Inappropriate response from teachers at Elementary School Summer Program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here...I am really surprised about those who find it appropriate for two teachers to be laughing at a child with diagnosed special needs during an anxiety attack. DS is behind in both expressive and receptive language so using words to describe kicking the hornets nest is not okay.

DS is normally very happy and social, but something is triggering his anxiety in that school. This is not his normal school but where MCPS decided this W school cluster's ES summer school program will be held. If MCPS is spending so much money trying to be inclusive, then I would expect more than the behaviors these two teachers exhibited. The teachers could have left the room to talk but they chose to stay (in an empty classroom) and watch DH comfort DS. Our family has a lot more resources than others and we would hate to see this type of behavior happening to other kids with SN without the family resources to recognize and prevent teachers from traumatizing SN kids.

Then put him in a private school and stop humble bragging. Your kid, your problem and stop expecting lowly paid summer school teachers to respond like counselors to the problem kid breaking down repeatedly. The way forward starts by admitting your kid is that kid and nobody else really cares. In fact most people less than care, they resent him for injecting crazy into their environments. Micro aggressions are they least of your kid’s problems, they have a life time of slights small and large ahead of them and society will consistently try and push them to the side so they can ignore them. But go ahead and complain to the superintendent about some giggles, that will teach him how to cope.

You must be the reject teacher that needs hand holding to not go home and cry at the slightest issue in your classroom. Do you need 10 drinks to get through a day of school?

LOL +1

[Anonymous]

You didn’t do your job by fighting for ESY and now are mad when you’re not getting the support you want. Stop blaming the teachers for your mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will your child attend this school in the fall? consider first emailing the teachers involved and/or cc principal. Why go over everyone at the school? That won’t look good for you or help solve anything.

This is the best advice OP. Your son is 8, so going into 3rd grade? Your family has 3 more years at the school. Escalating to the superintendent before addressing it with the principal is a bad look for you. Add to that that there is a very good chance that, as others have suggested, the teachers weren’t actually laughing at your child or anyone else’s. Honestly, if your husband was there with your son and there were no other kids in the room, the teachers (why was there more than one?) shouldn’t have even been in the room.
Unless this is the beginning of you trying to build a case for mcps to pay for private school (whole other issue), I suggest you bring it up to the principal and move on.

+1 I know you’re upset, but take a step back and think big picture of it all for your kid. The principal probably won’t take you seriously in the future if you go over his/her head and word will get around you are a difficult parent rather than addressing the people involved. Take the advice above and move on. Even more important if your DC goes to the same school in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Think about how it’s going to sound when you make the complaint…. I mean it’s not the best thing in the world, but you seem like you’re looking for someone or something to blame.

I am having this reaction as well. Maybe you didn’t give a good description of the event but really I don’t get it. Im a parent of a kid who made serious suicidal threats multiple times at school and had two almost successful suicide attempts. It is harder than most can imagine. But the world goes on outside the bubble of your crisis. I just don’t see your complaint getting any traction and you’re going to feel a lot worse when no one responds. What was going on with the teachers is not about you or your son.

So you have found it acceptable if teachers snickered at your kid during a melt down involving threats of suicide? Weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Think about how it’s going to sound when you make the complaint…. I mean it’s not the best thing in the world, but you seem like you’re looking for someone or something to blame.

I am having this reaction as well. Maybe you didn’t give a good description of the event but really I don’t get it. Im a parent of a kid who made serious suicidal threats multiple times at school and had two almost successful suicide attempts. It is harder than most can imagine. But the world goes on outside the bubble of your crisis. I just don’t see your complaint getting any traction and you’re going to feel a lot worse when no one responds. What was going on with the teachers is not about you or your son.

So you have found it acceptable if teachers snickered at your kid during a melt down involving threats of suicide? Weird.

NP and I’ll just say there are two sides to every story. We have no idea who they were laughing at. Did you email the teachers OP?

