http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/05/29/teacher-lets-students-vote-autistic-kid-out-of-class/
Totally unacceptable. I hope she gets fired!
Well, looks like Port St. Lucie kindergarten teacher Wendy Portillo won't be named Teacher of the Year. According to the Treasure Coast Palm, she handled a difficult child, five-year-old Alex Barton (pictured at right), in what she probably thought was a creative manner:
She encouraged the other children in the class to tell him why they didn't like him (e.g.: he's "disgusting" and "annoying") and then to vote on whether or not he should stay in class (they voted to kick him out, 14-2). And so he was forced to leave!
Why in the world would a teacher hand over control to a classroom of five-year-olds? If she thought he needed to leave the room, why didn't she just take the authority upon herself to send him to the principal rather than handing the decision over to an army of PlayDoh-eaters?
Alex, who has Asperger's, a form of autism, spent the rest of the day in the nurse's office. At home he repeated to himself, "I'm not special" over and over, and he now screams when he gets near the school, so he's dropped out.
An abuse investigation is underway and Alex's mother is considering legal action. Even if he was a problem kid, there definitely had to be a better way for the teacher to handle this.
Totally unacceptable. I hope she gets fired!