Education and Ethics
Two years ago there was a student in my school I will call "Aaron." Aaronwas a serious behavioral problem. He would repeat offensive phrases overand over, for instance repeatedly saying "Miss Murray farted! Miss Murrayfarted!" He would look around to see if the other students were payingattention to him, and then do it again. He struggled with academicsunpredictably and resisted any work that involved writing. Sometimes hismisbehavior seemed deliberate, such as in the case of repeating phrasesthat seemed designed to disrupt the class. At other times, however, heseemed to be in genuine distress. Unfortunately when he was stressed, he Aaron was thoroughly evaluated, including an extensive evaluation forautism, and was found to be autistic. He was provided with a full-timeparaprofessional who was to be supervised and trained by the specialeducation teacher. However, the paraprofessional had no formal training,and the special education teacher had other students and otherresponsibilities in addition to Aaron. The paraprofessional did the bestshe could, but she did not know how to redirect his behavior, and Aaron
It was not a good plan to provide Aaron with anuntrained, inexperienced paraprofessional and then expect her to be able todeal effectively with a very challenging student. The principal came andphysically carried him to the time out room. Thework he found stressful was modified, for instance, letting him dictatewritten answers. One day Aaron refused to leave the classroom. Aaron was suspended for threedays, and his IEP committee was convened. ' Theparaprofessional told the resource teacher about this incident, and theresource teacher told her to tell the special education supervisor, whichshe did. He admitted to the paraprofessional later on thathe had deliberately yelled at Aaron and invaded his space hoping to triggera physical response that would justify his removal. It was adjacent to theoffice, not a classroom, so even if he yelled and screamed, he did notinterfere with other students' education. Nevertheless, much of the problems in thiscase could have been avoided if special training had been provided for thestaff earlier in the year. Aaron settled down whenhe had a plan in place that allowed for his difficulties and providedsolutions that helped him cope. If any disciplinaryaction was taken against the principal it was done privately and theschool's staff did not know about it. Theprincipal in this case did not have adequate experience with the inclusionof autistic children. The final outcome of this situation was positive. She saw the principal with Aaron cornered, yelling at him and berating himfor his behavior. While Aaron did respondphysically, it did not result in his removal.
Common topics in this essay:
Miss Murray,
Aaron Aaron,
special education,
,
education teacher,
special education teacher,
leave classroom,
behavior aaron,
miss murray farted,
special education supervisor,
resource teacher,
murray farted,
told paraprofessional,
miss murray,
paraprofessional leave,
classroom aaron,
|
Acceptance Essays