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry this happened but honestly these teachers should have called the Crisis Center. This would have been a while
Other process and set of problems for you as the parent. They probably did you a favor by letting you handle it yourself rather than involved a variety of social services. If I was his teacher and he threatened to Kill himself , it would have been an immediate referral there and not a choice/ call to your husband to handle it

[Anonymous]

I’m going to come at this as both a teacher teaching summer school and a parent of a child with MH issues.

My guess is that there were two teachers talking amongst themselves while your husband was working with your son. They most likely were talking completely on a different topic and that’s why they were startled when asked. I am also guessing that the teachers had to be in there since your son was in school.

Where were the other students? Was it actually the teacher’s break time? That could also explain why they were off topic.

And why wasn’t the crisis center called? Your child should not be in school with those kinds of feelings! Speak to your therapist about a better summer plan to keep your child safer.

Should they have been giggling? Probably not. Is it a crime? Definitely not.

[Anonymous]

OP, I’m sorry to hear that your child is suffering. However, this whole plan sounds like it was half baked. Summer school this year is really only for kids who were below grade level academically so that teachers could remediate and go over what was taught last year for students to try to catch up before the fall. You said your child was mainstreamed in his normal school, so he would presumably be with a mainstream teacher for summer school. Schools do not typically call parents to come help students until they have tried everything themselves, and they have a huge arsenal of tactics and strategies. The fact that they called you even once, let alone multiple times, means that the mainstream environment for summer school was not a match for your child’s needs, which sound substantial. I think changing his meds while simultaneously placing him in an unfamiliar school with unfamiliar staff was not an ideal choice. Now you can’t tell if it was the meds or the environment. Regardless, this is not a safe or productive place for him to be while you are adjusting his meds. I can imagine how stressful this must be for your family, but you are hyper focusing on a random private conversation amongst teachers that your child inserted himself into. Reporting that they were chatting or laughing amongst themselves seems petty. I can tell from your W school reference that you expect everyone to deign to you and your child at all times but teachers and paras are there to educate the group. If your child struggles such that he needs one on one support to engage in group learning, then he needs a different, possibly not mainstream placement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry this happened but honestly these teachers should have called the Crisis Center. This would have been a while
Other process and set of problems for you as the parent. They probably did you a favor by letting you handle it yourself rather than involved a variety of social services. If I was his teacher and he threatened to Kill himself , it would have been an immediate referral there and not a choice/ call to your husband to handle it

+1

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher and I am so, so sorry your son is struggling is such a major way. It might be true he isn't getting the support he needs in summer school or during the year. Public schools rarely get the funding they need no matter what. The reality is that this is probably not the correct placement for him. If he's doing well at home, that is great! Has your family considered home schooling? I wish you the very best of luck and hope your son gets through this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m going to come at this as both a teacher teaching summer school and a parent of a child with MH issues.

My guess is that there were two teachers talking amongst themselves while your husband was working with your son. They most likely were talking completely on a different topic and that’s why they were startled when asked. I am also guessing that the teachers had to be in there since your son was in school.

Where were the other students? Was it actually the teacher’s break time? That could also explain why they were off topic.

And why wasn’t the crisis center called? Your child should not be in school with those kinds of feelings! Speak to your therapist about a better summer plan to keep your child safer.

Should they have been giggling? Probably not. Is it a crime? Definitely not.

THIS. The most reasonable version of this story is not that an entire group of teachers are so cruel as to laugh at a small child in crisis. One bad teacher? Sure, it happens. Three together? Unlikely.

Have none of you ever worked in a workplace? They were almost certainly gossiping about a fellow teacher, or someone they all know, or one of their ex-boyfriends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m going to come at this as both a teacher teaching summer school and a parent of a child with MH issues.

My guess is that there were two teachers talking amongst themselves while your husband was working with your son. They most likely were talking completely on a different topic and that’s why they were startled when asked. I am also guessing that the teachers had to be in there since your son was in school.

Where were the other students? Was it actually the teacher’s break time? That could also explain why they were off topic.

And why wasn’t the crisis center called? Your child should not be in school with those kinds of feelings! Speak to your therapist about a better summer plan to keep your child safer.

Should they have been giggling? Probably not. Is it a crime? Definitely not.

