Teacher Forces 'the Only Friend the Five-Year-Old Boy Has Ever Made' to Denounce Him Publicly
May 27th, 2008 by Glenn Sacks, MA for Fathers & Families
"Melissa Barton said she is considering legal action after her son's kindergarten teacher led his classmates to vote him out of class.
"After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn't like about Barton's 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.
"By a 14 to 2 margin, the class voted him out of the class.
"Barton said her son is in the process of being diagnosed with Aspberger's, a type of high-functioning autism...
"Alex has had disciplinary issues because of his disabilities, Barton said. The school and district has met with Barton and her son to create an individual education plan, she said. His teacher, Wendy Portillo, has attended these meetings, she said.
"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...
"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.
"Barton said Alex is reliving the incident.
"They said he was 'disgusting' and 'annoying,' Barton said.
"'He was incredibly upset,' Barton said. 'The only friend he has ever made in his life was forced to do this.'"
As a former teacher, I certainly know the challenges that teachers often face, and I also realize how incidents which seem innocent and humorous in the classroom can sound ominous or harmful when relayed second or third or fourth hand to administrators or parents. That being said, if this news article is accurate, there's no defense of what Wendy Portillo did in humiliating this little boy (pictured).
A few thoughts:
1) Sometimes a child will act up or act very strangely in class and the teacher may get in trouble later for disciplining the child or mishandling the situation because the child, unbeknownst to the teacher, had special needs or special issues. In this case, however, Wendy Portillo knew all about the special problems this boy had-- she had attended meetings where the boy's disability was discussed and plans were made on how to help him.
2) It is true that teachers are human like anybody else and can lose their temper in a difficult situation like anybody else. However, what Wendy Portillo did went far, far beyond losing her temper. This was hardly a short, quickly regretted outburst, but instead prolonged psychological abuse of the little boy.
3) It is quite true that one disruptive student, or out-of-control student, or special needs student who is unable to control himself, can disrupt an entire classroom. While I make no excuses whatsoever for what Wendy Portillo reportedly did, it is also possible that she was supposed to receive more support services from the school and did not receive them.
For example, perhaps the boy was supposed to go to a specialist a couple hours a day for help. This is good for the boy, obviously, and also relieves some of the pressure on the teacher. It is not uncommon for schools to arrange this type of special services and then for the special services to be intermittent, or canceled due to funding cuts or personnel changes.
I experienced this once during the year I taught fourth grade. I had a boy in my class -- a very nice, good natured boy who I liked -- who did not know how to read. How he was in the fourth grade and why he was there when he did not know how to read is a good question.
Anyway, he received special services -- for an hour or two a day he would be taken out of my classroom and would go to a specialist who would help him learn how to read. It was a good arrangement -- the boy began improving, and I had at least a couple hours a day where I did not have to pacify a boy who was largely clueless as to what was going on in class because he could not read.
After about a month or six weeks of this, you can guess what happened -- the reading class was eliminated, perhaps due to budget cuts, and the boy was dumped back in my class, making things more difficult for everyone involved--the boy, the other students, and myself. It is possible that something like this occurred with Wendy Portillo.
The full article is St. Lucie teacher has students vote on whether 5-year-old can stay in class (TCPalm.com, 5/23/08)--thanks to Chris. a reader, for sending it.
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May 27th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I think another problem with this kind of issue is that some teachers may specialize in special education students, and either do not get those students in their class, or can't handle them all. The way students are placed into classes rarely seems to account for these problems.
Though Aspberger's patients are rarely unintelligent. Their needs must be a very difficult thing to manage.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I forgot how much teachers used to stoke the fires of bullying by getting students to gang up on other students. This story brought back awful memories -- not just of what teachers did to me, but to other students.
Also, why is the boy pictured in all the news stories and not the teacher?
May 27th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
From the full article - "...the state attorney's office concluded the matter did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse, so no criminal charges will be filed"
As I recall, if a student is a problem in a class room, the teacher has ways available to deal with the situation which do not require the purposeful humiliation of the student.
Back in my day, it used to mean being sent to the principles office.
Rather than seek to turn every other student in the classroom against the one “targeted” student – including making his only friend publically denounce him, in most schools there is an escalating mechanism in place by which parents, counselors, medical professional, etc. can be called in if problems are not resolved.
This looks less like a case of a teacher acting out of frustration alone, and more like a deliberate decision to take advantage of her position as an adult in a position of trust and authority to manipulate her students into extracting her revenge upon a student with a medical issue.
That, to me, is just pretty d@mn sick.
I wonder how she would have handled a girl who was disruptive in class.
Maybe this teacher is just acting out from what she was taught in her college “Women’s Studies” courses – like, the way to deal with men is through “divide-and-conquer” approach, singling out one you wish to attack, and then turning the others against him?
He was a little to young to be effectively smeared as a "misogynist", a "rapist", or a "racist" – so, getting the other children to denounce him as “bad” seemed effective enough.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Each week, a different student is the star of the week in my daughter's kindergarten class. The children write on a poster what they like about the star of the week. This may help children build self confidence.
It may be appropriate to allow *one* student to provide feedback to a misbehaving student *about the actions* of the misbehaving student.
Allowing *all* the other children to publicly say what they don't like *about another student* and allow all of the other students to vote another student out of the classroom is outrageously inappropriate.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
(1) What is the teacher's name? Let's put her name in the first paragraph of the story, where it belongs, along with her picture.
