Kindergarten Teacher Lets Classmates Vote Boy with Autism Disease Out of Classrooom

Mom says teacher let classmates vote autistic son out of class

PORT ST. LUCIE - Melissa Barton said she is considering legal action after her son's kindergarten teacher led his classmates to vote him out of class.

After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn't like about Barton's 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.

By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex -- who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism -- out of the class.

Melissa Barton filed a complaint with Morningside's school resource officer, who investigated the matter, Port St. Lucie Department spokeswoman Michelle Steele said. But the state attorney's office concluded the matter did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse, so no criminal charges will be filed, Steele said.

Port St. Lucie Police no longer are investigating, but police officials are documenting the complaint, she said.

Steele said the teacher confirmed the incident took place.

Portillo could not be reached for comment Friday.

Steele said the boy had been sent to the principal's office because of disciplinary issues. When he returned, Portillo made him go to the front of the room as a form of punishment, she said.

Barton said her son is in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism. Alex began the testing process in February at the suggestion of Morningside Principal Marcia Cully.

Children diagnosed with Asperger's often exhibit social isolation and eccentric behavior.

Alex has had disciplinary issues because of his disability, Barton said. After the family moved into the area and Alex and his sibling arrived at the school in January, Alex spent much of the time in the principal's office, she said.

He also had problems at his last school, but he did not have issues during his two years of preschool, Barton said.

School and district officials have met with Barton and her son to create an individual education plan to address his difficulties, she said. Portillo attended these meetings, Barton said.

Barton said after the vote, Portillo asked Alex how he felt.

"He said, 'I feel sad,' " Barton said.

Alex left the classroom and spent the rest of the day in the nurse's office, she said.

Barton said when she came to pick up her son at the school Wednesday, he was leaving the nurse's office.

"He was shaken up," she said.

Barton said the nurse told her to talk with Portillo, who told her what happened.

Alex hasn't been back to school since then, and Barton said he won't be returning. He starts screaming when she brings him with her to drop off his sibling at school.

Thursday night, his mother heard him saying "I'm not special" over and over.

Barton said Alex is reliving the incident.

The other students said he was "disgusting" and "annoying," Barton said.

"He was incredibly upset," Barton said. "The only friend he has ever made in his life was forced to do this."

St. Lucie School's spokeswoman Janice Karst said the district is investigating the incident, but could not make any further comment.

Vern Melvin, Department of Children and Families circuit administrator, confirmed the agency is investigating an allegation of abuse at Morningside but said he could not elaborate.

Mom says teacher let classmates vote autistic son out of class -- Society -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

This makes me so incredibly angry. How could a teacher of all people allow this to go on in her classroom.

Making fun of people with diseases is the lowest of low.

Yeah i saw this on T.V last week and it saddened me deeply.Growing up is hard enough as it is and i hope that teacher never teachers again,youd think she would have more sense than that......

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Originally Posted by rebgirl420

Making fun of people with diseases is the lowest of low.

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Well the teacher probably didn't know he had any kind of disease. He was only "in the process" of being diagnosed. Still, thats a pretty dumb way for the teacher to make a point. If that's what she was trying to do. Not sure what that point would be though...

If I had a kid and that happened to them I would be absolutely FURIOUS.

Heads would roll.

:mad:

What if the child was being overly disruptive? What if the child was doing something terribly vial and disgusting on a consistant basis?

The teacher can't lay hands on the kid, the other kids can't either, it's interrupting the learning of our future. While it was wrong to single the kid out in front of the class, the kid should have probably been removed and put somewhere else, because it's wrong to sacrifice the good of the many for just the few.

Just as it's wrong to punish a class of kids by no one going on a field trip for one asshole kid killing the class pet.

max how true but she should of handled it in a more mature fashion than what she did.

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Originally Posted by maxsuperdanks

What if the child was being overly disruptive? What if the child was doing something terribly vial and disgusting on a consistant basis?

The teacher can't lay hands on the kid, the other kids can't either, it's interrupting the learning of our future. While it was wrong to single the kid out in front of the class, the kid should have probably been removed and put somewhere else, because it's wrong to sacrifice the good of the many for just the few.

Just as it's wrong to punish a class of kids by no one going on a field trip for one asshole kid killing the class pet.

