Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Autism mentioned on the radio
I was listening to 97.5 yesterday and a woman called in and said that her daughter, who is in 6th grade, has autism. After picking her up from school her daughter told her that she had been made fun of and her peers had thrown things at her. She also told her mother that she didn't want to go to school ever again. Her mother called the school and left many messages and the school didn't call her back. I think this is really sad! It's not right for the school to ignore this situation! They should be doing all they can to help this girl fit in and educate her peers about autism and show them that what they are doing is wrong! Her mother is worried that if nothing is done to stop this, her daughter will drop out of school. I really hope that the situation doesn't end with this result!
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I can't believe this. It is so sad that the schools seems to not care when kids are getting picked on.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me so angry when students are picking on others and I have never understood why teachers let them get away with it. I grew up with kids always getting away with being mean to others and it obviously has not changed.
I think about being a teacher myself and how I want to handle kids being picked on. I agree with Emily that students really need to be educated about special needs in order to be sensitive to it. In my opinion, in this case, I think the students who were teasing should be sat down with their parents in a conference and really discuss how their actions were inappropriate and why. Hopefully it all gets worked out.
I was just wondering, in addition to this, why did the woman call in on the radio to discuss this?
Emily,
ReplyDeleteThat is so depressing to hear! It's despicable for the school not to stay in touch with the mother about what is happening with this situation. Hopefully they are trying to do something and perhaps not communicating their progress with the mother, but even that is not OK as far as I am concerned. Since the issue is serious enough that the mother is worried about her daughter dropping out then something aboslutely needs to be done. The students doing the teasing need to be reprimanded and educated about Autism so that they will, ideally, begin to understand the issue and help stop others from teasing as well. Perhaps if these kinds of issues were taught about and learned to be tolerated when students are young then this would not be a major concern when the kids reach high school. This situation makes me want to do everything in my power to prevent and stop this kind of malicious behavior in schools.
This is so sad. I think that situations like this show how important it is as educators to make sure that our students have a better understanding of the world around them. I think that if things like autism or disabilities were taught to students it would prepare them to be more accepting and better understanding of other students that my be different than them or what they are used to. I hope that the mother calling into the radio show help bring this important issue to the schools attention and place some responsibility on them to make sure that their school can provide a safe and accepting environment to all students.
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