Update on Alex Barton: From the Police Report
May 29, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Just up on the Palm Beach Post are more details about what happened last Wednesday at Morningside Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Florida:
Wendy Portillo, a kindergarten teacher who has drawn national attention for asking her students to vote on whether an autistic boy should stay in class after he misbehaved, told police she asked students to tell the child what they disliked about his behavior, but only because she wanted him to hear how he affected other students, according to a police report.
Portillo, who was removed from contact with students this week, admitted that she “polled” her students on whether Alex Barton should be removed from class for the day. The class voted 14-2 for him to leave.
The report, released today by the Port St. Lucie Police Department, sheds more light on what happened last Wednesday at Morningside Elementary. School officials have declined comment, citing their own investigation, and Portillo, a teacher at the school for nine years, hasn’t publicly explained her actions.
Police and the state attorney’s office decided the case didn’t warrant child abuse charges. An investigation by the school district is expected to take about two weeks.
Parents, community members and advocates for the disabled have harshly criticized Portillo’s actions. The school district has received more than 1,000 emails about the incident, and national news organizations, such as CNN and CBS News, have picked up the story.
And here’s some thoughtful and thought-provoking posts about what the case of Alex Barton might teach us by some bloggers:
First to read is Ballastexistenz on exclusion and the “Survivor” mentality.
Mom-NOS writes about how the tribe has spoken.
Marla Baltes has some great insights about what the story of Alex Barton reminds us to do.
Emily at A life less ordinary? looks at two categories that commenters seem to be falling into.
Shawn writes perceptively about mob advocacy in the wake of the decision by one blogger to close the comments on two posts about Wendy Portillo. That blogger, Bev at AspergerSquare 8, posted recently about Bad Mark.
Club 166 discusses education, survivor, and hamburgers. Manual Not Included notes that Alex and his classmates have gotten “a lesson in exclusion that is in no way benign.”
Kassiane writes about what’s special about Alex. Barbara at MommyLife says the same and has a suggestion for a card campaign. Also check out her interview with Melissa Barton, Alex’s mother, and also a statement.
Many have noted the “Survivor” reality TV show “voting out” of Alex—-Discussing Autism asks if reality TV created the St. Lucie madness, and Left Brain/Right Brain suggests that “Pupil Idol” is nothing less than the spawn of American Idol.
And Autism Insights doesn’t think that children can be so “mean-spirited”—goes without saying that adults need to be models and certainly teachers of children (more on this also at Christschool looks closely at the police report.
This Little Light comments on Alex saying “‘I’m not special’” repeatedly after his removal from the classroom, and Squid writes about why inclusion is critical.
Advocates are called to protect, Ed emphasizes. Two posts on bullying are at Last Crazy Horn and also at Asperger Square 8 (which suggests some positive strategies).
Where’s the Sun? asks what were the supports for the teacher? (As Alex did not have a formal diagnosis yet, did he have any supports; did he have an IEP?)
I’ve read many blogs about Alex and am
Here is one about reality tv http://www.discussingautism.com/did-reality-tv-create-the-st-lucie-madness/
I just want to add that I told Alex’s story to my 7th grade social studies students and they were outraged. The immediately wanted to do their own letter-writing campaign and decided that they didn’t want to use email, but the good old US Postal Service instead (they thought their message would have more impact this way). I am going to compose a cover letter myself and send them off tomorrow.
There ARE good kids in this world, too.
Thank you for the link.
I don’t think that the kids who voted the child out are necessarily bad children.
It could be they felt pressured from the teacher. Or Alex was in dire need of a one to one aide and very little learning was taking place in the classroom due to the interruptions.
Obviously the teacher handled the situation poorly.
I am very interesting in knowing if the parents had requested an aide, did the teacher request an aide? Did the school district turn down a request for an aide? It seems obvious that the child needed more assistance than this teacher had the knowledge to give.
Goodness, my apologies — I was vague and did not mean to imply that the kids who voted Alex out were bad. Quite the contrary; I think those poor kids were also misued. In my head I was thinking about bullying in general and Bev’s post on the subject as well.
Again, I’m sorry for sending out a comment with such a vague reference.
Kristina, your leaving out a lot of information from that police report. I’ll post the rest of it on my blog later. It sure leaves a different impression than what the Palm Beach Post reported.
Peer pressure at work—-and the dynamics of a group.
@CS, I’ll be checking for the details you add.
Here’s the rest of the Palm Beach Post article:
Kristina, please do as I know you have been somewhat uncomfortable with the reaction.
Keep up the great work. I always enjoy reading your posts. I’m new to blogging and haven’t got much time for it but have posted about this story.
http://manualnotincluded.blogspot.com/2008/05/sad-reality.html
Hi Kristina, I posted about this a couple of times in two different places. If either of the posts seems acceptable, please add me to your list. Whether or not the teacher had innocent intentions, her behavior – to me as an ex-teacher – was inappropriate and she should not have such an influential position in kids’ lives. I was pretty outraged, but even moreso today when someone suggested to me that the children were ‘just being kids.’
Anyway, the links:
http://autisminsights.today.com/2008/05/29/not-a-case-of-kids-being-kids/
http://autismisred.blogspot.com/2008/05/society-of-meanieheads.html
This woman is insane. She actually wanted 5 year olds to tell another 5 year old – a student with autism – how he affected them? She needs to have her certification revoked.
thanks for the links– will add them.
it will be more than interesting to find out more details.
Here’s my post from our little corner of the blogiverse.
“This Little Light” – http://www.bothhandsandaflashlight.com/2008/05/30/this-little-light/
Thanks to you and other prominent bloggers for putting out the call.
Thanks for the ongoing updates.
My short post on Alex Barton includes concrete steps and examples and advice about inclusion, i.e., what we parents of special ed kids can do to help prevent these kind of exclusionary attitudes in our schools.
http://www.squidalicious.com/2008/05/why-inclusion-is-critical.html
I’ve got a list of bloggers who have written on Alex Barton that is 94 bloggers long, here: http://lastcrazyhorn.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/the-golden-rule/
And heading towards 100…….. I just linked to your post here.
And over, because I haven’t gotten around to it yet. We had to put our cat down this week and I just have not been in the blogging mood….
I think what the teacher did was wrong, however I think the teacher might not be the only one that should bear the full burden for this blame.
Here’s my view:
http://wheresthesun.org/2008/05/31/alex-barton-yet-another-interesting-perspective/
@RG, thanks for the link.
@Moi,
Oh no.
Am guessing that there will be more to say about Alex Barton as more is revealed.
Kristina,
Last week, my son Tyler, who does not have autism, emailed me the link to the story about a 5 year old boy with autism who was voted out of his classroom. My son was appalled. It took me a few days to wrap my mind around such a horrific event, and when I did write I did not give Tyler credit for alerting me about this devastating story. Perhaps the rainbow here is that others, including one special brother of a child with autism recognized such inhumanity. Maybe there is hope.
I guess the operative question would be, is he appalled simply because he has a brother with autism? I know that we agree that in a perfect world we would have a plethora of appalled reactions. Nevertheless the world is taking some notice.
I did blog on my perspective.
http://www.revolutionhealth.com/blogs/resilientmom/teaching-discriminati-14011
Pica =/= autism. Obviously if he’s eating crayons, paper and leather car seats, he’s got pica. And that’s not the same as autism. Neither is attention whoring.