(2) Would this have occurred if the little boy were a little girl (answer: what do you think?)
(3) At least the teacher didn't sue the boy, as the infamous Dartmouth professor threatened to sue students when they finally wouldn't stand for her misandry any longer.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Her name is Wendy Portillo
from this article http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/may/24/30gtteacher-lets-students-vote-out-classmate-5/
Although I'm not curious to know what a teacher can do that would be considered 'emotional child abuse', we all know if she had sex with him, it wouldn't be 'bad'.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Here is an address and phone for the school I found
Morningside Elementary School2300 SE Gowin Dr
Port St. Lucie, FL 34952
St. Lucie County
Phone: (772) 337-6730
Fax: (772) 337-5976
Grades PK-5
Public school
690 students
We need to take action to let this school know this will not be tolerated.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I am diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, and some naive college professors attempted to kick me out of uni for it. I was apparently too "weird" for them. It is a long story, which I won't go into detail here. Needless to say I fought the decision and won in the end (thanks to a handful of supportive professors and staff). I am pleased that I had a successful appeal and mediation. I have also utlized campus disability services to aid me with my condition, and thankfully they were helpful. According to the DSM-4, I believe about 5x as many males struggle with Asperger's, which qualifies it as a men's issue.
There is plenty of discrimination towards the mentally ill in society (perhaps especially towards males).
MXY
May 27th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
. . . and of course I did something I normally don't do -- I failed to read Glenn's post carefully because he reveals the teacher's name throughout.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
If I were to take away the Asperger's Syndrome and just say the kid is a jackass with bad parents, I still say what the teacher did was wrong. The kid is five; 'f' followed by a 'i' followed by a 'v' followed by an 'e', five, 5, F@CKING five years old. There is no way this kid deserved this; that lady deserves to have her license pulled.
I consider public humiliation to be the toll of tyrants. Hell, why I was a maintenance boss, and I had a crew of jerks working for me, when they would test me publicly; I had enough decency to take the offending person aside and deal with them one-on-one. A teacher has more authority over their kids then a boss does; and this is how she acts?
I do understand that teachers get a raw deal. The are expected to be able to teach kids (okay, that is the base definition of their job, but it ain’t easy), spot all kinds of abuse, provide motivation the kids parents aren’t, do it on low pay, not have enough in their budget, and all other types of obstacles that makes even the most ordinary of teachers a facsimile of Superman. I can extend sympathy and understanding when a teacher makes a mistake in dealing with the gigantic obstacles; but, but…. to demean and pick on a kid with Asperger’s? That takes a special kind of cruelty: that teacher might make a great political consultant, but she has no business being around the defenseless and impressionable.
Later,
B
May 27th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
That should be 'tool of tyrants' not 'toll'. MS Word can account for misspellings, not stupidity.
My apologies,
B
May 27th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Kids can be cruel. This is a fact we all grew up with and I, for one, always thought the teacher was there to minimize that, not to exploit it to make life easier for himself/herself. In a system where diversity is championed to the point of not being able to teach about 2 parent male/female families being the norm, how is something like this not utterly and completely condemned? How does she still have a job? I can garantee you if she had singled out the one minority child, or the one gay/lesbian child and voted them out of the class that she would be looking for work. Kids are very perceptive. There is a very good chance they don't like this boy because they understood, on some level, that SHE did not like him. Not liking him wins approval from her. I also imagine this was a good lesson for the kids that did like him. They are being taught early to cave in to peer pressure and go with the crowd.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
...so this teacher devises an American Idol-style vote out of the class for a kid suffering from disabilities. I thought women were all nice and compassionate while men were mean and nasty? Also have to wonder if a girl student would have gotten the same treatment... This is something this child will remember for the rest of his life...
News Flash: Teacher gets job teaching kindergarten and discovers that little kids can be difficult to deal with. Stop the presses....
May 27th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I think they should take a vote and see if Wendy Portillo stays. I'd like to cast my vote absentee, "I vote Ms. Portillo be fired!"
No child deserves being put through such humiliation!
May 27th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Wow! I can so relate to this. My son went to a Sudbury school in Puerto Rico when he began kindergarten. He loved his school and after about a week, he became terrified of the school...cried and screamed everyday. We could not figure out what was wrong...Long story short, after two weeks the director told us that it was best if our son no longer attended, as "the kids all met and decided they didn't want him there because he couldn't talk very well..." You cannot imagine how that felt...mind you, we could never figure out why our son became terrified of the school...but after a while, I wondered...I remember him a couple of times showing me a scratch on his chest...but we asked about it and were told that he just scratched himself on some tree branches, etc. that were at the school...later, we wondered if it was the other kids who did this to him...and then had the guts to "kick him out" because he was different and didn't like him...Mind you, when my son arrived, he shared his stuff with all the kids....They were allowed to take toys to school and ALL the kids played with his toys and my son ALWAYS shared...these were the same kids who didn't LIKE HIM because he couldn't speak and were allowed to kick him out of the school.
This was the begining of our homeschooling...At the end, well, I didn't want my child where the others didn't want them...and especially with that type of children...interesting that Sudbury philosophy is all about acceptance, etc...but obviously, that's NOT their practice.
