Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Schools usually honor requests to avoid another child, so you can ask why this request was not honored.

However for all the rest, shame on you, OP!

What you expected was highly unethical and immoral.

I have been on the PTA Board for years, and would not tolerate it if my child received favors as a result. That is NOT why I volunteer.
I want to help all the students, not my children in particular.

And as the parent of a child with special needs, I find your remark about the slow learner particularly offensive. At our MCPS school, children with special needs do not slow down the rest of the class - they have aides in the classroom, who help others as well as the child in question, so it's actually a bonus for everyone.

You are a disgusting human being.

+1 I was a room parent last year in my oldest child's class. Her teacher was awful and I hated her, in large part because she sought to ignore the accommodations my child needs and made things harder than they needed to be. But I didn't volunteer to curry favor with the teacher - I did it because my child asked me to do it and to make the few class parties allowed at her school fun for the whole class.

Volunteers shouldn't be able to "buy" influence. And kids with special needs have every right to be in the "good" classrooms too.

In our school if you have an IEP, all kids are placed in one classroom regardless of SN or academics. So, if you have a kid strong in academics who needs minor supports they are placed in the SN classroom with a slower curriculum. My child has been stuck there for two years and teachers refuse to give her higher level work. The other issue is she gets very upset by other kids behaviors and is very distracted each time a child is pulled out or having a meltdown. Since for a few kids the meltdowns are frequent, it interferes with my child's learning and I get calls complaining she is distracted. The other issue for us is one child for the majority of the year was grabbing her (I think it was to hug or be affectionate) or touching her in other ways which made her scared to go to school. I complained frequently to get the kids separated given it was physical and they refused to do anything about it saying the child had SN and not his fault. It may not be his fault (which I agree with) but its a huge issue when my child has to be forced to go to school and comes home crying after being harassed all day. And, because her needs were so mild in comparison, she never got the support she needed because they had to focus on the kids whose parents insist they be mainstreamed when clearly those kids should be in a more supportive environment.

Your school is breaking the law by putting all kids with disabilities in the same classroom and not providing the same curriculum. That is not the least restrictive environment, as required by IDEA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Schools usually honor requests to avoid another child, so you can ask why this request was not honored.

However for all the rest, shame on you, OP!

What you expected was highly unethical and immoral.

I have been on the PTA Board for years, and would not tolerate it if my child received favors as a result. That is NOT why I volunteer.
I want to help all the students, not my children in particular.

And as the parent of a child with special needs, I find your remark about the slow learner particularly offensive. At our MCPS school, children with special needs do not slow down the rest of the class - they have aides in the classroom, who help others as well as the child in question, so it's actually a bonus for everyone.

You are a disgusting human being.

+1 I was a room parent last year in my oldest child's class. Her teacher was awful and I hated her, in large part because she sought to ignore the accommodations my child needs and made things harder than they needed to be. But I didn't volunteer to curry favor with the teacher - I did it because my child asked me to do it and to make the few class parties allowed at her school fun for the whole class.

Volunteers shouldn't be able to "buy" influence. And kids with special needs have every right to be in the "good" classrooms too.

In our school if you have an IEP, all kids are placed in one classroom regardless of SN or academics. So, if you have a kid strong in academics who needs minor supports they are placed in the SN classroom with a slower curriculum. My child has been stuck there for two years and teachers refuse to give her higher level work. The other issue is she gets very upset by other kids behaviors and is very distracted each time a child is pulled out or having a meltdown. Since for a few kids the meltdowns are frequent, it interferes with my child's learning and I get calls complaining she is distracted. The other issue for us is one child for the majority of the year was grabbing her (I think it was to hug or be affectionate) or touching her in other ways which made her scared to go to school. I complained frequently to get the kids separated given it was physical and they refused to do anything about it saying the child had SN and not his fault. It may not be his fault (which I agree with) but its a huge issue when my child has to be forced to go to school and comes home crying after being harassed all day. And, because her needs were so mild in comparison, she never got the support she needed because they had to focus on the kids whose parents insist they be mainstreamed when clearly those kids should be in a more supportive environment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Schools usually honor requests to avoid another child, so you can ask why this request was not honored.

However for all the rest, shame on you, OP!

What you expected was highly unethical and immoral.

I have been on the PTA Board for years, and would not tolerate it if my child received favors as a result. That is NOT why I volunteer.
I want to help all the students, not my children in particular.

And as the parent of a child with special needs, I find your remark about the slow learner particularly offensive. At our MCPS school, children with special needs do not slow down the rest of the class - they have aides in the classroom, who help others as well as the child in question, so it's actually a bonus for everyone.

You are a disgusting human being.

