Vent by special ed. teacher regarding double standard about who a student hits

[Mbotts]

I hear you! I'm a Special Education Teacher. I have had my nose broken by a student head bunting me. I have had so many bruises on from being pinched, having heavy wooden riften chairs thrown onto me, hit an kicked. I was stabbed by a handful of sharpened pencils and I had a chunk of hair pulled out! All these incidents occurred at three different schools. Sadly the response was the same at all three schools. The Psychologist half heartedly "observed" student and put together ineffective behavior plan. I tweaked plan and it still did not work. I documented all visible signs of abuse towards myself, my aides, and towards other students. I filed a workers comp claim one time. I had ALL OF THE DOCUMENTATION required to play violent special education student is a private day school. There was also PRIOR history with other teachers in past years that was documented. None of it mattered in all three cases! The student was continued to stay. Students with disabilities have lots of rights, as they are needed! However we special education teachers have zero laws protecting us if the abuse was by a student who is disabled. And forget about defending yourself. What would happen if a special education teacher put a bruise on a disabled student's arm while she was holding him back from trying to kill her? That teacher would be sued! Mark my words.
Oh and let's not forget about the $$$$. It cost the district to place a student in private day. Likely it's in the best interest of admin to shut the classroom door, toss the key, and allow these students to abuse staff and other students; that would be more cost effective than placing them in private day.
Another experienced Sped Teacher bites the dust. I'm done with the field. I put in years of dedication, sweat and tears all while Admin turned their back on me.

[jbgusa]

This problem is one that society must address. I am the father of a special ed student that wouldn't hurt a fly. I want my child's teacher to focus on educating children, not self-defense. If a child poses a danger to his teachers and other students, his rights must yield to that of others. It's that simple.

[tf2014]

I worked in a school where a student was verbally and physically abusive to his aide, classmates, and classroom teacher. Really bad, parents had to come get him several times a week. The Assistant Principal ALWAYS put the blame on the classroom teacher and aide for not 'engaging' him. He was so out of control it was unbelievable, he needed to be put in a separate placement, which WAS available, but the admin wouldn't do it

Until the day our little friend actually kicked the assistant principal...then that kid was in the new placement ASAP.

[aarmeti]

Hello Every one,
I am glad I found this forum. I was in school psychology major but I left the field because the same reasons. I did not even started my internship because of fear of injuries and dangerous behaviors. I did not have the energy to deal with the headaches of arguments about IEPs, making parents satisfied and possible law suits from parents. Despite all these, I am still a little in doubt that maybe I did wrong to stop the program. I would like to kindly request your input about my situation. Do you think these hazards really exists or I did the right thing to leave the field?

Thank you very much

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by aarmeti

Hello Every one,
I am glad I found this forum. I was in school psychology major but I left the field because the same reasons. I did not even started my internship because of fear of injuries and dangerous behaviors. I did not have the energy to deal with the headaches of arguments about IEPs, making parents satisfied and possible law suits from parents. Despite all these, I am still a little in doubt that maybe I did wrong to stop the program. I would like to kindly request your input about my situation. Do you think these hazards really exists or I did the right thing to leave the field?

Thank you very much

Teaching special needs children is a "Mitzvah" or blessing. I would like to see people like you seek to change the system from within. People such as my wife are frequently "parent members at CSE meetings to work for the same objective.

[germaine2626]

Originally Posted by germaine2626

Wow! I really need to vent. I am sorry but it is a very long vent, but I really need to express it.

I'm a retired special education teacher (and now I'm a substitute teacher) in an excellent school district with excellent special education services. In fact, many families would move to our school district just because of the excellent special education programs.

It has always annoyed and upset me that there is a double standard in education regarding who is hit, kicked, bit or otherwise injured by a special education student. Time after time I have observed special education teachers or aides being hurt by out of control or emotionally disturbed students and we are usually told "It comes with the territory" or "It is part of your job" or "Just make sure that the other students don't get hurt" or something similar.

I personally have been injured severely enough to need crutches for six weeks and an arm brace for a different eight week period but was still able to work with those injuries. I was also disabled and off of work for a month due to a back injury. In each of these cases it was due to being stuck or kicked by an out of control student who needed to be on medication but wasn't or in one case the child had been on medication but the parent abrupted stopped the medication, against the advice of the doctor, without informing the school. Just to clarify, I definitely do not believe that all special education or all hyperactive or even all violent students need medication, but some students do need medications and to stay on the medications prescribed by their doctors. But my vent really isn't about medication except the the parent has told the school that "she doesn't believe in medication".

Other special education teachers, aides and therapists have been injured as well. One was kicked hard enough by an autistic student that bone in her leg was cracked, and aide received a broken bone in her arm from a student. Thankfully major injuries were/are very rare but minor injuries and bruises were/are daily events.