We thought about suing, the school would NOT return our almost 4K in tuition we had already paid, unless we agreed NOT to sue...and well, sadly, because of all the diagnosis, etc. with him, we didn't have thousands of dollars to sue the school and just agreed so we could use that money for his therapies...and we didn't want to make him go through a whole court mess and have even more damage done to him by these people.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
so 5 year olds are now capable of making life altering decisions? and yes this kids like is inexorably changed. While I kinda sorta agree it doesnt fall under "child abuse" I cannot fathom how it doesn't qualify as discrimination against a disabled person. Isn't Asperger's a disability???????
i say we give kindergarderns the right to vote in the upcoming presidential election - what the heck they couldn't do any worse then the rest of us.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
By the way, the reason for choosing the Sudbury school was because public schools in Puerto Rico, if a teacher is absent, WILL allow kids to go home...and teachers normally miss close to 75days of school PER YEAR...and the gates are always open, which meant our son could wonder off school campus and they were not liable... (one child with autism left the school campus last year and was found drowned in a nearby beach...) AND, the private schools would not accept him because of his speech delay...So, we thought since Sudbury was about THE WHOLE PERSON, acceptance, etc...that would be a good fit...
The hardest thing was when after about 2 months my son kept saying "want to go to school?" and it broke our heart because we could NOT send him and he couldn't understand why...
May 27th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
PS - of course, MY SON IS NON-VERBAL, so although I understood that many things in the school were decided by the students, becuase our son could not speak very well, if at all, we were led to believe not to worry...we thought we'd be his voice...no, we didn't have that choice...the other kids said he was out and because he was non-verbal, HE COULDN'T defend himself...and that was ok with them...
May 27th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
PS - my son was later diagnosed with high functioning autism by some, and a second diagnosis came out aspeger's...he's a sweet boy, very social, very polite...but with limited speech...
May 27th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I am shocked and dismayed by what this teacher did. Who does she think she is? Not only allowing but encouraging the other children to be cruel to one little boy is outrageous. If this teacher isn't fired, then the parents should make the school pay dearly for this act of discrimination and be made to publicly apologize to the child and his parents in front of the all the news media in the area. This cannot be tolerated. I cannot understand why the authorities do not think that what this teacher did is not emotional child abuse. It is the very definition of the phrase. If a parent had done this, there would be howls from the social service people and we all know it. But in a school setting it is A-OK to do this to a child????? I don't think so.
May 27th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
If the child was deaf, and there was a sign language interpreter in front of the class, no child or teacher would dare say that the interpreter "disrupted or distracted" the other students, therefore, the deaf child had to leave the class...but if the child has autism, well, all bets are off.
Sadly, I even read in that article TEACHERS who see no problem and one who even suggested that kids with asperger's syndrome turn into killers...
May 27th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
its all about the wonderful world of women who rule the wonderful world of education in an evil world run by evil men. get it right!
May 27th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Regarding people with "Asperger's" syndrome, I find it curious that this cognitive style is being so aggressively medicalized these days (the Autism camp is claiming these kids/adults as their turf.)
In my experience, adults Asperger's syndrome are among the most brilliant people I have ever had the joy to employ or work with, bar none. Among those reputed to "suffer" from Asperger's syndrome are Steven Spielberg, Lawrence Summers (former President of Harvard) and Bill Gates.
It is disgusting that a public employee treated this boy in this fashion. Maddening. Repulsive.
However it is hardly surprising to find a female bully in the position of public school teacher. In my own experience, vicious bullying females are not a rarity among lower school teachers. Maybe they like the "power" over vulnerable little ones?
This "teacher" has no excuse if this report is even close to accurate, and if it is fully accurate, she should be barred from teaching for life.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
The teacher in the story shows why some teachers are extremely overpaid, underworked, incredibly arrogant, and should never be around little children.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
If the teacher was a Man and if the kid was a girl, probably the teacher would be spending some time in jail!!!
Great America!!! The leader of the World!!!
May 27th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
this from USA Today:
A school spokeswoman says Portillo has been removed from the classroom pending the outcome of an internal review.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Empathy is an absolute requirement for teaching children.
This "teacher" clearly lacks empathy. In fact, vicious cruelty seems to be her game.
Ergo, she is not qualified to teach.
No further discussion is needed of her possible future in teaching.
If this report is correct, she has none.
Maybe she can get a job as a prison guard in Florida's vast for-profit, private, prison system?
Seems like her kind of industry.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
In a way I am not surprised. When women lose temper (that happens quite regularly, 2-5 times a month) I sometimes start wondering are they insane? How can a nice smiling women change to a monster so quickly?
And we still say they are the more sensitive sex....
It is disgusting to say the least...
May 27th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Women can be extremely cruel. As a matter of fact, I saw a PBS documentary on Auschwitz where they stated that of all the officers who ran the camp, a blonde and attractive female officer was also notorious for her cruelty to the prisoners at Auschwitz. Moreover, even the most sadistic male guards at the prison camp could not compare to the pain that she inflicted on those who were held captive.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Tyranny disguised as democracy.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
If the story is accurate then what this teacher did is inexcusable. If you can't handle difficult students then why would you choose to be a elementary public school teacher in the first place?
May 28th, 2008 at 1:04 am
While it is bad enough that this woman over stepped the bounds of her authority as an educator and allowed a child to be the victim of public humiliation by his peers. There has been additional damage done here which may be being over looked.
What is the message she sent to the rest of the class?
What did she teach the rest of these children about the proper way to deal with people who may be a little different than you are?
She has essentially planted the seeds for hatred and bigotry within each and every one of these young minds.
They have each been indoctrinated into the mind set of being a bully and essentially rewarded for accepting that way of thinking because their teacher wanted them to do it.