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Man, I was reading your post, and then at the very end I get to this line, "Just as it's wrong to punish a class of kids by no one going on a field trip for one asshole kid killing the class pet." It made me think you were reliving s traumatic event from your own childhood! Did you get denied a field trip because some asshole kid killed the class pet?

But seriously, this is not appropriate. The kid very likely was being disruptive and the teacher could have used a lot of different options for dealing with it including kicking him out of class. But there is no way that rallying a bunch of kindergartners to vote him out of class was the right thing to do! You don't turn children against each other to make a point! What a moron.

^

Exactly, any person who has ever been made fun of knows what it's like to feel excluded.

It sucks.

who said the teacher rally'd the kids to vote this "disruptive" kid out of class?

I'm with Max on this, the kid was still in the process from the reading and the teacher obviously didn't know this kid was Autistic.

"Alex spent much of the time in the principals office"
"He also had problems at his last school,"

So from a teachers stand point, this disruptive kid, keeps being disruptive, and has to be sent to the principals office over and over. So, she asks the class if they want him to stay or go (I APPLAUD this teacher, giving students actual say? no way!!)

Why should 16 kids who are there to learn have to put up with a disruptive kid? because he has a condition that no one can fix, lets live with it and make everyone else suffer? that seems reasonable...

Not only do I find what this teacher did acceptable, but I applaud her for actions, cause you cant blame someone for what they don't know.

I know growing up with and going to school with a lot of disruptive kids that you just want to go over and grab them and yell at them to stay in there seat, cause EVERYONE is there to learn, Tax money pays for them to learn, so LEARN and not be disruptive....

besides theres already classrooms (at least where i live) where all the "special" children go, which each kid normally has their own "helper" payed by the goood old tax payers.....

Imagine a world where we(as people) use 10x the resources on people that are NEVER going learn Algebra, get a end of the field job, or do anything that would actual better the human race....BUT BUT GOD tells us too!

OH.... and the mother sounds just as "special" as her child...

Can't wait for more neg rep.... cause I'm being realistic, in a fantasy world

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Originally Posted by GrinKyle

Why should 16 kids who are there to learn have to put up with a disruptive kid? because he has a condition that no one can fix, lets live with it and make everyone else suffer? that seems reasonable...

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No one said he should be allowed to be disruptive in class or that any other kids should have to put up with it. If he is that disruptive, he should be somewhere else. If the teacher wants this kid out of her class, she needs to pursue it through her principal. It's just assinine to have the other 5-year-olds "vote" him out of class. These kids do not actually have the power to vote him out, so it's just a way of labeling him as the bad kid everyone hates.

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Originally Posted by dragonrider

Man, I was reading your post, and then at the very end I get to this line, "Just as it's wrong to punish a class of kids by no one going on a field trip for one asshole kid killing the class pet." It made me think you were reliving s traumatic event from your own childhood! Did you get denied a field trip because some asshole kid killed the class pet?

But seriously, this is not appropriate. The kid very likely was being disruptive and the teacher could have used a lot of different options for dealing with it including kicking him out of class. But there is no way that rallying a bunch of kindergartners to vote him out of class was the right thing to do! You don't turn children against each other to make a point! What a moron.

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I agree, which is why I said that the teacher should have gone about it in a much different way.

But the end result should still be the same with the kid removed from class, if they were being disruptive.

I remember when there was a kid who just didn't want to learn, he was a moron who simply didn't apply himself, only when disturbing class did he put forth effort.


The teacher were talking aloud with the intent of the class hearing saying "this kid is an idiot, he doesn't do anything and simply doesn't want to learn"


I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at him.




Oh, and he wasn't autistic. He was just a fuck up.

The answer to your question is yes, Reb.
I've revisited the thread after locking it and cleaning out a whole bunch of really offensive stuff from one individual. I hope it can stay cleaner now.

To add my two cents to the matter, I feel that that WAS in fact emotionally abusive, akin to hazing, which is now ILLEGAL even in military academies, which have had a history of 'you are part of the team or the team will ostracize you'. It's still like that, but much more subdued than in the past, and in my experience at a US military academy punishments are handed down by upperclassmen and officers, and rarely if ever by classmates. I can't think of a single incidence of hazing within the class while I was there. After all, your classmates are your team.

