5-year-old boy voted out of his class
May 24, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Disability Rights, Education
Wendy Portillo, a teacher at Morningside Elementary in Port St. Lucie, Florida, let her kindergarten students say what they did not like about 5-year-old Alex Barton—–after which the students voted him out of the class. Alex is in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and has had “disciplinary issues” at school due to his disability, TC Palm.com reports. His mother, Melissa Barton, is considering legal action. Ballastexistenz comments on the “Survivor” mentality apparently at work in that Florida classroom and the exclusion of the disabled, and Asperger Square 8 posts about how you can contact the St. Lucie School Board (this is the email) and also Marcia Cully, the principal of Morningside Elementary.
Jeff Stimpson
Jill Cornfield
If your child is having trouble in school and has ADHD perhaps this would help:
Many kids with Aspergers also have ADHD. After my son was diagnosed it was recommended that he be put on drugs to treat the ADHD. I looked into it and decided I didn’t like any of the drugs in use but in my research found these links with suggested dietary changes. With out informing his teachers I made these changes to his diet and immediately he went from being on red and yellow to being on blue and green. After just one week I informed the teacher and she was impressed, she had really noticed his ability to focus and pay attention improved greatly.
It made sense to me; he is a very picky eater and will not eat meat or vegetables so he must have some deficiencies in his diet. I had him on a good multi vitamin so I added Omega 3 and a protein shake (Muscle Milk – low sugar) once a day and reduced his sugar, artificial sweeter and preservatives. It was like a miracle, it didn’t change his Aspergers but it greatly reduces the ADHD affects and allows him to mainstream with out being disruptive. Now the teachers just have to address his Aspergers needs.
It did require the help of the teachers to guide him to choose the right food at breakfast and lunch but after seeing the difference the teachers were more than glad to help. Many teachers from the school started to request the diet changes from me so they could encourage other parents to try it with their ADHD kids.
Here are the links:
http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/article_352.shtml
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/adhd/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100163620
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/adhd/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100163625
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/adhd/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100163624
Interesting to me too. My older son (15) who has Autism has always been unable to stop drawing all over his assignments, hands etc. during classtime. Where as he used to get in trouble for it in elementary school, I have found in High School they realize he is listening and learning while he is drawing, so they let him. I think it helps him pay attention in some ways, he is calmer and more focused. I rarely hear complaints about it, even though he is still comming home with artwork all over his hands and papers.
I realize this is an old post, but I wanted to say that I recently saw on the news a study found that doodling while listening helps people remember more of what they heard! I always doodled on the sides of my notebook pages in HS, but wouldn’t have been allowed in Elementary school.
My son is the same way…
He is absolutely obsessed with play dough and drawing. If something has a dragon or some kind of reptile on it, you know my son touched it!
I explained to the teachers and they seemed to understand, but still…..
I mean, a lot of times I know it is hard to decide at the moment if he is really not paying attention or he is really focusing. Just ask him what was said! If he can repeat what was sad then you know he listens. It happened to me many times, and he always knows what was said to him. I don’t think this is too much to ask even if the teacher has other children to look out for.
Also…
I don’t understand why are they punishing in the school system instead of awarding. My son always more motivated when he gets a sticker than put him on yellow or red. I think that goes to other kids not just autistic kids.
Hi MSP,
Thanks. I’m definitely going to check out those websites!
My son doesn’t have ADHD though. He was tested for that too. He is just a little bit more hyper then other children, the doctors told me he is like that because he has a lot of environmental and food allergies.
He is highly allergic to dairy, (the protein in milk) product. He is also very picky eater, but because of his allergies the menu that he can have is very limited. The only good thing about it is he hardly can have any junk food.
We give him good quality vitamin and I’m trying to buy “healthy” food!
But, you can never know enough!!! So I try to stay very open minded!