While Alex is certainly the principle victim of all of this, and I certainly hope that he is able to recover from the social trauma inflicted upon him... the rest of the class has not come through this completely unscathed either because they have all been taught a horrible lesson that is likely to stay with them and influence their actions for a long time to come.
This woman doesn't deserve to teach anyone anything until she learns some compassion.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:14 am
Mike Hunter - Maybe she chose public schools, since private schools wont tolerate her nonsense. The case reaffirms my belief and provides good example of "Democracy" as always a bad idea. Vote to throw him out of the class? What do 5 year olds get about voting anyway? Maybe they should have 5 year olds on the internal review board too!
May 28th, 2008 at 2:40 am
Pankaj,
The vote was rigged anyway... votes are supposed to be anonymous for a reason, such that you never have to fear pressure from anyone about what you choose to vote for or against.
These children knew either consciously or subconsciously what their teacher wanted the results of that vote to be, and it was reflected in the outcome.
She would not have even had the vote in the first place if she wanted the vote to be positive... what teacher calls for a vote to see if a child should remain in the class if they actually want the child to be there?
It's not like she had this sort of event for everyone in the class, she just singled one kid out in such a manner that she controled how things would play out, but could then blame it on the opinion of the children.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:54 am
My cousin's aspergers, they have huge problems making friends and relating to people. What she did was sick.
May 28th, 2008 at 11:52 am
A child has had a psyche destroyed or virtually permanently disfigured by this trauma. There may or may not be consequences for the child and the school board that hired her. Since a child has no civil rights, perhaps the State of Florida is most responsible.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
This happened to my child last year. She is high-IQ but learning disabled, and has difficulty communicating. When the other kids got annoyed at her inability to keep up with the conversation in their project group, they "voted her off the island", and the teacher allowed them to do it. She's a girl, and the teacher was male, so please stop the predictions about what would happen if the roles were reversed. He didn't go to jail. Instead she ended up hospitalized after cutting herself, threatening suicide, and refusing to go back to that classroom. When she returned to school, they put her in a classroom for children with behavioral disorders, even though her only "behavior" was refusing to attend a class where she was shamed and humiliated because of her disability. Four weeks later she was raped by a boy in that classroom. She was 12 years old.
School is often not a safe place for kids with disabilities, regardless of gender. My daughter is now at a therapeutic day school, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. The school system is spending far more now than it would have had to spend just to give that d@mn teacher some training in sensitivity and inclusion, or to have a separate sped classroom so that vulnerable 12-year old kids are not grouped with criminally pathological 15-year olds.
I think inclusion is over-rated. No one wants to go back to the days when kids with disabilities were warehoused in the basement, but I think schools are trying to save a buck by promoting inclusion, and then failing to provide the training teachers need to support students with disabilities and provide differentiated instruction. That doesn't excuse what Ms. Portillo or my daughter's teacher did...it shouldn't take a lot of training to be a decent human being....but I have a lot of respect for anyone who can manage a room full of kids. Expecting them to also manage behavioral, learning, and socialization issues beyond their area of expertise is asking a lot.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Just a follow up thought...it may not qualify as emotional abuse under DSS rules, but it certainly qualifies as a violation under ADA rules.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
What I wrote on the papers website:
Almost every school in the nation has a policy on bullying. A student that is charged with it is usually expelled.
In this case, the teacher should be fired at the least, jailed if the DA has any guts. The power has gone to her head and rather than helping the boy fit in, she humiliated him in front of his friends and probably scared him for life.
This is inexcusable behavior. In a culture where we have to walk on eggshells to make sure we don't offend anyone, this type of action by a teacher, someone we entrust our children to, is absolutley horrific. Just imagine what has been going on that we don't know about. How many petty wars has she started in her class? How many friendships has she crushed? We have a self esteem crisis in America and this teach is a shining example of WHY! So let's make an example out of her.
To the DA: This was premeditated, thoughtful, and cruel abuse of a 5 year old. Prosecute it as such.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
My response to this story is tears. My heart is broken that a teacher could be so cruel to a child. I have a business that teaches kids and adults how to not bully, to be kind and to stand up for themselves and others. This teacher is a bully and needs to be fired and forbidden to work with children. I hope the parents file a lawsuit against her. I hope that the parents of the other children in the class are outraged. Their children have also been emotionally damaged by this.... to be a witness to this abuse and to take part in this gang like behavior. The two little children who stood up for the boy and voted to keep him in the class should be celebrated for their courage and character.
I have a 5 yr old son and if that happened in my child's class I would immediatley reach out to the family and the little boy. I would also step in to help the parents get rid of that teacher and ensure the school district did training on relational aggression and bullying.
I witnessed this type of mob like mentality in high school-- and I stood up to the pack of boys picking on another boy and the rest of the class and teacher who was laughing each day. It has defined who I am today-- I found my voice that day for the boy who could not speak up for himself. Little did I know that 20 years later I would be speaking nationally around the country on relational aggression and bullying.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
UNACCEPTABLE. This kind of behaviour from what is SUPPOSED to be but is obviously not, a PROFESSIONAL is completely unacceptable. Think what you might of this student but if this were say the only school for this child for 25 miles, now what do you do? This child is scarred for life not to mention that were this the only school for miles around, and maybe it is, this child is going to deal with this from these same kids through his entire high school career.
