Alex Barton’s Mother Asks District to Pay for Private School & Testing
November 26, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Back in May, 5-year-old Alex Barton was voted out of his kindergarten class by his classmates. His teacher, Wendy Portillo, had asked the students to vote on whether they wanted Alex to remain. Alex’s mother, Melissa Barton, removed Alex from the school following this incident, which received a great deal of attention in the national media. Portillo has been suspended for a year without pay and is asking that her her case be reviewed by the state Division of Administrative Hearings. Alex is now being taught at home and Melissa Barton is requesting that the St. Lucie County School District pay for private school, psychological testing and counseling for him, as reported in today’s Palm Beach Post:
Barton filed a complaint with the district in late August seeking an administrative hearing. In the complaint, which she released to the media this week, Barton outlined the incident that occurred last May in Wendy Portillo’s kindergarten class.
The complaint also says that school officials failed to evaluate Alex for autism within the time frame specified by law – he was privately diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism, after the incident – and didn’t establish an individual educational program as required by federal law.
Barton is also seeking for the school district to pay legal fees and compensatory and punitive damages for emotional suffering.
Reviewing all this, one can’t help thinking how none of this had to happen if there’d been a little more understanding that day in May.
It is still so painful to hear about that incident. That a teacher would do that is…It’s beyond belief.
Now, not only does this mother have to battle for her child and get him into a good school, the district has to fight her for that right.
You were so right–all this could have been avoided.
This case still hits me in the gut. I’ve taught several kids with autism and/or Asperger’s, and they’re not easy. But is any student “easy” to teach? I feel terrible that one of my professional colleagues was so frustrated and so un-supported that she stooped to this low level, demeaning and traumatizing a child. I hope I never inadvertently do that; I know I’ll never do it intentionally.
What I find hard to believe,is that this sort of stuff still goes on.I was thrown out of a couple of Kindergartens myself at that age.And this kid “only” had Asperger’s.I bet he didn’t do half the stuff I did at that age,like going into offices,and sorting through contents of desks,or taking off my soiled diapers (I wasn’t fully toilet trained,until I was about nine years old.),and running around the classroom naked.
At least I was spared the humiliation of being voted out of the class,”Survivor” style.
I’m afraid that things like this will always be happening. There might be some ways to at least reduce the frequency of such things, though…