Teacher advice needed

[kathyk2]

Have you contacted the child's family? There could be something going on at home leading him to act out in school. Since you have new staff that's a good reason to review the IEP and see if this is the right placement for him.

 

[Boopuff]

Document everything the child does/says. In our district, they always ask for "hard data". I feel your pain. We had a child in our room last year that would destroy the classroom in fits of rage, hitting, kicking etc. We'd call the office, no one was available to help. Special ed dept. was useless, never in the building, couldn't help since the child wasn't on an IEP. Why no IEP? Well the special ed dept didn't have time to schedule an evaluation! It's like you're a hamster on a wheel, running forever. Good luck.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Not currently. But it looks like he's potentially heading in that direction. Which is why I'm saying he needs to be evaluated. If it's bad enough that calling 911 is on the table, then it's bad enough to have him evaluated before things get worse...or did you miss the part about death threats, throwing chairs, threatening people with sharp pencils, and the OP removing all sharp objects from common areas?

Scissors were mentioned, too.

I have worked in places where I had to restrain people by myself, including grown men and women. (I don’t know what I was thinking when I took that weekend job when I was in college!) I regularly had bruises all over my arms, people would be alarmed seeing them and I took to wearing long sleeves for a while. But this was part of their behavioral protocols which I was left to implement on my own during the time I worked there. It was a good learning experience but I wouldn’t want to be in that position again. And that was my entire job. I can’t imagine trying to deal with this type of thing and teach a classroom full of kids, as well as keep everyone calm and foster an environment of learning. (I was going to say foster an environment of safety, but it doesn’t sound like that’s really what’s happening here.)

I know several teachers who’ve been severely injured by students on the job. For one, it was career-ending with a lifetime of disability. Fwiw, nurses deal with some of these same issues, too. One of my nurse friends was attacked by a patient and that was career-ending, too, after she’d just spent about 8 years in school. Some of the people we have to deal with - young, old or in-between - can be very dangerous! Of course we as professionals care about the well-being of our students and patients, but we also have to look out for our own well-being, as well. When there’s an emergency they get sent to hospitals, but many hospitals struggle to deal with these situations, too (is all I was trying to say before).

 

[MrsPete]

Fortunately I have no other students with behavior challenges in my class so no concerns there.

You're very fortunate in that!
But the other kids can start to think, "Johnny gets away with ___. Why am I bothering to put in effort?" Been there, felt the results of that.

Yes and no. The child was here but the teacher is gone. Both special education teachers from last year are gone. Both the principal and assistant principal from last year are gone. My principal is a first year principal. Both of our special education teachers are first year special education teachers. We're also currently supposed to have three special education teachers and only have two.

Is the teacher still in the county? Does anyone have his or her phone number? It's a rare teacher who isn't willing to help another -- and the more information you have, the better off you are.

General question to all teachers - wouldn’t the union help with this if someone was fired for calling 911 in a true emergency and the teacher was in fear or their life or that of their students?

The majority of teachers aren't in union states.

All behavior is communication. This child is acting out as a coping mechanism due to a stress response to a situation he cannot explain (fight or flight, he obviously goes to fight...this is involuntary so don't blame the kid) ...

Yes, and kids aren't always in control of their emotions /actions. They're KIDS.

I remember years ago I had a girl who came in and was absolutely horrid to me -- out of nowhere! I had to call for an administrator to take her out of class. At the end of the school day she came down the hall, head down, avoiding eye contact. She shoved a note into my hand and kept walking. The note apologized, told me about something genuinely horrific that'd happened at her house before school (so bad and so unique that I won'to even repeat it), and said "I know you weren't to blame, but I took it out on you."

The fact that you have so many new staff is very telling. And having unfilled special education positions is unfortunately all too common. This means the teachers you do have are dealing with too many cases. Your new admin are probably doing all they can to keep their heads above water. If you try to deal with everything without help, they will let you. Talk to the special area teachers (PE, music, etc) and enlist their help.