To the handful of people defending this teacher, sorry, but her handling of the situation is indefensible. No one is denying that teaching a roomful of children can be trying. But no matter what a child is doing in the class, to put them up in front of the class to let the other 5-year olds take pot shots at them and then put the power into THEIR hands to give a thumbs up or thumbs down as to dump that child from the class is cruel and devastating to a small child, and only teaches the other kids that understanding and tolerance is trumped by mob rule to drive out “undesirables”.
An ADULT PROFESSIONAL teacher would have had a sit down meeting with the principal, the parents and brought in a school psychologist or another behavioral expert to discuss the matter. If the child was truly making teaching other kids in the class impossible, then options could be discussed and the teacher and parents could work as a team. NEVER should she have passed off her responsibility into the hands of a roomful of kindergarteners. They have no training or understanding in the matter. They are little kids, for gosh sake! This isn’t Lord of the Flies!
Yes, some have said “we don’t know all the details”, and that is true. But I can’t imagine ANY new details we could learn that would make it “acceptable” for a teacher to use public humiliation on a 5-year old and use a classroom full of kids to gang up on and kick out a fellow child. Autistic or otherwise. And the state attorney saw nothing wrong with this?? I suppose the teacher would have had a better chance of losing her job had she done a magic trick and got fired for practicing “wizardry”. What century is this again?
I rail against Finland quite a lot, and for very good reason: autism in all its manifestations is poorly understood here and - if one is autistic in any way in Finland - then one is in a terrible position indeed.
However, despite the terrible things I have been asked to comment on as an educational psychologist here, I have never heard of this ‘Survivor/Idols” voting-off/out thing happening in a Finnish school. It would not find any justification fom the school boards if a nursery/early-years teacher was ever found out doing that.
The job of the teacher includes the management of the classroom; it includes the manipulation of the environment in order to facilitate learning; it includes trying to understand one’s students and how they relate to one another and themselves; but it does not include using humiliation as a ‘teaching method’ for self-regulation (and, as a teacher certificated for special education, the teacher in Alex’s class should have been aware of this).
I could go on about the effects (on students’ self-esteem) of actions like Ms Portillo’s in this case; but I won’t. Why write an educational psychological treatise on it when we already know as parents and/or as autistics ourselves (I fall into both camps) what the result is?
Well what now Kiddie Survivor! How STUPID and SILLY is that? What a waste of time! This teacher scared little Alex. The same thing happen to my son who had learning disabilities. He worked so hard in order to be mainstreamed. His very first day of being mainstreamed in public school, he was called, STUPID, NOT WORTH TEACHING, by one of the teachers. I found out and faced this teacher head on. Told him that I’d have his job by the end of the day. I had spent out thousands of dollars on private schools, private tutors, therapists, and your not going to wreck it for him. Well my youngest son with all the problems he had is now computer administrator at a big company in New Mexico…”Not Florida” Wonder who they will be picked on next for STATE FUNDS? Guess what… My son is paying taxes. Yep the STUPID ONE. Then people wonder why, parents that have children with disabilities are on the defence?
When I read more about little Alex, I can see parallels with him and my son. I was wondering if this cruel way of teaching children was accepted among some teachers? With Alex, Wendy Portillo wanted Alex to hear from his classmates his bad actions so that he wouldn’t be hearing it from an adult, and change his ways. In 1995 when my son was a freshman and going to be mainstream, his one teacher told me the reason that he said what he did, calling him STUPID and NOT WORTH TEACHING, was to JUMP START my son to MOTIVATE him. My son was doing the same thing Alex was when he was saying over and over he wasn’t special. My son was sitting in a closet reading his school books in tears, also saying, I’M NOT WORTH IT. Over and over. Couldn’t get him in a car to go to school, or on a bus. Wouldn’t let him out of my sight, and scared out of my mind, until we got help. There are parallels, and was so astonished to see it. Our situation was 1995, and Alex 2008. I’m sure many, many parents can see parallels.