THIS person needs to be publicly denounced as she did to the student and barred from teaching children ever again in ANY capacity not to mention any legal penalties that apply.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
AM - "...they "voted her off the island", and the teacher allowed them to do it. She's a girl, and the teacher was male, so please stop the predictions about what would happen if the roles were reversed."
No offense, AM,
But I see a BIG distinction between "allowing" children to act on their own, versus actively encouraging the shaming behavior. What that male teacher did in your daughters case was despicable – an adult teacher should NEVER allow children to gang-up on their “weaker” peers. He’s definitely a bad teacher.
But what Wendy Portillo did was to utilize her position of authority to manipulate the other students into doing HER shaming of the one student. She didn’t just “allow it”, she made it happen. She’s far worse a teacher in my opinion.
And, just because a male teacher allowed students to harm your daughter doesn’t convince me that Ms Portillo isn’t the sort of Feminist who would gladly pick on boys selectively.
When I see cases of teachers actively working to shame the girls in a classroom, maybe I’ll be more willing to believe that this case would have been handled the same if gender roles were reversed. Here, the primary victim was a boy, so no “emotional abuse”. I continue to believe that had it been a girl, the ADA would have been definitely invoked to punish the teacher.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I don't see why you express any doubt that this might be true. Teachers go into that profession precisely so that they can have the fun of this kind of psychological cruelty. Girls are more often the targets of it, because as feminists, teachers lack the civilizing influence that would liberate them from the instinctive female response of "tend and befriend" towards rampaging males, but a boy like this, who obviously isn't going to rampage, is going to be a target as well.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
The woman handling the "review" of the teacher and what happened is Janice Karst. Her phone number is 1-772-429-3600. Her email address is KarstJ@StLucie.k12.fl.us.
The best thing any of us could do is drop this woman an email and let her know that this teacher's behavior is unacceptable and that the only acceptable outcome is getting this woman out of the classroom before she does further harm.
This teacher has been teaching with this district for nine years. I can't imagine that this is the first time her lack of compassion toward a child has shown up in a class. I hope that she won't be allowed to do further damage.
When my son was seven he was diagnosed with a focusing disability. The school was wonderful when it came to going through the motions of setting up an IEP team and working with us to make my child's experience at school beneficial to him.
His teacher was the bitch from hell though. She refused to work with the IEP team. She humiliated my child in front of his class. She would sit him in a dark hallway for hours because he "tapped his pencil on his desk." She disliked him from the beginning and was not going to go out of her way for him in anyway.
My child went into a clinical depression and started having panic attacks at the idea of going to school. The board of education refused to take any action against my son's teacher. I was threatened with jail if I didn't send him to school.
I pulled him out of the school and put him in a private school. The damage was done though and the problems caused by that one teacher have followed us throughout my son's school career. He is once again on anti-depressants. He considers himself an "idiot" but is actually highly intelligent.
We send our children to school to be built up, not torn down. We do for them at home in a way that builds them up and it is frustrating to know that one bad teacher can cause damage a child will deal with for years to come.
I've watched my son and been witness to how a teacher can damage a child. No teacher should be exempt from treating a child with kindness and compassion. If enough people share this opinion with Janice Karst this irresponsible teacher won't be allowed to hurt another innocent child.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
slwerner - I absolutely agree it was worse, in part because a kindergarten teacher has a lot more control over what goes on, in the classroom and a lot more responsibility for teaching appropriate behavior. I don't agree that a similarly disabled girl would be treated differently. My daughter has been humiliated by both male and female teachers over the years, and I know the same has happened to plenty of boys with disabilities (some of whom are her friends). Believe me, this incident is being discussed in special education blogs all over the place. Having a disability, especially something like Asperger's, is far more likely to result in this type of incident than whether one is male or female. Neurotypical boys have it tough in the classroom compared to neurotypical girls -- I agree with you, there!! I do not agree that it holds that Sped boys have it harder than Sped girls in terms of how teachers handle their disabilities. In fact, I can even cite some reasons why the opposite might be true. But overall, my point is that kids with disabilities have it hard because of the disability, and to suggest otherwise is to diminish the impact of the disability. I realize on the Glenn Sack's blog disparities of treatment of men/women boys/girls are paramount, but we shouldn't let our sensitivity to male/female disparities make us see this everywhere, even when it's not the issue at hand. The parents aren't crying "sexism", they are focused on their son's disability. Many more boys are diagnosed with learning disabilities than boys. That alone makes this an appropriate topic for this blog. We don't have to allege that a disabled girl would be treated differently to make this an important issue for boys.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Sorry, I meant to say "many more boys than girls are diagnosed with learning disabilities."
May 28th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Our neighbor has a 5 year old little boy with autism. He has his moments but I cannot even fathom being cruel to this child [or any other child]. It appears to be a common theme with many females to have the children be all the same. Quiet, sit down, say nothing and fold your hands. I was a teacher a while ago for this age group. I am completely appalled.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Here is another story about a kingergarten teacher being abusive. This time, the kid caught her on recorder:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-suspendedteacher,0,2810240.story
May 28th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
AM - ” Believe me, this incident is being discussed in special education blogs all over the place. Having a disability, especially something like Asperger's, is far more likely to result in this type of incident than whether one is male or female.”
AM,
Seeing as how you are far more familiar with the classroom treatment of children with disabilities, I’ll accept that your “take’ on this case is likely more accurate than was my own.
Perhaps my view of things here has been biased by two things that I’ve observed. First, it has always seemed to be to be females (girls or women) who are the ones who “organize” others against targeted individuals.
