Absolutely, but for that, I would also blame the district. Why is that teacher held to be in charge of the moderate to severe group, which is the most difficult of all and she doesnt seem to be trained to handle such. And if that's the case, I can imagine she had lost it fairly quickly into her teaching of these kids. This, though, is not rare for school disctrict to do, assigning unqualified teachers to speciall ed, because the qualified and good ones are in private sector working as high paid therapist or directors. For that, parents need to make concerted effort to push for better resources from the district. But in the end, with more kids diagnosed with Autism, 1 in 88 now, we will see these complaints more and more often.
I'm surprised at how many folks here are defending the teachers and giving the dad grief for "attention whoring". No, wait, I'm not surprised. Carry on.
Let's say that the mic picked up conversations that the human ear isn't supposed to, that's fine. But what about the comments directed at the kid? Those are the ones I find outrageous.
In early start and preschool, they have best practice class for mild to morderate group, meaning mixing typical kids as role models in the autisctic class. But for elementary, kids are more aware and even the parents of typical wouldn't want. Autistic kids would not last in a typical classroom. So your approach would actually be worse for them. Some school districts in some states will assign mild kids to a typical class and offer so called shadow to follow the autistic kid all day long to make sure they are not bullied by other kids. But that is very expensive for school districts to adopt, especially with the current huge increase of autistic kids enrolled. Now, for moderate to severe, they just completely shut themselves, so typical kid
In NC you have to be licensed in Special Ed just as you have to be licensed to teach HS math. In other words, you have to endure coursework and pass some kind of an exam so there is no "dumping" of teachers into Special Ed. They have to choose that path.... as do all teachers here.
Not defending at all, but I do find the Dad a bit over-dramatic. If anything, he should also be making a video about why he is so out of touch with the school his 10 year old morderate-servere kid is in and needed to resort to seceret wiretapping to find out.
How else was he supposed to find out the teachers were treating his kid like that? Do you think they were just going to tell him they berate his kid and call him a b*stard in a parent/teacher meeting?
Licensed to teach autism, or just general special ed? Speical ed can include deaf, mute as well, which is very very different from autism. And getting master level courses and passed the test is very different from working with those kids for awhile under the ABA or PRT. Seems to me, at least in CA, the more experienced special ed teachers find ways to get into private sector where they get paid $50 or more an hour. I do not blame them.
I don't care what they have to deal with, it's their job. What's your logic? If they can't handle it is it ok to just let go and do it as ****ty as they can?
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There are ways, especially when kids cannot talk. Class visits can be scheduled. There are daily communication logs. Chat with the teachers in person. Request IEP and tracking goals. The last thing you want is to have every parent send their kids wires to tape teachers and put up the tape on the internet without a context with a little bit drama and suspence. Not the way I would do it.
Those who have heard both sides already made decisions regarding the teachers. Arguing about whether or not we have "all the facts" is somewhat spurious when those same facts have already been utilized to make a judgment. I suppose your could contrive a situation where the school punished the teachers unfairly just to look proactive and responsible, but that would necessitate ignoring the recordings and the plainly obvious degradation placed on autistic students. So yeah, I'd think you would really have to be cynical to think that the teacher's side of the story would rationalize the recordings. Alternatively, while YallMean has good reasons for wanting to go up the chain in terms of accountability, no teacher should treat kids like that even if they are under duress. It's not ok to take your frustration out on the kids. If you're being overworked or put in a position you're not trained to deal with - the correct response is to work with your employer. Instead they took it all out on the kids. As for those berating the dad's method...give me a break. There's cynical and then there's naive. Sure, just asking the teachers and talking it all out will solve the problem lickety-split. pfffffft.
Do you need have experience as a president to be able to judge how they do their job? Need not answer this, go all the way down in the scale because we're talking professional skills 101 here. Since I don't have any experience can you please shed some light on what your are arguing for?
You do need a little experience in the topic in order to understand what I am talking about. Otherwise, I would be talking to a wall. Now, I know where you come from, and calm down, I am not defending the teachers. I am just putting it out there an opinion, based on my little knowledge as a non-paid advocate for parents with autistic kids. Just read what I said, and don't read into that more than I said. I am absolutely not defending the teachers. I am just questioning the wire, the dramatic accusation on the internet, and adding a little bit perspective from teacher's point of view based on my knowledge. I am also questioning how much the Dad is really engaged in his son's well-being beyound just complaining about the school.
I like that you are pointing attention to the bigger problem but in some portions you have talked in a way that tries to diminish the blame for the teacher's inexcusable behavior.
The article mentions classroom visits and meetings for 6 months before he decided to take this matter into his own hands.
