to identify all potentially SN students and serve them. To me, it sounds like they did not move fast enough to put proper supports in place, and as a result the situation spiraled out of control due to improper management. I see this frequently in schools - an agressive approach scares kids away and makes them hostile instead of trying to understand their perceptions and model appropriate behaviour for them. Inagred with another PP that this is basically prima facia evidence for evaluation and then a 504 or IEP plan. Make sure you put that request in writing before the end of winter break. I would not keep my kid home. from school without an official written suspension notice. Once I got that, I'd write a letter requesting, under FERPA, all educational records pertaining to my DS, including but not limited to any emails among trachers about the incident, any written report or notes by teacher or admin staff documenting the incident. After reviewing that, I would document back to the school DS's version of the event, including any description of bullying or mocking by any staff during this incident as well as any prior incidents. |