Finally, there's a difference between young adults and small children- ESPECIALLY children who are already suffering the effects of psychological distress from illness.

At the very minimum, that teacher should be de-certified (if there is a cert process in that state) and either removed from the school system entirely, or put in an administrative or aide position where she has less sway over the students' daily activities.

Thread is re-opened, keep it peaceful, wish granted.

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Originally Posted by maxsuperdanks

I agree, which is why I said that the teacher should have gone about it in a much different way.

But the end result should still be the same with the kid removed from class, if they were being disruptive.

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Yeah, Max. You and I agree, the kid should not have been in class if he was being disruptive, but he shouldn't have been publicly singled out that way. The first part of my post was about the funny thing you said, but the second part was just my opinion about the issue, not about what you said.

So what is the story about the cnaceled field trip and the class pet?

Thanks Stinky!

But yeah, of course he should have been taken to an alternative learning class. The effects of this emotional abuse could scar this poor kid. And does he really need that on top of everything else?

It is innapropriate for a teacher to berate a student in such a way.

Max, I'm sure you be completely okay with YOUR autistic child being treated in such a way.

I don't even think this thing is so much about whether the kid is autistic or not. The fact that he might be autistic adds to the potential damage that could be caused by having his whole class publicly ostracisze him. But the real issue is that this is no way for a teacher to discipline any kid, autistic or not. The teacher probably did not know he was autisitc, and I guess he hasn't even been officially diagnosed. But that doesn't excuse her. You don't deal with disruptive kids this way.

I don't know how anyone can justify this by saying his behaviour was probably disturbing a kindergarten :mad:
I watched the interview with his mother I'll try and find it.. Anyway she said that the teacher had gathered all the children and she asked everyone to say what they didn't like about the him, when it came to the only friend that he had in the class she didn't want to say but she said she had to, after the class she was crying.
He hasn't been diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome yet thats why hes there..
heres an update on the story CLICK HERE

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ducation Law
Mom Considers Suit After Class Voted to Expel Her Autistic Son

Posted May 27, 2008, 01:01 pm CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Updated: A Florida woman is considering a lawsuit after a teacher allowed students to take a vote on whether her misbehaving autistic son should remain in class.

Melissa Barton said the teacher made her 5-year-old son, Alex, stand in the front of her classroom after he returned from the principalâ??s office, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Each classmate was allowed to say what they disliked about Alex and then the class was told to vote on whether he should remain. The school is in Port St. Lucie.

Alex lost the vote 14 to 2. He is in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism.

Alex has not been back to school since the incident, and he starts screaming when his mother takes him with her to drop off his siblings at school. The other night, Barton said, he kept repeating "I'm not special" over and over.

A police spokesman said no criminal charges will be filed in the matter.

Since initial reports of the incident, the school district has reassigned the teacher and Barton has received hundreds of supportive e-mails, ABAJournal.com notes in an update on the story. She also received a call from Phil McGraw, who asked her to appear on Dr. Phil, and from the Florida Attorney Generalâ??s Office of Civil Rights, reports TCPalm.

Alex brightened when he received a call from a classmate Tuesday evening who discussed SpongeBob SquarePants and squirrels with him. Their mothers are planning a play date for them this summer.

Barton says she has heard from many parents of special needs kids who have had problems in school for behavior that isn't their fault. â??Itâ??s not something you can correct with some sort of demented behavior modification program,â?� she said.

Barton and her son gave an interview to CBS News, and she is considering the Dr. Phil invitation.

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The video isn't available anymore

Anybody who says that teacher did the right thing doesnt have any kids cause if you did and you found out that your kid was voted out of his class room would be furious.It doesnt matter if the kid is disruptive it should of been handled in a different matter period.

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Originally Posted by GrinKyle

So from a teachers stand point, this disruptive kid, keeps being disruptive, and has to be sent to the principals office over and over. So, she asks the class if they want him to stay or go (I APPLAUD this teacher, giving students actual say? no way!!)

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No offense but... these are Kindergarten kids. What do 4-5 year old children know about voting other than they don't like this.. they don't like that.. or that if they don't vote a certain way they may not get ice cream or something.

I do not applaud this teacher. What she did was wrong. She should've let the principal handle this with his parents as usual. Instead she took matters into her own hands.