Bless You Melissa Barton, and Alex
Regarding the discussion about autistic kids drawing or fiddling with things, I have some perspective from the other side of things. I’m very probably some form of ASD (undiagnosed, but the symptoms are really rather clear) and I basically drew the entire way through high school. It undoubtedly originated because I /have/ to have something to do with my hands or I get terribly jumpy and distracted - it might be some form of stimming - but the main “problem” was that it was almost entirely unconscious. I’d realise I was drawing, scold myself mentally, put down the pen and twenty seconds later realise I’d picked it up again and carried on without noticing.
This is probably why it didn’t distract me from the actual class at all. However, it meant it was completely impossible for me to stop drawing since doing so basically meant I had to constantly focus on /not/ doing anything with my hands, and that really didn’t leave enough attention to focus on the actual class. Luckily, I never got more than askance looks from the teachers so it wasn’t much of a problem. I still remember one time a classmate gave a presentation and the teacher sat down next to me, and after a dark look I wound up expending so much effort on not drawing that I didn’t catch a single word of the actual presentation!
Which doesn’t mean the same thing is going on with your children, but what you said really sounded familiar (the dragons cinched it!) so I thought I’d share what it was like from this autistic’s perspective.
(Incidentally, the only reason I’ve /stopped/ is because university involves taking notes from start to finish, leaving my hands occupied. Outside of lectures, I don’t usually have pen and paper to hand but still tend to accumulate odd sculptures made from paper, napkins or whatever was to hand that I have no memory of actually making.)
The story about the teacher and poor Alex is, of course, nothing short of disgusting! I dearly hope justice is done and that all children involved manage to heal from this experience. What a horrible thing to go through.
Thanks for noting that, Astrid—-I’ve been in plenty of meetings and seen adults doodling on their notebooks. I think it can help a student to focus more by doing more than one thing at a time; maybe a way to release energy that is getting pent up?
It’s definitely not a solely-autistic thing, although I suspect the complete unconsciousness of the act may be something that’s more typical of autistics. (It can be hard to tell.) I admit I’ve never thought of it as anything to do with excess energy, but you may have a point. It feels rather like getting the body busy on something else so the mind can work without distractions (this may tie into stimming, come to think of it.)
It occurs to me that one of the problems here might be the eye contact thing. Generally, it’s expected to look at whatever (or whomever) you are currently paying attention to, and looking away, as in drawing, is therefore considered a sign of distraction. Of course, for autistics eye contact isn’t nearly as necessary and can in fact be a distraction in itself. This is most obvious in conversation, but seems to apply to people drawing during a class as well.
That all makes so much sense. Thanks for sharing your perspective Astrid. My son does not naturally look at people when they talk, so for him, his drawing during class maybe a way for him to keep his eyes occupied while he is listening. He still does not “get” why eye contact is important, to him, if he is listening, why does it matter where he is looking? Literal. I frequently talk to the back of his head, and when I ask him to turn around to please look in my direction he gets frustrated because it seems a waste of time to him.
Drawing for him relieves anxiety during school too. Which is a good thing, and it has also opened him up to conversations with peers that may never have taken place. Kids peek over his shoulder and ask him questions, compliment him, etc. It has been a vessel through which he can socialize to some degree. It draws kids to him and has allowed a few friendships to form along the way.
I always wonder whether it can be a sensory defensive thing too. If he is visually defensive, maybe this helps to provide visual input that is pleasing vs noxious visual stimulation.
It is really good to hear about this, from your point of you, Astrid!
I totally understand why my son is doing it.
My son mostly use drawing and play dough as a “focusing” tool. (he can make awesome miniature dragons & dinosaurs)
The problem is, in school, the teachers say he gets really into it and don’t want to do his work, so they don’t allow him using play dough at all, when they see him drawing they not letting him, then he starts putting markers together (making a stick), then they take his pencil box away and so on, so on…They keep him busy to find something else to do instead of doing his job. They keep telling me how much he doesn’t listen and I can’t do anything about it.
