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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The way I read the story was that the day of the shooting was the first day that the parent wasn’t scheduled to attend with the child — as if it was a planned step down of that accommodation.  If that’s the case, it’s crazy to me that an aide wasn’t placed in the classroom for at least a transitional period.  You don’t remove a support like that all of a sudden with no scaffolding.

I’m also wondering about the trigger lock on the gun.  I don’t know how those work but it sounded like he needed to steal his mom’s key to unlock it?  Is it a physical key?

I also wonder if the child was adopted from an orphanage or severely abusive home — its just so unusual to have a child this disturbed at this young an age that I suspect there is some story of deep trauma there, or a physical injury to the brain.  I initially assumed the home itself was abusive but if the parents were invested enough to be attending school daily, that seems less likely.

The school made so many bad decisions here.[/quote]

No look at this documentary it's quite common

https://youtu.be/n-B_kmAebbQ[/quote]

I literally cried for those kids.   Incredibly incredibly sad.    How did our country come to this?  What happened?    and that is just one tiny bit of the problem, and one tiny bit of the total number of kids that are messed up.   [/quote]

A few observations from a teacher:
1) note that even within this program, there are different levels of aggressive behavior with the result that a student who may be trying on a particular day to do the right thing is surrounded by classmates who are not and that can be triggering. It’s not even about peer pressure, but literally, how hearing threats and even just cursing raises your own cortisol levels. That bus ride alone probably puts these kids on edge and they go from that to a pat down. Even if they are compliant, they must be wondering what happens if a resisting peer next to them pulls out a weapon.
2) some of the adults clearly escalated situations by entering power struggles with children over petty stuff.
3) the boy with the pencil sharpener clearly is seeking the teacher’s attention. Ignoring him is the wrong move here. Give a simple acknowledgment and redirect, for God’s sake. “Good morning. How’s it going? Looks like your pencil is really sharp now and you are ready to learn. I’m going to call on you in two more problem so be ready. Do you need anything else?” Also, remove the pencil sharper or bolt it to the wall on the opposite side of the room from the board so that a student isn’t able to distract everyone while you are modeling at the board. I had mine removed over a similar issue. Instead I have a pencil exchange. Students drop off a dull pencil and pick up a sharp one. I sharpen maybe 50 pencils each day. No power struggles with students over when they can sharpen. 
4) this school of last resort was still calmer than the hallways of the middle school where I teach. Not just during the change of classes, but because of large groups of students cutting class who roam around disrupting instruction because they run, scream, bang on lockers and classroom doors, fight, vandalize bathrooms, and blast music or videos on their phones. We have two security guards for nearly 900 kids and need at least three more to cover out building.[/quote]

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