Perhaps you can't understand because you don't have anyone like this in your life, but I have a handicap brother.

Let me tell you when you trust someone to take care of your child, brother or whatever relation to you they may be, and then they do something dramatic like this... you are going to become in furiated.

You trust someone to teach and take care of a child who is VERY vulnerable. More so than most children, and then they turn around and give you the proverbial slap in the face. It's no reason that this mother was upset.

Let's assume that this kid was normal and was being disruptive. Let's say the classroom is 16 kids. The teacher picks out kid #10 for being disruptive and then tells the class to say something about him they don't like and then vote yes or not to kick him out.

1 you've just essentially tormented the kid. Calling him 15 different names. You've made him feel unequal to his peers and have destroyed any tiny bit of self worth you have when you're a in kindergarten. On top of that you told him he's not good enough to be in the class.

Are you still applauding this teacher? Yes now the disruptive child is out of the class but she could've accomplished the same thing by taking the child to the principal and allowing the principal to discuss it with the parents once more. It was never the teachers job to conduct a modern age stoning of a little kid.

You're very obtuse in your thinking.

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Imagine a world where we(as people) use 10x the resources on people that are NEVER going learn Algebra, get a end of the field job, or do anything that would actual better the human race....BUT BUT GOD tells us too!

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Who are you to determine what is going to better the human race or an individual for that matter. You are nobody.

Your entire post seems to be written with the intent of trying to offend people. It's honestly sickening.

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cause you cant blame someone for what they don't know.

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I love the hypocrisy here in this quote that is referencing the teacher. People with autism do not function the same way that we do. In a sense they really just don't any better. IT's not within their control. YOU CANT BLAME THEM!

Communication and human relationships are a two way street.

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Originally Posted by rebgirl420

[B][SIZE="5"]
Making fun of people with diseases is the lowest of low. [/COLOR]

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AGREED!!!

Hazing small impressionable kindergarten kids is wrong in it's own right.

Having a handicap brother I can relate and am infuriated just by reading that article.

There is so much ignorance in the world.

You were not banned for posting your natural selectionist views. You were banned because we as a medical site have a rule against posts that are violent in nature, or encourage violence.
I'd suggest you re-read the ban message, and understand it, instead of accusing mod staff of banning you for your VIEWS. This is simply an issue of respecting site rules. Also, it's poor form to post gripes about your ban. That should always be discussed privately.

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Originally Posted by maxsuperdanks

Well, since this will be my first post back from being banned for publicly posting my Natural Selectionist views on the world, I'll just say that the kid was an asshole, didn't make any effort to do anything but disrupt class. Anyways, he dropped something on the hamster on purpose. Killed it. So the teacher canceled the field trip.


So at recess we *explicit playground violence*.



Sorry, I can't post anything about violence lest I be banned again, because you know.... the world isn't full of it.




"The meek shall inherit the yolk and breed caitiffs and creep lings while the strong and bold shall inherit that which is blessed in the land."



We can't all live in a fairy tale where hugs and kisses stop bullets and fists.

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Hmmmm... I thought I agreed with you, at least in part, but maybe not....

Anyway, thanks for posting the hamster story I asked about. It seems like it would have been more effective for the teacher to allow all the other kids to go on the field trip, and leave the one behind at the principal's office as his punishment. It doesn't make much sense to me to cancel the whole trip for everyone.

This week on Survivor: Kindergarten...

Jeff Probst: I'm sorry. Alex. The tribe has spoken. Take your lunch pail and go.

Alex: I feel sad.

Probst: So what do you think of today's tribal council.

Alex: I'm not special.

Probst: Were you expecting such a powerful alliance to be organized by your teacher?

Alex: Huh?

Probst: Suzy, why did you vote the way you did?

Suzy: Teacher said Alex had ass burgers.

Probst: Timmy, why did you join the anti-Alex alliance?

Timmy: Is it nap time yet?

Probst: Miss Portillo, why did you feel it was so important to vote Alex out of the class today?

Portillo: That little punk was making my life HELL! He needed to be taught that he is NOTHING! I'll keep voting kids out of this class until I am the only one left if I have too! These rotten little brats need to learn that school is not about them! School is about survival, and I will do what I have to do in order to survive!