I retired at the end of last school year, but it's been about three years since our Special Ed department has been fully staffed. We're in a teacher shortage again, and Special Ed seems to be the hardest to fill -- that's certainly a big part of this problem.
I strongly suspect no one is sitting around saying, "I just don't care"; rather, it's almost certainly a matter of not enough resources.

 

[MrsPete]

Scissors were mentioned, too.

I once had a kid whose IEP allowed him to carry a pair of sharp scissors as his "safety item". That's the kind of thing I was referring to when I said earlier that some IEPs are just not reasonable.

I know several teachers who’ve been severely injured by students on the job ... Fwiw, nurses deal with some of these same issues, too ...

Yes and yes. I've been hit in my own classroom.

 

[JLTraveling]

Not necessarily. My kids have had several kids like this in class with them over the years. They have all grown into polite, respectful young men. Not one was hospitalized or put in a psych ward. For reference, my kids are autistic and spend at least half their day in a self contained moderate/severe autism classroom. Our schools have very good behavior intervention protocols though and they actually follow through on kids like this. My older son had a BIP in place for 2 years. He would never hurt anyone. He self harmed and screamed and cried, mostly. They kept him safe. We worked through those behaviors and at the end of the day, it was lack of proper learning environment that caused all of it. Once he was moved to a school with a dedicated program and spaces designed for kids with sensory needs, smaller classroom, more teachers, he did fine.

Which is exactly why I recommended an EVALUATION. At no time did I say lock the kid in a psych ward and throw away the key. I'm guessing your kids were evaluated by professionals at some point in time, and then received their autism diagnoses and appropriate protocols. Clearly this child has not had a proper evaluation, or there would be an appropriate plan in place to deal with his behaviors. "Throw him in a regular classroom with a regular teacher and try not to make him mad" isn't appropriate. And neither is "stay calm and let him melt down." Again, on top of everything else it's a liability issue for the teacher. If the kid ends up hurt, the OP could be in a world of legal trouble. Heck, if the TEACHER ends up hurt, she could be in a world of legal trouble. And the child's best interest is not being served here, nor the best interests of the other kids in the class.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Do you all get de-escalation training? If not you should read up on it because you're going to need it. Most younger kids (elementary aged) only have one or two preferred methods of trying to injure you, figure out what his are and then take the appropriate steps. Kids are predictable and will repeatedly use the same things over and over unless they start feeling desperate so keep calm and you can control the situation. Document everything, even when things aren't escalating to the point of you needing to call admin or special ed for help.

 

[mrs. magoo]

I have working in a public high school in Special Education for 28 years. This child's needs are not being met under the current program that is in place. If he has an IEP, it sounds like he needs a behavior plan. The behavior plan specifically tells what the problem behavior is and it can only be one behavior and then it tells what steps are going to be implemented to replace the behavior with a desired behavior. Is it hard work and a pain in the behind - yes. Does it work when it is implemented with fidelity - yes as well. It needs to be followed exactly as written because the student will try to test the limits and once he gets away with something that will be the end of all your hard work. From what you are saying I don't think the student is in the correct placement. He should have more services and not less. Some states do not know what they are doing in terms of Least Restrictive Environment. You need to contact home and ask for input from the parents and if he does not have a behavior plan one should be written and implemented. Of course if this was a one or two time thing then ignore all I said and chalk it up to having a bad day.

 

[RoseGold]

I don't know about teaching, but I do know about covering your rear. I would explicitly document that crimes are happening, behavior is escalating. Ask if your higher ups want you to call 911 or evacuate the classroom, or whatever over the top options you can offer. Tell them you need some guidance because no safety meeting is happening, and you need to know what they want you to do. Threatening someone physically is a CRIME. You are the victim of a CRIME. It is a violent situation that absolutely warrants calling 911. If they don't want you doing that, then need to have some other plan in place.

If someone did this to you anywhere but your job, you would call 911. No brainer.

Someone should be called to your room every time he begins to turn violent, whether it be special education teacher, school counselor, principal etc. If someone else has to start spending much of their time dealing with this, you are more likely to get help.

Yup, this is the answer. Make it their problem. It's your problem now. Make it theirs.

I'm sorry. I really feel for you reading this.