THIS. The most reasonable version of this story is not that an entire group of teachers are so cruel as to laugh at a small child in crisis. One bad teacher? Sure, it happens. Three together? Unlikely.

Have none of you ever worked in a workplace? They were almost certainly gossiping about a fellow teacher, or someone they all know, or one of their ex-boyfriends.

+1

Was there any evidence that they were speaking about your child?

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm sorry your child experienced inappropriate teachers on top of his crisis. I'm glad you pulled him from summer school. It sounds like he needs more support than the summer school can provide and if you have the means, private school may be best. It is sounds stressful for all parties involved. I hope the new meds are successful and that you find the right treatment and support for your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS (age 8) has autism and ADHD and an IEP but attends a mainstream school with pull out services. He did not qualify for ESY but was recommended for the summer school program. He has not been supported well and has had multiple anxiety attacks where he said he was going to kill himself. We were called multiple times and each time we would rush there and he would calm down immediately. Our ABA therapist did an observation there and said DS was definitely not getting enough support and would just withdraw into a corner the whole day. This past Friday, he climbed up onto one of the cubbies and said he was going to jump and kill himself. We were called and while DH was comforting DS, the teachers started giggling. DS, who had calmed down by then, asked why they were giggling. The teachers looked surprised that he would ask and replied that they were laughing about a child that kicked a hornets nest and got stung. DS asked why someone getting hurt would be funny and they did not respond. This is completely inappropriate and to observe the teachers' behaving like this while we were there implies that it is way worse when we are not. We are definitely not sending DS back but also feel that we should not let this type of behavior go unaccounted for.

Be very clear that this forum is heavily trafficked by the MCPS public relations department. They are here 24/7 to beat back and bully parents who dare to speak about their child's public school education. The bullying responses you are reading (really don't read them) are straight from 850 Hungerford Drive in Rockville. That is the MCPS headquarters and the Board of Education offices. Board of Education staff have already been caught in the act of pretending to be parents in order to attack actual parents. It made the front page of The Washington Post when they were caught doing this.

You asked about the superintendent's e-mail. Here it is

[e-mail]

240-740-3020

What you described was completely inappropriate, unprofessional and cruel. Kudos to your super smart child. No wonder he's having a hard time in summer school. He's smarter than the people that are supposed to be his teachers.

Call the superintendent, file a complaint and if you don't get an appropriate response go to the media.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS (age 8) has autism and ADHD and an IEP but attends a mainstream school with pull out services. He did not qualify for ESY but was recommended for the summer school program. He has not been supported well and has had multiple anxiety attacks where he said he was going to kill himself. We were called multiple times and each time we would rush there and he would calm down immediately. Our ABA therapist did an observation there and said DS was definitely not getting enough support and would just withdraw into a corner the whole day. This past Friday, he climbed up onto one of the cubbies and said he was going to jump and kill himself. We were called and while DH was comforting DS, the teachers started giggling. DS, who had calmed down by then, asked why they were giggling. The teachers looked surprised that he would ask and replied that they were laughing about a child that kicked a hornets nest and got stung. DS asked why someone getting hurt would be funny and they did not respond. This is completely inappropriate and to observe the teachers' behaving like this while we were there implies that it is way worse when we are not. We are definitely not sending DS back but also feel that we should not let this type of behavior go unaccounted for.

Be very clear that this forum is heavily trafficked by the MCPS public relations department. They are here 24/7 to beat back and bully parents who dare to speak about their child's public school education. The bullying responses you are reading (really don't read them) are straight from 850 Hungerford Drive in Rockville. That is the MCPS headquarters and the Board of Education offices. Board of Education staff have already been caught in the act of pretending to be parents in order to attack actual parents. It made the front page of The Washington Post when they were caught doing this.

You asked about the superintendent's e-mail. Here it is

[e-mail]

240-740-3020

What you described was completely inappropriate, unprofessional and cruel. Kudos to your super smart child. No wonder he's having a hard time in summer school. He's smarter than the people that are supposed to be his teachers.

Call the superintendent, file a complaint and if you don't get an appropriate response go to the media.

Link to the article?