Secondly, it has been my observation that women who have been my own children’s teachers have uniformly been harder on misbehaviors regarding my son that with either of my daughters. For instance, I never had it suggested to me that my rather “talkative” oldest daughter needed to be put on “medication” to control her disruptive classroom behaviors, whereas it has been suggested for my much more introverted son (who liked to draw pictures instead of participating in class). It just seems to me that women teachers tend to be less accepting of what they consider bad behaviors of boys than what they will tolerate from girls.
So, I guess I put together that women teachers are less tolerant of boys, and that women are more likely to manipulate others in such shaming behavior to reach the conclusion that this particular teacher struck me as one who would be much more apt to do this sort of thing to a boy rather than a girl.
And, there remains the matter of her “light” punishment. I can’t say whether it’s a matter of the educators “circling the wagons” or just women, in positions to make the determinations, acting along the Feminist line of thinking that men (and boys) are expendable – thus, no “emotional harm” was believed to have been done, since, as a boy, he really didn’t matter all that much in the grander scheme of things.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Wow! Voting people out of class!!! That is totally cool!!! Can I vote my co-workers out of a job now, too?? Or how about voting on whether or not our neighbors should be allowed to own their own homes next to mine??? Of course, if they vote ME out of my job, or my home, I won't like it very much, but hey, isn't that what the lesson was about???
Note to the teacher: 1 - turn off the reality shows and act like an adult; 2 - brush up your resume, you might be needing an updated version soon; 3 - think about your own child being five and having this done to him or her; 4 - you also might want to re-read Lord of the Flies and find out where the road you decided to take leads to.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
As the father of an autistic son, I am outraged at Portillo's actions, as well as the District Attorney's office. How can they not consider this humiliation? School districts needs to equip themselves through education, training and "integration" programs so that autistic and asperger students can attend regular class, and not be forced into inappropriate special education programs. My own son has been through a similar situation with the Rock Island school district in Illinois, and will soon be in front of the State Board of Education to explain their actions. I sincerely hope that Alex and his mother can get resolution. I have an idea of how bad Alex feels, because my own son has felt the same sadness and frustration.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
As if those parents don't have enough on their hands with raising a child with a disability, this idiot teacher has to make matters worse. The kid could be emotionally damaged for life as a result of this, but God-willing, his parent's strength will change that.
This teacher is part of that government subsidized child abuse agency. The people of Port St. Lucie should protest their city and county by not paying their real estate taxes until this teacher's license is permanently revoked and a civil/criminal complaint is posted on her record.
The citizens of Port St. Lucie should not pay real estate taxes until their is a formal apology from the school board and the school board requires that ALL teachers from pre-K until 12th grade take periodic 'sensitivity training' so that they know how to deal with children, regardless of disabilities. Children are our most precious commodity, they are our hope for a bright future where our generation has screwed up the present.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Hmm,
Interesting if we have a problem in the military we draw up paperwork. We need more bombs we get them. We need to invade a country we do it premptive strike. But no to public healthcare, and no child left behind? In Australia, Canada, and the UK this child would have been looked after. We as a country are looking better and better in the international spotlight.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
This story just disgusted me. There is no excuse for a teacher to treat any child, disabled or not, like this teacher did. She should lose her job. I hope the boy's mother does sue the school district. A child's early educational experiences can set the tone for their entire academic career, and it's very well possible that what this teacher did will cause that boy to forever hate and dread school. My daughter has a severe math learning disability and is going through an evaluation with her pediatrician for ADD. I would be horrified if a teacher allowed the class to publicly judge her, and "vote" her out of class. Clearly that teacher is in the wrong line of work, because she is obviously not cut out for teaching.
May 28th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
this is just another sign of the classrooms and all schools ,need to get back to the special needs kids in their own classroom with special teachers. that teacher was out of line and should be repremanded, but if the NO Child act didn't force this boy in this class, this never would have happened.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:08 am
I'm a grown man 37 with a very high IQ, I taught myself algebra and programming when I was 9 years old and read every book in the local library by the time I was 14. If you notice my spelling, grammar and punctuation are not very good. The abuse I endured caused me to miss out on most of my grade school learning. If it wasn't for a Male teacher in high school(my first!!!!) I probably would be dead or in jail right now instead of getting a perfect score on my math SAT's and becoming a skilled engineer. I'm almost completely self educated. My education was gained IN SPITE of my teachers not because of them.
Boys are ALWAYS treated badly by authority. It's just the way it is. Boy=bad Girl =good thats what is drilled into every kid these days over and over, grade school through grad school. Just look at the number of disciplinary measures taken against boys vs girls, the men in prison, the male victims of violent crime, the obvious bias in family courts etc. I'm really surprised that anyone even took notice of this. Boys are becoming as worthless in our western culture as women are in sub Sahara Africa.
What was done to this boy, although unfortunate seems very mild by comparison to what I went through as a child in the many schools I attended.
I still have bad dreams about the things FEMALE teachers put me through in grade school that I now realize was due to their lack of understanding and empathy for male students, children who are not physically or mentally built to learn by sitting still at a desk for hours at a time without moving or hands on learning(like a girl). After one particularly nasty week in hell(3rd grade) I went home and tried to hang myself in the basement. By treating me a a "BAD CHILD" they allowed the other children free reign on what they could do to me, including physical assault and torture. I was a very small child with a lisp alway the new kid I could count on a good beating at least once a week, sometimes by groups of students who knew that the teacher would not listen to anything I said.