I agree with you that OP's request was improper. But you have unrealistically rose colored glasses in claiming special needs students don't slow down the class and actually benefit others because of aides. In truth, it is a mixed bag and depends on a lot of factors, including the SN kid(s) and the aide(s). I've had circumstances where there have been frequent, significant disruptions and others with few disruptions and the aides were able and willing to help other kids.

I am not suggesting the SN kid shouldn't be in the class or get extra help, but that extra help does sometimes come at the expense of other kids and the pace of the class. Pretending otherwise doesn't help anyone.

Also, remember not all SN kids have aides, exacerbating the problems and taking away some of the potential benefit.

Too bad. SN kids have a right to be in the classroom. If you don't get that, go private.

Can you read? That was my point. They do have that right. I just thought the PP was being dishonesty in saying it was always a positive for other kids in the class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Schools usually honor requests to avoid another child, so you can ask why this request was not honored.

However for all the rest, shame on you, OP!

What you expected was highly unethical and immoral.

I have been on the PTA Board for years, and would not tolerate it if my child received favors as a result. That is NOT why I volunteer.
I want to help all the students, not my children in particular.

And as the parent of a child with special needs, I find your remark about the slow learner particularly offensive. At our MCPS school, children with special needs do not slow down the rest of the class - they have aides in the classroom, who help others as well as the child in question, so it's actually a bonus for everyone.

You are a disgusting human being.

As a teacher, I can assure you that the special needs kids DO slow down the pace for everyone else, or at a minimum unevenly divert teacher attention away from the other students. And I have never seen a school where the SN kids who are placed in mainstream classes have an aid sitting with them all day.

OP here. I don't have a problem with "our" SN kids. There are two and they both have aides most of the time in class. they cannot be both in one classroom, I get it, each class will get one. It's ok.
But I have a problem with 2 kids who are repeating a grade both being in one classroom. Plus another child who has some LDs but no aide. I may not know something about the other classroom, but I don't think they also have 2 kids repeating a grade?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Schools usually honor requests to avoid another child, so you can ask why this request was not honored.

However for all the rest, shame on you, OP!

What you expected was highly unethical and immoral.

I have been on the PTA Board for years, and would not tolerate it if my child received favors as a result. That is NOT why I volunteer.
I want to help all the students, not my children in particular.

And as the parent of a child with special needs, I find your remark about the slow learner particularly offensive. At our MCPS school, children with special needs do not slow down the rest of the class - they have aides in the classroom, who help others as well as the child in question, so it's actually a bonus for everyone.

You are a disgusting human being.

+1 I was a room parent last year in my oldest child's class. Her teacher was awful and I hated her, in large part because she sought to ignore the accommodations my child needs and made things harder than they needed to be. But I didn't volunteer to curry favor with the teacher - I did it because my child asked me to do it and to make the few class parties allowed at her school fun for the whole class.

Volunteers shouldn't be able to "buy" influence. And kids with special needs have every right to be in the "good" classrooms too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Schools usually honor requests to avoid another child, so you can ask why this request was not honored.

However for all the rest, shame on you, OP!

What you expected was highly unethical and immoral.

I have been on the PTA Board for years, and would not tolerate it if my child received favors as a result. That is NOT why I volunteer.
I want to help all the students, not my children in particular.

And as the parent of a child with special needs, I find your remark about the slow learner particularly offensive. At our MCPS school, children with special needs do not slow down the rest of the class - they have aides in the classroom, who help others as well as the child in question, so it's actually a bonus for everyone.

You are a disgusting human being.

As a teacher, I can assure you that the special needs kids DO slow down the pace for everyone else, or at a minimum unevenly divert teacher attention away from the other students. And I have never seen a school where the SN kids who are placed in mainstream classes have an aid sitting with them all day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am one of the few MC parents in a title 1 school. Worked my butt off on the PTA board for 2 years, plus classroom volunteering, plus working directly with principal to organize events for the school.
Part of the deal as I saw it was that my son was in a stronger teacher's class last year, plus a stronger and better peer group in his class. He almost always got into free enrichment activities where there was a lottery, which I also saw as part of the deal (never was stated by anyone openly but I was even asked for a preference for a summer program).
Last year, I was asked about the preferences for my son's classroom placement, which I stated (3 of them: teacher, best friend, avoiding one other child). Well I saw the class lists today and I got ZERO of my requests fulfilled. I am fine with either teacher, I am more or less ok that his good friend is not with him, but there is a boy I specifically told the school my son had some run ins with and who is just plain disruptive and physically aggressive, and he is in my son's class. Also, I can see that his class is just weaker than the other one. Two kids who were held back a grade, one borderline special needs slow learner, and only one strong student besides him.
I am just so disappointed. I tried to stay loyal to the neighborhood school, tried to make it better, but now I am just tempted to transfer the kid to a more decent school a bit further away. I am drastically scaling down my PTA involvement this year for sure, and looking into other school options.

