This enraged me when I first watched it. I saw the video on MSN and looked googled for a print story. I'm just in shock. The print story seems to hint that the teacher explained her actions as discipline of some sort and isn't denying it. If this is in fact what happened in that classroom...I for the life of me can't figure out why instructing 16 children to tell another child why they don't like them and then casting a vote to see if the unfortunate 5 year old should be allowed to stay in kindergarten isn't emotional abuse.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,358956,00.html

I really don't see this working, and to be honest, it doesn't even seem like has the kids best interests at heart even in a warped and distant way. The teacher just sounds like an evil bitch and she figures the autistic kid is "bringing it on himself".

I mean, people complain teachers arn't paid enough, but I think the real problem is the standard of degenerate fuckwit that are actually entrusted to teach. You get a good one here and there, but there are teachers who shouldn't be allowed to own pets, let alone be placed in a position of power over children.

I'm not sure how it works in the states but in Canada his parents could be looking at filing a human rights suit against the school board or the teacher depending on how this is handled.

She was totally out of line in what she did both by kicking a child out of class esentially for being disabled. I understand that teaching can be both difficult and stressful but so long as a student with a disability is not a threat to himself or other people it is the teacher's job to make the class room work for all the students. It's their job to adapt the enviroment as much as possible so everyone's needs get met. And that requires a huge degree of creativity. Sometimes class sizes rise and rise and rise and with 30 to 40 students it can be difficult.

But this is a Kindergarten class of less than 20 kids.

Based on what I've read... if the school had been informed that the child had aspergers and that had been passed onto the teacher (or was in the child's "file") she's not fit to do her job.

Dagda: A person with aspergers in the moment often doesn't have an understanding of other peoples emotions and will come off as cold or greedy or selfish. But many times if someone makes the effort to explain things the person with Aspergers is usually very upset and apologetic for having hurt / offended other people unintentionally.

Even with out the disability no child should have to go through hearing all of their flaws and weak points. No child should be singled out to have the reasons why everyone dislikes them announced publicially. Especially not by a person in authority. Humilation and shame are not effective tools for educating children.

1) God, I'm surprised this never happened to me. It sure sounds like a lotta shit that did.

2) I wish I could agree with the statement that there are more good teachers than bad ones. My experience, and that of most of the people I've ever talked to who went through public school, is that while really awful teachers are an exception, almost all of them are nearly useless burnouts who should probably take a few years off. And that is because we don't pay them enough.

What makes them that way? Key word here is "burnout." Most teachers, even most of the really unhinged ones, were good at some point. Paying teachers more results in more teachers, alleviating the shortage which leaves many of them overworked, as well as allowing earlier retirement so that teachers who have been chewed into mulch by the system already are not pressured to continue their substandard work.

Even 5 year olds without disabilities can get roudy or out of hand. I have students of that age with behavioral problems without autism. If you can't handle 5 & 6 year olds, good and bad, you have no business being a kindergarten teacher. The younger the students are, the more peatience and understanding you need.  This would have shocked and angered me me with a middle or high school teacher....but a kindergarten teacher? It just makes me sick to my stomach.

Seems to be all over blogs and such.
Looks like the family plans to sue.
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/jun/07/alex-barton-family-plans-to-sue/


As awful as the story is, I did feel guilty for laughing at this on one blog.

*disclaimer*  I didn't read the whole story or the entire thread, just scanned.

However, FWIW, something similar (albeit less harsh I'm sure) happened to me in elementary school.  I don't remember the exact details but basically I could be a rather annoying and sometimes mean child at times.  On the level of taking scissors, pulling hair kind of thing.  I just wanted to make friends and didn't know how to basically.  Well anyway, one day the teacher had us all sit in a circle and basically one by one give me feedback on what kind of a person I was.  Like the kids would say "I don't really like it when you pull my hair and it make me not want to be your friend", etc.  I remember I was quite upset and started crying and it was definitely something that was imprinted on my mind.  However, it did have the intended effect of making me start to realize that that wasn't the way to go about things and that if I wanted to be friends I would have to be friendly to people. 

So, I'm not saying that the teacher was necessarily right, I'm just saying that maybe she had decent intentions and it just played out in a bad way.  I certainly don't think it's worth suing over.  I had a teacher tell me she "wouldn't be my friend for a million dollars" once in front of the whole class.  Was it inappropriate? Yes.  Did it scar my young mind?  Yes.  But, whatever, I mean stuff happens and that's part of growing up.  She got a stern talking to from my Mom and that was it, end of story, we moved on.  I'd like to think that I'm a 1000 times better at maintaining interpersonal relationships now then I was then and I definitely think it was due in part to some of the harsh "wake up" type criticisms and experiences that I had. 

Ok, I'm taking this to mean that you agree that it's possible for people with Aspergers to improve as they learn more about how their actions are affecting other people.

I agree that it was a harsh and probably inappropriate thing of the teacher to do but I don't agree that it's not something that the child could learn from, based on the above.  So I guess I disagree with your saying "Aspergers isn't something you can fix with 'wake up' criticisms".  That may be the barbaric way to go about it but it is a form of explaining to them how their actions affect other people.  It won't "cure" them but it might help.  I've seen improvement from both my cousin and a friend from school (both with aspergers) from essentially being ostracized so much that over time they had to start to question what it was that they were doing that caused them to always have no friends.  It would have been nicer for them if they would have learned some other way but the rest of the world isn't set up accommodate them in that manner, for better or worse.

So again, I'm not saying it was right but I don't think it was unspeakably bad either and it might actually have done a little bit of good as well.