Teacher suggests I get my son on meds!

[Anonymous]

My son was so excited to start 4th grade today. At the end of the day his teacher called to say he was distracting other kids in class and she asked that I contact his pediatrician to get him on meds for ADHD?.
I was disturbed by this because this is just day one!
Am I overreacting?
Please advise

[Anonymous]

Seems completely trollish. I can’t think of even a terrible teacher suggesting this on day one. There are things like resource room, para pros, IEPs and a multitude of other steps a teacher would suggest first. I call troll.

Otherwise, complain to the principal.

[Anonymous]

No, the teacher is, and there are so many things wrong with her telling you this I can't begin to count them.

I'd talk to the school principal or counselor about this. Sounds like you are about to embark on a year with a nightmare teacher. Is this someone who has been teaching in the school for awhile? Too young? Too old? Someone they hired who was actually applying for a school custodian job?

Did your child attend this same school last year? Before you talk to someone, ask yourself if there were in fact any concerns last year--this is just in case you get blindsided in a meeting--if the answer is no you can make a strong point that Ms.\Mr. X had no issues last year and you're concerned that a new teacher would say something like this on the very first day.

Get your kid's take on his first day and also his sense of things in the classroom--don't set him up to hate the teacher, try to be neutral when asking him about his day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems completely trollish. I can’t think of even a terrible teacher suggesting this on day one. There are things like resource room, para pros, IEPs and a multitude of other steps a teacher would suggest first. I call troll.

Otherwise, complain to the principal.

Thing about schools--too often, when you hear of something that sounds unbelievable, it is in fact the case. I'd suspect the teacher is 1) really in the wrong profession, and either new to teaching or has swamped in other schools or went back to teaching after years doing something else or SAHM, or 2) a control freak who runs the classroom like her personal castle.

[Anonymous]

If this is a real post, the teacher's behavior is completely inappropriate. For the sake of your child, and the sake of children with real special needs, please copy and paste your post and send it to your principal (with your name and your child's name). This shouldn't be happening at your school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If this is a real post, the teacher's behavior is completely inappropriate. For the sake of your child, and the sake of children with real special needs, please copy and paste your post and send it to your principal (with your name and your child's name). This shouldn't be happening at your school.

+1 Teachers know they are not medical professionals. The fact that the OP is suggesting that the teacher said this without doing the normal procedure of a school professional conducted diagnostic/504 plan etc. seems trollish to me too.

[Anonymous]

No way did this happen. I can imagine a teacher calling to ask what strategies have worked in past years and asking if this was his normal behavior, but jumping to adhd or meds is something that every teacher knows not to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems completely trollish. I can’t think of even a terrible teacher suggesting this on day one. There are things like resource room, para pros, IEPs and a multitude of other steps a teacher would suggest first. I call troll.

Otherwise, complain to the principal.

Thing about schools--too often, when you hear of something that sounds unbelievable, it is in fact the case. I'd suspect the teacher is 1) really in the wrong profession, and either new to teaching or has swamped in other schools or went back to teaching after years doing something else or SAHM, or 2) a control freak who runs the classroom like her personal castle.

Yep.
I totally believe this happened.

[Anonymous]

Gotta be a troll.

[Anonymous]

Either a Troll or a parent who has had a number of teachers suggest evaluations far more gently and the OP has ignored those suggestions.

DS teacher suggested a speech evaluation when he was in K. She was very gentle and kind but it only took a week or so for her to notice that something was off.

If this is a real post, and I don't think that it is, the OP should contact the school and ask for a meeting with the Teacher and the Principal. The Teachers actions was not appropriate. I would also suspect that the Teacher phrased things differently but the message was that the child was out of control, distracting other kids, and not listening to the Teacher who was telling him to stop. The OP is phrasing things in a manner that makes it sound as if the Teacher was 100% blunt and rude.

If it is real, I wonder how many other Teachers and Coaches and Adults have commented on the boys behavior and the OP has brushed it off.

But this feels really, really off.

[Anonymous]

Either a troll or a private school kid. I say this as a private school parent. I've had several WTF moments at our school were both staff and administration have demonstrated a jaw dropping lack of professionalism. It's a small school with noncompetative admissions that, all things considered, continues to be better for my SN kid than our local public schools.We've been there for 8 years and it is slowly transforming itself into a real school where teachers are hired based on credentials, not who they know and where they worship. I can totally see one of our older teachers saying something like this. Luckily, current administration would understand why that is totally inappropriate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Either a Troll or a parent who has had a number of teachers suggest evaluations far more gently and the OP has ignored those suggestions.

DS teacher suggested a speech evaluation when he was in K. She was very gentle and kind but it only took a week or so for her to notice that something was off.

If this is a real post, and I don't think that it is, the OP should contact the school and ask for a meeting with the Teacher and the Principal. The Teachers actions was not appropriate. I would also suspect that the Teacher phrased things differently but the message was that the child was out of control, distracting other kids, and not listening to the Teacher who was telling him to stop. The OP is phrasing things in a manner that makes it sound as if the Teacher was 100% blunt and rude.

If it is real, I wonder how many other Teachers and Coaches and Adults have commented on the boys behavior and the OP has brushed it off.

But this feels really, really off.

+1 that or the kid was medicated last year, but went off his meds for the summer. It was probably in the file. Parent was hoping she wouldn’t have to start the meds so soon, and the teacher caller her out on the first day of school to report he needs to go back on meds. The kid has been medicated before, no doubt. No teacher would suggest meds to a kid who hadn’t already been on them.

[Anonymous]

Teachers know what ADHD looks like. Get an eval

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers know what ADHD looks like. Get an eval

No they don't.

An eval may be in order, but it is heavily weighted by the teacher's opinion, which in this case is already known. Seeking an eval now would get a diagnosis, but it might not be correct.

[Anonymous]

If this happened, and if these were the teacher's words:
1) Teachers are not qualified to diagnose any medical issue (or even a learning disability). They can only observe when things seem out of the ordinary and communicate that to families who can then choose (or choose not to) get a medical diagnosis.

2) Even if a child did have a diagnosis of a medical issue, it is certainly not ethical for a teacher to suggest a treatment.

3) Many experienced teachers and well-trained newbies try to have a positive interaction with a parent within the first few days of school before calling home with what is difficult news.

4) Many experienced teachers indicate an intervention they tried and whether or not it was successful when they call a parent to say there is a problem.

As a former teacher, usually I recommend working things out with the teacher before going over his or her head to an administrator. This may be a case where it's appropriate to ask for a meeting where an administrator is also present. If your child is behaving really differently at school than at home, then you will want to know. However, whatever behavioral interventions you use at home and whatever medical interventions you choose to use or not, the school is also going to need a sound, firm, and kind behavioral plan and a teacher who can implement it. I'd be concerned about a teacher who felt so out of control that she needed to call you on day one.