II have seen it happen frequently where a special education student has hurt special education staff and special education peers and nothing was done about it except to tell the special ed teacher that they were not doing a good enough job with that student. However, on the very rare occasion that a regular education teacher or student is hit, kicked, bite, struck or whatever administrators immediately get involved and discipline, suspend or transfer the student.

Continuing my vent I have a specific situation to share that made my blood boil! It is difficult to completely explain while still keeping it confidential, but I'll try. I'm even changing some details but giving you the general idea.

Last year I was a substitute special education teacher's aide for several weeks while the school district was trying to find someone to accept the position as a 1 to 1 aide with an extremely difficult to handle student with autism, mental retardation and other problems. I returned to sub aide again for several weeks when the person hired quit after a week. After the new person hired quit after a couple of weeks I was again hired as the substitute 1 to 1 aide for this student until they could find a third person to take the job. The only reason that I kept coming back was that I felt sorry for the special education teacher, other classroom aides and other special education students as they were getting hit, kicked, pushed, etc on a daily basis.

The special education teacher documented everything and followed all the procedures and didn't get any help and assistance. After a while the teacher LITERALLY BEGGED the psychologist and director of special education to observe the student as he was exceptionally complex and difficult to teach and she wanted help. Meanwhile, everyone involved with this student, special education bus drivers, aides, therapists, peers etc. were getting bruised and battered on a regular basis. This went on for almost 9 months.

Now to my main vent.
He returned to school after the summer with even more behavior problems (and his fourth 1 to 1 aide had resigned). Unfortunitely, he was now attempting to strike his special education classmates more than his usual target, the adults. Again the teacher asked for assistance in planning for this child and was basically ignored apparently because it was "only special education staff and students being hurt."

Yesterday, he hit a regular education peer while he was included in regular education music class. Within one hour the principal & director of special education had scheduled an autism specialist to come to the classroom, observe the child and assist in creating a different behavioral plan. Within three hours plans were being made to totally change his placement to 100% 1 to 1 with no contact with other students. Today, less than 24 hours after he hit a regular education peer both the psychologist and the director of special education came to his special education classroom to observe him.

Hmmm, almost nine months of hitting, kicking, slapping, throwing objects at special education staff and special education peers and nothing was done by administration but action was taken immediately when he hit a regular education peer.

Again, sorry for this very long rant but this really doesn't seem right.

Thank you for letting me vent.

Originally Posted by aarmeti

Hello Every one,
I am glad I found this forum. I was in school psychology major but I left the field because the same reasons. I did not even started my internship because of fear of injuries and dangerous behaviors. I did not have the energy to deal with the headaches of arguments about IEPs, making parents satisfied and possible law suits from parents. Despite all these, I am still a little in doubt that maybe I did wrong to stop the program. I would like to kindly request your input about my situation. Do you think these hazards really exists or I did the right thing to leave the field?

Thank you very much

I am the original poster. To the person who reopened this thread I would suggest starting a new thread with a specific question.


Until I completely retired in 2016 I saw this type of thing (double standard with the response by bosses depending on WHO is being injured by a violent student)happen often In several very well regarded suburban school districts.


As a follow-up to my original thread. Guess what? This teacher had worked for the district for about 15 years and was considered an excellent special education teacher, one year was even awarded "Special Education Teacher of the Year by the district. After this situation reached it's conclusion a year later the district fired her because the student continued to be violent and they said that she "couldn't control her students".

Guess again. Yes, you are right. This REALLY put a damper on other teachers protesting the double standard in future years. No one else wanted to be fired. Luckily she was able to find a new job, but it was extremely difficult and is in a much, much lower preforming district.

PS. Remember all of my injuries? Like many other retired special educations I have numerous health problems that have developed in later years connected to the earlier injuries by students.

[TabulaRasa]

I worked in the field for years before deciding to get a master's in counseling and switch to the clinical approach.

I loved the students (even the rough ones, and in a privatized, alternative setting for extremely maladaptive behavior, most of mine were the rough ones). I loved instruction and connecting with other professionals who loved the population, too. I loved working as a team with collaborative parents. I loved having an avenue for creativity, intersecting with compassion.

I didn't love the bureaucracy. I didn't love the ever-shifting sands of state alternative assessment protocols. I didn't love working with IEP team members who didn't do what they were supposed to do. I didn't love administrators who throw people under the bus (although I lucked out and managed to avoid being such a target myself, I saw it often enough, and it does not instill confidence or loyalty). I didn't love parents who were actively working against those working most closely with their children, who were looking for someone to be angry at and take their frustrations out on, and who were not interested in a collaborative team approach. I didn't love the thanklessness. I didn't love seeing good work I'd done with students get undone when expectations weren't consistent at home, in group homes, etc.

You would think, "I love working with the kids" would be enough to balance all those "I don't loves" out. And for a while, it was. Until it wasn't.