I hear about water boarding etc and I have to laugh, I went through worse in grade school. Sometimes I'm surprised I even made it out alive.(yes I was almost killed in school when I was hit in the back of the head with a crowbar while waiting for a bus, I still have neck problems to this day).
May 29th, 2008 at 12:11 am
My girlfriend's youngest child has something like this and at six, in kindergarten, I could imagine the same thing happening with the way my girlfriend talks about his teacher. From my perspective, it is reflective of a general bias against men (and boys) in our supposedly egalitarian society. It is a crime.
May 29th, 2008 at 1:07 am
I did tech support for a couple of years at a school which had some autistic students in it. There is no way in hell that any teacher in the quite ordinary and badly funded public school that I worked at would have done anything remotely close to what is described in this article.
There is no conceivable defense for that action, that teacher should not be teaching. It wasn't an error, it was deliberate sadism. She used her power over the students to single out and humiliate the weakest member of the class.
What a monster. There is just no other word for it.
James
May 29th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Good morning,
I read the above article and I was wondering where was the boy's father and why wasn't he involved with talking to the school.
May 29th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Strangely after reading this yesterday, this came on the news this a.m:
In New Albany, teacher Kristen Woodward of S. Ellen Jones Elem was suspended after telling 5 yo Gabe Ross he was "pathetic." Apparently the little boy told his mother repeatedly that the teacher treated him badly, so she put a tape recorder in his back pack. Sure enough, mom got the bad teacher on tape. Another voice on the recorder - a female student - also commented on his "bad behavior" and warned his peers that if they 'want to be like him, be his friend then.' The teachers union filed a grievance on behalf of Ms. Woodward, calling the suspension unfair: "Carol Mooney, a spokeswoman for the association, said administrators violated a part of the contract that requires teachers to be treated 'with respect and human dignity,' by imposing a suspenion."
http://www.wthr.com
Kudos to the mothers aka women who listened to their little boys instead of telling them to grow up, be a man, and get over it. Proof that there are really loving mothers aka women out there despite all those claims otherwise. And, kudos to the step-father for Gabe, who also voiced concerns for the "psychological impact" on the child.
The rest of the news, sad to say, was about several different incidents involving men who either scalded, physically abused, sexually assualted, or murdered a child. They were not the childrens father, rather, all were "the boyfriend of the mother." Shame on these women - but most will escape any charges for putting their chlildren at risk (in my opinion, being an accomplice). Ahhh...to be a child in Marion County, Indiana.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Men are grossly underrepresented in the teaching profession, and boys are suffering because of it. We need affirmative action to get more male teachers! Men-only scholarships, "no women need apply" employment policies, whatever it takes until at least half of all teachers are men!
May 29th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Thomas - have you ever heard of Dr. Don Bartlette? I met him during my years at university. His famous presentation, "Macaroni at Midnight" is his autobiographical account of the abuse he endured growing up Chippewa w/ learning disabilities. He was "rescued" by a woman in the village who gave him what others refused - the belief that he could learn despite severe disabilities.
I learned early in life about discrimination from listening to the stories of my father, who is a Cherokee/Choctaw mix, and grew up in poverty comparable to that of the Depression. I wish my father could have met Don, and maybe he would have finally gotten the validation he desperately sought before he died.
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I think most of us can recall "bad" teachers who were inappropriate at one point in time:
I was suspended from school in 6th or 7th grade when I stood up for an obsese female classmate after a male chemistry teacher made this girl stand on a large rubber ball to show she'd flatten it b/c she was so heavy.
I had a female teacher who liked to target boys, and if they fell asleep in her history class, she'd kick them - really hard. One boy even peed his pants b/c it startled him.
I had a particularly mean German teacher in 5th grade who I always seemed to be getting in trouble with - drawing swastika's (I was taught by my father that it was a symbol for luck and longevity, that it drove away evil spirits) and putting books on top of her Christian bible. Things she believed were blasphemous were not so in my world.
Gender doesn't determine whether you are "good" or "bad" as a person - it's who you are as that person. Of course, there's no drama in that and pretty much ends the debate, so this gets disregarded quite a bit. It must be more fun, maybe even validating, to blame a person's behavior on their gender.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:55 am
A while back, a mother of three boys wrote into The Daily Mail newspaper (UK) stating that she had attended a teacher training meeting and was shocked to hear the speaker (male) instruct teachers not to bother teaching boys because everyone knows they are stupid, and he advised them to concentrate only on the girls.
Now while I do not know whether this is true, I have certainly seen evidence which would seem to support that such an anti boy culture exists in many schools. The young son of people I know very well was falling behind badly at school. They soon discovered that the female teacher was telling the boys to go play quietly at the back of the class, while she taught the girls only. They moved him out of this school only to find that the new school had cctv cameras in the boys toilets. The videotapes of the toilets were at the end of the day checked by a female teacher. The girls' toilets had no cctv in them despite there having been many incidents such as fighting, bullying and vandalism caused by girls at the school.
