karsenslater: yamino: taiora: ...

24th April 2012

Video reblogged from with 16,249 notes

yamino:

taiora:

thedailywhat:

Kickass Dad of the Day: When Stuart Chaifetz learned that his 10-year-old son, Akian, was being violent and disruptive in class, he was puzzled. He knew Akian, who has autism, to be mild-mannered and sensitive, and had a hunch that something more was going on. But after several meetings with a team of school officials created to help special-needs students, nothing changed. So Chaifetz did what any concerned parent would do.

On the morning of Friday, February 17, 2012, I wired my son and sent him to school. That night, when I listened to the audio my life changed forever. I heard my son being bullied by his teacher and aide. The six and a half hours of audio I had proved that my son wasn’t hitting the teacher because there was something wrong with him — he was lashing out because he was being mocked, mistreated and humiliated. His outbursts were his way of expressing that he was being emotionally hurt at school.

The New Jersey father has since launched a website full of damning evidence and aFacebook page, and he is petitioning the state to change legislation so that teachers who bully children are immediately fired. The aide has been fired, but the rest of the staff have merely been relocated.

“I seek a full and public apology from all those adults who were in my son’s class for what they did to him,” Chaifetz says. “It is also far past time that these issues are allowed to be hidden from public view.”

[vvv]

ETA: This is disgusting. I can’t believe teachers would act this way. Its…. horrible and disgusting. And you know, to be fair, there are wonderful and qualified people who are DYING to become teachers for these kids and they can’t AFFORD THE CLASSES to do so? So what do you get? These jaded individuals who don’t actually care at ALL for these children. And then all we hear is that these kids are problems. They’re a disruption. I worked with a child with a learning disorder (I think it was Aspbergers. They did not divulge the information to me. THEY DID NOT TELL ME WHAT THAT CHILD’S DISORDER WAS SO THAT I COULD APPROPRIATELY TEACH HIM AND UNDERSTAND HIS NEEDS.) and he was treated as a problem student. I sat with him and learned that not only was he bright, but he was a wonderful child who loved reading and had problems with math. He needed help with that in a way he would understand and eventually, after the 3 months of working with him, we figured it out and he was doing better. I cannot believe people like THIS have a certification to TEACH. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Having grown up with someone who has autism and was accused of violence in school, this is especially resonant with me. When someone who already has communication difficulties is pushed so far, they literally have no other way to defend themselves than to resort to violence. This is absolutely unacceptable, and I commend this guy for getting proof of this abuse and publicizing it. These abusers shouldn’t be allowed to go unpunished.

It really hurts to say that I even have some second-hand experience with this kind of thing. When I started college, my mom took a couple of classes and started working as an instructional aide working with kids who have learning disabilities. She works mostly with autism because that’s what she’s most familiar with, as my little brother has autism. She has told me of teachers shunting her kids to the side, of telling her—out loud, in front of the kid!!—not to bother, because they were hopeless.

And I mean, my mom didn’t go to school for this. She took a spanish class and maybe something to do with being an aide, I don’t know, but she spent about a semester doing it, and even she was able to sit down with this kid and assess his needs. At the end of one sitting she knew how to help him understand the subject he was having a hard time with, something that his teachers and aides apparently couldn’t be bothered to try to do. And by the way they responded when she asked them for help or information on her student, I wouldn’t be surprised if they treated him like Akian’s teacher/aides treated him.

My mom has taken the most fragile and temporary positions since she started, but she’s still getting work because everyone in the district is constantly surprised at how she seems to have a “magic way” with the students. But when my mom comes home and tells me about her experiences, she just says, “you know, it’s very easy if you do it right.” She is very good at practicing patience and seeing things from children’s points of view. She tells me how she talks to them on an equal level and tries to find the way they learn best. I mean… I just don’t see how that’s such a hard concept to grasp. But my mom tells me that she works very constructively with kids that, literally, none of the other staff will acknowledge in the classroom.

I want Akian’s staff to resign and I want that legislation passed, nationwide. This kind of behavior astounds me and horrifies me. I hate not knowing what my brother goes through daily and I hate not knowing for sure what my (HYPOTHETICAL) future kids might go through at school. Akian’s dad is basically a BAMF right now.

Source: thedailywhat

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