
It doesn't matter if they are SPED or not, disruptive kids need to get kicked out of the classroom. There needs to be consequences -- I don't see or hear about anything that you're mentioning. I know that kids who get sent to the office just sit there and color or chat with the principal. It's like a reward to them. I have literally NEVER heard of a kid at our school getting suspended and we're talking about chair throwers and kids who have hurt other children. They're back the next day. The only kids that get moved are the victims, which is totally unfair. Kids are less likely to complain and tell their kids if they know it means they'll have to move to a different classroom. My kid flat out told me this. |
Your post is the weird one singling out that PP said ADHD once but was talking about poorly behaved kids in general. Your 2E kids were probably medicated and well supported. Most are not. |
DP. I have a DC who was sent to the office multiple times in lower elementary. It was not a reward. His behavior improved and he was no longer sent to the office - the discipline worked because he was inwardly terrified. |
This is exactly right. DEMAND that disruptive kids are expelled. Schools are not psychiatric treatment centers. |
Every time I read a declaration like this, I wonder. What qualifies as a disruptive kid? It’s it a one-time offender? A three-time? A wiggly, chatty kid who takes a lot of the teacher’s time for redirection? An ESOL student who gets frustrated? A yeller, or an eloper, or a class clown, or a puncher? All disruptive in different ways. Genuinely asking because I see huge challenges for this ahead. Who will make that call? |
DP. I think the extremes can have some clear lines, even if the middle cases are judgment calls. Th most clear situations are where there is real safety risk. The first time the rest of the class has to be evacuated from a room for safety, it should be considered. The second time, for the same child? That is too much of a safety risk and too disruptive to the other children's learning, which is equally important. |
Bu TT for every child like yours, there’s another that doesn’t improve. I’ve had students act violently because they want to go to the office to avoid work. |
As a principal, I’ll say this is very much the exception and not the norm. I am sure you followed up with reasonable consequence or at least conversation at home. Most do not |
I see students sitting in the office playing on their phone and eating a snack. It is not a punishment most of the time. |
I think the problem is there are different levels of disruption. Should a kid who doesn’t stop talking be expelled? Literally every class in the US has a couple of kids who don’t shut up all day. Not sure that warrants expulsion. |
But that is the issue. Most classrooms don’t have the need to be evacuated due to one kid. It has certainly happened at our school but usually out of 20 classes, there might be 1-2 classes that have a kid like this. Most have disruptive behaviors where kids don’t shut up, refuse to do work, talk back to teachers, use inappropriate language, etc. I teach AAP and I have kids who literally talk all day and they need redirecting. |
Agree, and there's not possible way / reason / legal way to move kids like this out of a regular classrom. The constant redirection for smart-mouth, rude kids is far more than physical disruptions. |
I will tell you the majority of teachers at my school have had this conversation. Teachers are tired and their lives/families matter too. |
I’m a teacher and I have a kid who is in a class with a kid that has meltdowns requiring evacuation. The kid was in his class last year, too. It’s incredibly frustrating, but I’m not sure that expulsion is the answer. The kid clearly needs to be in a CSS classroom, but the reality is that there isnt the staffing (or enough people out there willing and capable of doing the job) for all the needed classrooms. Add in a bunch of parents who bring in advocates and lawsuits to keep their kid in a gen ed classroom, and it’s an impossible situation. The hardest situations are those where a kid is on grade level, but disruptive. When you put kids in small CSS type classes, they often feed off of each other and make each others behaviors worse. There aren’t “psychiatric treatment centers” for these kids. Many need intensive therapy, but they also need an education. |
Principal here again… this connects with another theme that I’ve seen over several decades… the special education apparatus is simple out of control and horribly skewed toward protecting students and families. One of the reasons that these students can’t be “expelled” or “removed from the classroom” is that it is illegal without the parents’ consent in Virginia if the student has an IEP. Unfortunately this leads to us having to resort to endless amounts of check sheets and paperwork to justify a need for an intensive placement, only for parents to say “Nah we’re good with your school” in the IEP meeting. I am all for having students receive an education in their least restrictive environment, but it’s gone way too far and now many of these students have learned that there are no ramifications for their behavior because mommy and daddy (and their lawyer) don’t care |