Today: The teacher said he was very distracted all day. Talking, playing etc. The teacher thought may be it would be better if she move his desk away from the other kids just a little bit. Didn’t separat him just made a little distance, from that moment she got his attention.
A lot of times they just need a little “adjustment”
My son’s eye contact got better, since he is in school. Not 100%, but that doesn’t bother me and I never heard anybody complaining about it.
Here is the e-mail I sent and I will be following it with a hard copy.
To All That Are Concerned,
As a mother to four children on the autism spectrum and as an educational
advocate I find this behavior unfathomable, but sadly, common. I have had
considerable opportunities to see it in action first hand. I have been given
many reasons why the education system believes this is an appropriate manner in
which to behave, but, the fact is that we are dealing with CHILDREN. I, for one,
would never teach my children exclusion, bullying, abuse and humiliation as
character traits that I would like them to model. In fact, I find the lesson the
teacher taught the other children as injurious as the one that was forced upon
Alex. A child who affected by autism has a hard enough time navigating their
school life without the help of an nonsupporting teacher. I suggest to any of
you willing to try this experiment. Put a pair of earplugs in your ears, wear a
set of blinders for your eyes and then attend a foreign language class that you
are not familiar with in a city that you don’t live in. You
must stay for the whole course, you must always use the sensory limits that are
stated above and you must pay attention and get your classwork done and done
correctly. The professor, in your case, may be sensitive to your limitations
because they are visible to them. However, they may also not care that you CHOSE
to attend this class accepting these restrictions. They may also chose to ask
you to leave and not come back until you can demonstrate the proper respect for
their class room. By all means, you should know better than to come to class in
that kind of get-up. My children have no choice; it was made for them. They have
learned to watch their peers for appropriate behaviors, they have been taught,
by me, to watch their surroundings. It is a process we, as a family, are still
evolving in. My children have been publicly humiliated also. The results of
these humiliations are varied. I have witnessed everything from tears to
attempted suicide. My question to all involved in this
scandal is why did you feel it necessary and why are you in the education field? I would also
like to know who deemed you judge and jury over this CHILD’S emotional
well-being. What possible offense did this child commit to be bullied and
harassed by the one person who should be teaching acceptance? Not only has this
child’s emotional state been significantly scarred; but social acceptance is key
for him to make important and informed decisions later in life. His teachers
should be high on the list this child can go to for support and guidance. His
teacher should not be the instigator of a mutiny under ANY circumstances. The
importance of building and utilizing social skills at an early age is key to
being able succeed as an adult. Clearly, there is some training required on the
part of this teacher. This teacher has violated this child’s rights on so many
levels. There are laws and regulations, both federal and state, that prohibit
this type of behavior. I can only hope that this
will serve our country as a lesson to protect, respect and cherish ALL our citizens.
Anmarie Kemp
Concord, NH
From Joey’s Mom: The Bartons have notified the district that they intend to sue.
When I think of all that I suffered psychologically from my so-called peers throughout school as well as the numerous teachers who clearly took my differences as a personal attack upon their status as teachers, well, having the country talking about this pig-ignorant woman’s choice of actions is only the beginning of what I’d like to see happen. What I’d really like is to see her sitting in a room full of “peers” whose firm belief it is, based upon all that society has told them, that she is different and therefore they have the right to say anything they want to her, and all she can do is hope the one authority figure in the room makes them stop instead of sitting contentedly at her desk thinking the victim let herself in for it…
Of course, if she was sued, I guess she might have had a taste of that. But then, in a court of law, you generally have at least one friend in the room. I and that little boy know how it feels to have none, none at all, anywhere within earshot.
Just imagine,to the horror of the Barton family, that Wendy Portillo runs for Port St. Lucie School superintendent and encourages teachers to her “voting” systems in all classes,not just elementary but middle school and high school,too!
How long would she last in that job?