May 29th, 2008 at 10:21 am
What I see here is lazyness. Pure lazyness. Most of the "teachers" I've met and been forced to learn from cannot handle anything more than the average, boring, hyper-obediant kid. When I was is school, be it public or on Sundays in my church, I was often singled out and verbally smacked around. Often, the teacher would join in or encourage this type of vicious behavior. If they weren't joining in or encouraging it, they turned a blind eye to it. My crime? I'm way above average intelligence and liked to ask hard questions about subject matter, and I liked doing my own research. Most public school teachers HATE it when you do that. By god, you might discover something they don't know. They tell us to "never stop learning," but they stopped learning the day they got thier credential. After that, they just want to slide through life doing as little as possible. I point to the performance of public schools and thier pupils for my argument support. Almost every Asberger's person I've met is extremely intelligent. Perhaps the teacher here couldn't stand having to teach a five year old more intelligent than her. So instead of investigating and enriching herself with the knowledge of how to approach this child, or perhaps thinking up a creative or novel way to reach him, she went the all too common way of people completely over thier head. She rabble-rouzed the other kids into ostracising him. And now he's perhaps damaged for life. Luckily, he seems to have at least one level headed parent, hopefully two. They can help him.
May 29th, 2008 at 10:31 am
If this isn't child abuse, what is? It is true though that most of the time only cases of "severe physical abuse" is the only thing that will be investigated. Wendy Portillo has no business being around children if this is the only way she can handle a situation. She should be brougt up on charges of child abuse, as this treatment can effect a child for life. The parents of children in her class should all take action to assure this never happens again- get rid of Wendy Portillo!
I'm sure this would never be done to a female student. Boys seem to be big targets for abuse these days.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Apparently students are not the only bullies in school. Ms. Portillo's actions were cruel, inexcusable, and less than childish (all of this from a so-called "educator"; "Miseducator" is more like it)! For those of us who are parents, we must put an end to this sort of nonsense. Regular unannounced visits at school, active participation in PTA, and consistent communication between parents/educators/students are some of the ways to combat the abuses of teachers like Ms. Portillo. No one should ever be allowed to embarass, humiliate, and mentally manipulate children!
We must get serious about our protecting our children (mentally, spiritually and physically);they deserve no less!
May 29th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
As a parent of a child with Aspberger's (now age 21), I was outraged to find out that a teacher would have treated a child in this way after knowing of his condition. Aspberger's kids can be incredibly frustrating and confusing to those who care for them, particularly before diagnosis. In kindergarten, our son's high intelligence and ability to understand some adult level subjects in combination with inappropriate behaviors and inability to learn simple things like dressing himself, represented an interesting and welcome challenge to his public school teacher who by coincidence had training in special education. First grade, however, was disasterous with a teacher who wanted every child to be average and perfectly conformist. He thrived when we moved him to a specialized private school and later to a public high school that was equipped to deal with the special needs of Aspberger's kids. If the Bartons are reading this, my advice is to be prepared for a "rough ride", get professional advice, be unwavering in your love and support regardless of whether he seems to understand, and never give up. It will all be worth it in the end!
May 30th, 2008 at 10:21 am
You can help support Alex through this blog:
http://www.mommylife.net/archives/2008/05/alex_is_special.html#comments
Lily and I made a card for Alex last night and have sent it on!
The teacher sounds positively sick in the interviews with the police, why does abuse have to be physical?
http://www.wptv.com/media/news/d/9/3/d93f69ab-1729-4651-b9b6-53af1c825099/kidvotedout.pdf
May 30th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Mainstreaming disruptive children, I am not in a position make rules about that but it brings up an situation that showed me how many teachers operate.
My x used to "teach" kindergarten (when I asked her why she doesn't move up to higher grades she said "older kids are hard to control" they also dont like boys) anyway at one point they were mainstreaming a child in her class and my partner would often come home complaining and crying on my shoulder about the child. We would discuss the situation about mainstreaming the children.
One day she PROUDLY showed me a newspaper article where a down syndrome child had gone though a fence at a school yard during recess and was run over by a train, she had a smile on her face.
she still is teaching fourth grade in santa barbara ca
After we split, daughter 2 1/2, now 15, she has done everything to separate child and father.
The once athletic and outgoing child is now timid and missed out on any sporting activities because her mom doesn't want to disrupt her own schedule and activities.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Thank you C. Meyer for doing the research and finding someone who hopefully can impact whether this woman continues to be employed. I would hope the teachers union in her area does not come to her defense. I too have an intelligent child who is quirky, due to Tourette Syndrome & O.C.D. After a very rough year with a teacher who emotionally abused him at times, and grabbed him a few times, we moved him to another school within our district where understanding and tolerance are strongly enforced at all levels. He is getting straight As and feeling pretty good about himself again. I looked at the special ed school that the offending teacher suggested & know my son would have been unchallenged and depressed to the point of being suicidal. Sped classes and schools do fantastic work, but aren't the answer for smart kids who can cope in the classroom with a couple of very minor accomodations (like being allowed to step into the bathroom to release tics).
Gender isn't central to the core of this issue, and it detracts from the real issue of how bad teachers are able to remain employed. There are many, many wonderful teachers. But for the relative handful who chose the wrong profession such as this individual, let's rally around getting them out so no other children have to suffer.
Anyway, I encourage everyone who agrees that there is no circumstance under which the teacher's actions were appropriate, to write to Janice Karst ; KarstJ@StLucie.k12.fl.us.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:04 am
I would sue the school that's it.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Absolutely disgusting.
The schools are often as bad as the courts in terms of 'secrecy' and 'protecting their own'.
At least they are here, and I've had to fight desparately to protect my boys throughout the school system.
My son has suffered a similar type incident with a teacher at his school and it was but the grace of God that I didn't go sack her lights out!
Kris Titus