A South Carolina mother says her son was suspended for drawing a picture of a cartoon bomb at home and bringing it to school.I'm sure I've told this story more than once on this blog but I'm going to tell it again. When I was very young, there was a local TV show called Miss Pat's Playroom. Children could send in pictures to Miss Pat and, if they were really lucky, Miss Pat would show them on TV. I sent in a picture once and was elated when Miss Pat showed it, saying something like this to describe my picture: "And little Darren Miller sent in this picture of an airplane bombing a house." No one panicked. No one called for Miss Pat to be thrown off the air. No one called for me to be psychoanalyzed. Back then people were smart enough to realize that boys draw such pictures and it's perfectly normal, just like playing cops and robbers or cowboys and indians.
Amy Parham told FoxCarolina.com her 13-year-old son, Rhett, was suspended from Hillcrest Middle School after showing the drawing to classmates, who reported him to administrators.
"They actually reiterated to me they knew he was non-violent," Parham told the station. "They knew he was not actually having a bomb, creating or making a bomb. But that they could not go with out making an example of him and take some type of action because they were worried about their perception."
Rhett, who has autism, was suspended indefinitely by school administrators.
Now we've taken what is perfectly normal and criminalized it, stigmatized it, and freaked out over it. Way to act like adults. Why would any kid think you have his or her best interest at heart when you do something this stupid?
I appreciate that this was just another over the top reaction by administration, but on the other hand, we've almost had to react that way in order to justify actions taken against kids who are not autistic who make threats. Case in point, a couple of years ago a mainstreamed student with Asbergers started talking about Hitler and Nazis all the time. He began shouting out in class-which included both minority students as well as Jewish students. Unfortunately, because of his disability, we can't do much without a manifestation ARD. And since those topics were not directly in the IEP, we could do nothing. What of the other students who had to listen to his rants? The problem is that we have kids who are without filters and who are doing and saying things that get other kids kicked out or arrested. Since we're under pressure not to treat special ed kids any differently, should we protect them from consequences when for most students it would be much worse?
ReplyDeleteNo. We shouldn't kick *any* kids out for silly stuff. There was no threat at all involved here. It was *picture* with no threat. If mom is telling the truth then the school *admitted* that the kid is non-violent.
ReplyDeleteI worked with an Aspergers student who was picked on by some other students. In his earlier days, he would physically retaliate against his tormentors, and was told he needed to use "words, not fists". So, he complied. But it didn't stop the aggressors.
ReplyDeleteLater, in middle school, he was again bullied. During one episode, he immediately told the teacher, who did nothing to help. Using his words, not his fists, the student told the bully he wished he could shoot him. As you can imagine, this brought down a hail of intervention on the autistic child - and no consequences for the bully. As you might also appreciate, the autistic boy felt he had operated within the parameters laid out by the school. He had done what they had told him and (literally) used words, rather than actual violence. He nearly was expelled for those particular poorly chosen words, though.
I know this boy well, and can tell you that he would not ever touch a gun (he is very much a pacifist - almost annoyingly so!). However, he also - understandably, in my opinion - felt that the punishment was lopsided and unfair, since the bully received no intervention. (For what it's worth, the student has gone on to become a successful, productively employed adult, in spite of those early difficulties.)
If the schools are going to insist on mainstreaming these kids, then they must be prepared to deal with the inevitable persecution. My experience with Aspergers is limited, but the few people I have known have taken conversations quite literally and have a strong sense of fairness - and are easy to reason with, if the errors in their social interactions are explained to them. I have read that Tourette Syndrome may be an issue with some autistic individuals as well. How you deal with that in a classroom setting, I have no idea. It would be very challenging to work with a situation such as Ellen described. I don't know how you teachers are expected to maintain peace and accomplish the education goals, given the variety of students and issues you must accommodate.
Ellen ...the difference there would be that it is disruptive to the learning environment. Drawing a cartoon bomb? Not so much. Someone should pioneer an administrator training course called "Wheat and Chaff" ....
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has a little buddy about 7 years old who really wants to be a bomb for Halloween. Same kind of cartoon bomb. I think that would be a perfectly fine costume (except it would be kind of tricky to make well), but I do worry that somebody would freak out and squish his cute little dream of being a bomb.
ReplyDelete^ It can't be any worse than our homemade ghost costume that ended up looking like KKK robes. A bit of advice: Don't aim for "scary" when trying to create a ghost costume. It backfires. Try for Casper instead.:)
ReplyDeletePeggyU: "During one episode, he immediately told the teacher, who did nothing to help. Using his words, not his fists, ... this brought down a hail of intervention on the autistic child - and no consequences for the bully."
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty much the story for any kids who are bullied. The adults will, AT BEST, usually ignore the problem. At worst, the kid being bullied will get into trouble.
Autism and Aspergers have nothing to do with it.
Kids need to learn to ignore the words from the bullies (hard, I know, at a young age ... heck, it can be hard at an older age!). And kids also need to learn to deal physical damage to the bully if things escalate beyond words.
Bullies want to "beat people up", physically or metaphorically. Bullies don't want to "fight". Because of this, you don't even need to "win" a physical fight with a bully, just deal out enough damage that bullying stops being fun.
Sad, but true ...
[And suspending a kid for a drawing is just dumb :-)]
-Mark Roulo
And just as a point of order ... the kid 'wasn't' special needs ... he 'HAD' special needs. One of my least favorite eduspeak mistakes ...
ReplyDelete