Friday, April 22, 2011

Something Is Wrong

Joseph, 7, a special education student at a Manhattan School, was handcuffed and taken away from school in an ambulance.
When a chancellor says there are times a 7-year old should be handcuffed.  While he will look into the matter, the Principal will not be removed.

Not saying she should be, but how can he make a blanket statement like that before looking into the incident.

NYC--we are in big trouble with people like this leading our education system.

10 comments:

Ms. Tsouris said...

I've never seen such a well dressed group of child abusers. Mr. Walcott is a party to corporal punishment, which is what was perpetrated, at the least, on this child. Having dealt in the past with young children with emotional disorders, there were approved physical restraint procedures in place back then. I fail to understand what changed between then and now. When a teacher is accused of corporal punishment, they can be removed from the classroom. Is that why we now need police for an acting-out 7 year old child?

Anonymous said...

There has to be (or at least I really really really hope) more to the story then what was reported in The Daily News. I don't know why Walcott would not have looked into the situation first before making that comment.

I checked the school on the DOE website, and it is not a district 75 school, where certain restraints and regulations are in place for children who have severe emotional and social disturbances (I worked in a district 75 school for a short period of time). This was a regular school in a district in northern Queens.

As someone who has worked with students who have emotional disturbances, (I am sure I am not the only person who is asking this question), my first question is "What caused the outburst in the first place? What kinds of patterns of behavior has this student been observed for the past year?". There must be more to it, than just getting upset and have a severe reaction over decorating Easter eggs. Children do not have outbursts for any reason during the day.

There are just so many questions that I have in regards to this peculiar situation. I am not saying that I believe its okay to handcuff a 7 year old. I just think there is a lot more to the situation that meets the eye before anyone makes any judgments on all people involved.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Walcott is off the mark here. I have seen many 5 and 6 year old students lose control and the principal has no other recourse but to call 911. Many times the student is put on a stretcher and taken to the hospital for observation. But we do not know all the particulars here, and maybe this child was a danger to himself or others.

A big problem with special ed placement is that they place emotionally challenged students in classes with academically challenged students. I saw a kinder kid kick his teacher hard in the stomach. Another sp ed kinder teacher had a student who would constantly bite him. He had no recourse--even when he brought it to the attention of the union.

It's hard to believe that a little kid could have deep psychological problems, but they do.

ASTRAKA said...

Another Cathy Black-like blunder!
Let's see if the Press will notice.

ChiTown Girl said...

Oh my gosh, I've been meaning to ask you how screwed you think we are now that our buddy Rahm has brought us Jean-Claude Brizard? I've read some pretty interesting things here in the paper about him. Not much of it is good. Plus, I read that NY wants him to pay the $100,000 is going to cost to find his replacement. I'm very worried about what coming for us. :(

Pissedoffteacher said...

A teacher would have been yanked out of the classroom immediately. Why double standards for admins? Oh wait, their #2's smell different, I forgot. Walcott should have evaluated the situation before making any comments, good or bad.

Anonymous said...

I think the only blunder in this story was Walcott's off-the-cuff remark. There are too many loop holes and unanswered questions to make a full determination on the real cause of the situation, (which is one of the reasons why I think the comment was off-the-cuff in the first place).

Anonymous said...

Teachers have been accused of corporal punishment in NYC public schools merely for giving writing assignments to students as a consequence for behaviors.

Yet, it's somehow OK to handcuff a seven year old in the NYC public schools, for creating a disturbance? I have worked with students at the junior high level that were considered to be emotionally disturbed, and am well aware that there are many younger children in the schools that could be classified as such.

Still, couldn't the adults in this school deal with this young child in a different fashion? Who's in charge here, I wonder?

Anonymous said...

Am I missing something. Wasn't it the police who used the handcuffs? So why would the teacher be yanked out??

Anonymous said...

If the child was possibly Autistic (spectrum) then handcuffs and touching the child is extremely inappropriate. Autistic children who have meltdowns need constant verbal reminders, not restraints, touching, etc.

I do not doubt that this situation escalated into a catastrophe because the appropriate modifications were NOT IN place for this child. It is very apparent that children (Pre-K-12) are not receiving the appropriate modifications that they need from the NYC Dept of Education. This is the result when children do not get what they need.