You really can't count on PTA involvement as a way of getting favors from the school. Sometimes it works out but often it doesn't. You're really better off focusing your time and energy on supplementing your child yourself.

Anonymous wrote:I remember feeling like the teachers and principal favored kids whose parents volunteered a lot around the school. Mine did not volunteer much which was not my fault and I remember feeling like it was unfair that those kids seemed to get special treatment

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you "volunteered" because you thought it would curry you favors with the principal with class placement? If you'd just stuck to sharing about how frustrated you were that your communicated request for separating your child from another wasn't met, I would have offered some helpful advice. But you had to throw in the part about expecting some preferential treatment because you volunteered.

You're an idiot, OP. You fail to see how your kid will be fine, even with some kids who learn differently. Even worse, though, is that you're an entitled idiot. Please stay in MD.

-Principal of a Title 1 school in Fairfax

"Educators" like you are why we pay $40k/yr for our children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Schools usually honor requests to avoid another child, so you can ask why this request was not honored.

However for all the rest, shame on you, OP!

What you expected was highly unethical and immoral.

I have been on the PTA Board for years, and would not tolerate it if my child received favors as a result. That is NOT why I volunteer.
I want to help all the students, not my children in particular.

And as the parent of a child with special needs, I find your remark about the slow learner particularly offensive. At our MCPS school, children with special needs do not slow down the rest of the class - they have aides in the classroom, who help others as well as the child in question, so it's actually a bonus for everyone.

You are a disgusting human being.

+1 I was a room parent last year in my oldest child's class. Her teacher was awful and I hated her, in large part because she sought to ignore the accommodations my child needs and made things harder than they needed to be. But I didn't volunteer to curry favor with the teacher - I did it because my child asked me to do it and to make the few class parties allowed at her school fun for the whole class.

Volunteers shouldn't be able to "buy" influence. And kids with special needs have every right to be in the "good" classrooms too.

Anonymous wrote:
Schools usually honor requests to avoid another child, so you can ask why this request was not honored.

However for all the rest, shame on you, OP!

What you expected was highly unethical and immoral.

I have been on the PTA Board for years, and would not tolerate it if my child received favors as a result. That is NOT why I volunteer.
I want to help all the students, not my children in particular.

And as the parent of a child with special needs, I find your remark about the slow learner particularly offensive. At our MCPS school, children with special needs do not slow down the rest of the class - they have aides in the classroom, who help others as well as the child in question, so it's actually a bonus for everyone.

You are a disgusting human being.

Anonymous wrote:
Schools usually honor requests to avoid another child, so you can ask why this request was not honored.

However for all the rest, shame on you, OP!

What you expected was highly unethical and immoral.

I have been on the PTA Board for years, and would not tolerate it if my child received favors as a result. That is NOT why I volunteer.
I want to help all the students, not my children in particular.

And as the parent of a child with special needs, I find your remark about the slow learner particularly offensive. At our MCPS school, children with special needs do not slow down the rest of the class - they have aides in the classroom, who help others as well as the child in question, so it's actually a bonus for everyone.

You are a disgusting human being.

Anonymous wrote:So you "volunteered" because you thought it would curry you favors with the principal with class placement? If you'd just stuck to sharing about how frustrated you were that your communicated request for separating your child from another wasn't met, I would have offered some helpful advice. But you had to throw in the part about expecting some preferential treatment because you volunteered.

You're an idiot, OP. You fail to see how your kid will be fine, even with some kids who learn differently. Even worse, though, is that you're an entitled idiot. Please stay in MD.

-Principal of a Title 1 school in Fairfax

Anonymous wrote:I am one of the few MC parents in a title 1 school. Worked my butt off on the PTA board for 2 years, plus classroom volunteering, plus working directly with principal to organize events for the school.
Part of the deal as I saw it was that my son was in a stronger teacher's class last year, plus a stronger and better peer group in his class. He almost always got into free enrichment activities where there was a lottery, which I also saw as part of the deal (never was stated by anyone openly but I was even asked for a preference for a summer program).
Last year, I was asked about the preferences for my son's classroom placement, which I stated (3 of them: teacher, best friend, avoiding one other child). Well I saw the class lists today and I got ZERO of my requests fulfilled. I am fine with either teacher, I am more or less ok that his good friend is not with him, but there is a boy I specifically told the school my son had some run ins with and who is just plain disruptive and physically aggressive, and he is in my son's class. Also, I can see that his class is just weaker than the other one. Two kids who were held back a grade, one borderline special needs slow learner, and only one strong student besides him.
I am just so disappointed. I tried to stay loyal to the neighborhood school, tried to make it better, but now I am just tempted to transfer the kid to a more decent school a bit further away. I am drastically scaling down my PTA involvement this year for sure, and looking into other school options.