I seriously have no words adequate to express my RAGE

[mickeym]

Via aspecialparent, but also seen on raynedanser and keepaofthecheez's LJs:

Mom says special needs child 'voted' out of classroom.

I really...can't describe how reading that made me feel. My *13yr old child*, who is special needs himself, said, when I broke down and started crying, "that's SICKENING", wrt to the teacher's behavior. He hugged me and held me while I cried, and said he couldn't understand why a teacher (or anyone!) would do that to a little kid. (Do I even have to say how proud I am of him right now?)

Some other links, by way of keepaofthecheez:

Apparently some parents started a petition to get Wendy Portillo voted "out of her class", aka FIRED FOR FUCKING LIFE. If you want to sign, or just simply voice your displeasure with the school, sign here. This is an absolute disgrace.

Also, from here:

Barton said after the vote, Alex's teacher asked him how he felt.

"He said, 'I feel sad,'" she said.

Alex left the classroom and spent the rest of the day in the nurse's office, she said.

Barton said when she came to pick up her son at the school on Wednesday, he was leaving the nurse's office.

"He was shaken up," she said. Barton said the nurse told her to talk with the child's teacher, who told her what happened.

Alex hasn't been back to school since then, and Barton said he won't be returning. He starts screaming when she brings him with her to drop off his sibling at school.

Thursday night, his mother heard him saying "I'm not special."

You can reach the school and members of the board of education here.

Please feel free to pass this information on, link to this post, whatever. Please go vote in the petition to get the teacher fired for LIFE. If you have kids yourself, talk to them about the importance of valuing everyone, regardless of any disabilities or differences. I know the kids in the class were going along with what the teacher said to do -- they're five year olds, for heaven's sake -- but it's never, EVER too early to teach love and tolerance and understanding and to underscore the importance of standing up for those who maybe need it.

Editing to add information:

From hanncoll: If you're as outraged and disgusted about this as I am, please take a few minutes to contact the St. Lucie County School Board at webmastr@stlucie.k12.fl.us, or call Lucie County Schools Superintendent Michael J. Lannon at (772) 429-3925 (fax #: 772.429.3916, email: lannonm@stlucie.k12.fl.us), or contact the school principal, Marcia Cully at (772) 337-6730 (email: cullym@stlucie.k12.fl.us) and tell them so.

Because Alex has been repeating the phrase "I'm not special" since the incident, there's information here about a card-writing campaign to let Alex know that he IS special.

Comments

[fromyourashes.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the links to the petition and other information. I saw that, and just didn't know what to do, I was so upset. When I was a child, and didn't know that my sister was too "sick" to go to school with the other kids, I was terrified that something like this would happen to her. As years went by, and I had my own children and saw that my fears were unfounded, something inside me relaxed. My middle son is not quite as quick as the other children, but his teachers have fought to keep him from being placed in classes that will make him feel as if he's not just like everyone else. No one's ever berated him or done something to purposely hurt him. And upon reading this story, I - I don't have any words. I broke down, as well, and haven't been able to even think about it with any sort of mental coherence.

I'm grateful someone's begun to do something about it, and I'll be linking to this post from my journal. There is no excuse for anyone to do that to a child, much less a person who is responsible for shaping the way other children interact with each other. Not only has she scarred that poor baby for life, she's altered the way the other children will respond to kids who aren't exactly like them, and I don't know that I've seen many things as horrible as this.