Me again. 5 Day Suspension. You'll like this story.

[Shari]

Wee was suspended today for 5 days. Third suspension this year.

Actual "third offense" is supposed to be 10 days. Principal knows suspensions don't work for wee, so he reduced it to 5. This will make a total of 9 full days suspension this year, plus he only attended partial days til Jan 5.

His SpEd teacher is his lifeline. Anything that goes wrong, he goes straight to her. SHe's great.

She was gone this atfernoon, which makes him anxious to begin with.

He was in gym class. He was not picked by the other students when they picked partners for the game. He was assigned a partner and it wasn't the kid he usually clings to in class, it was another boy.

AND THEN THEY PLAYED A SPELLING GAME!!!!! (he is severely dyslexic and is preK on all academics except math).

Towards the end of class, he left the room in total frustration, saying everyone thinks he's a big fat loser and wanted to go to SpEd. He headed that way. Principal stepped out of the room he was in and tried to intervene. Wee was way too far gone and only had getting to SpEd on his mind. Wee stepped to the side like he was going to go around the principal and principal stepped to the side to physically block him. Once "cornered", wee hit him.

I told the principal I thought another suspension just reinforced what wee thought of himself, which was a big precursor to today's events, but he stuck to his guns, while agreeing it was not effective.

I told him I would be appealing the suspension.

I have called a board member who is relaying info to the superintendant. Super is to call me, hopefully tomorrow. Board member also asked about home bound services, of which we've been offered none (and frankly, I don't see that going well, either, but that's not the point).

DESE is pushing Positive Behavioral Supports which does not include suspension except for the worst of scenarios. PBS training is free to districts. I am going to push for that to be applied to wee going forward, if not this time. We also need a backup plan for when the SpEd teacher is out.

What am I missing?

 

[Sheila]

Oh dear. They usually frown heavily upon hitting personnel....

Sounds as if this principal perhaps knew this would trigger?

Just lovely-- punitive punishment that's already known will not help.

Anything in the IEP about intervention or redirecitng when this point is reached?

 

[Shari]

Yup, and you'd be proud. I nailed 'em.

When principal called me to inform me of the suspension, he said it was a "mandate" that it was a 10 day suspension and call the police. He did not feel it warranted that, nor did he feel suspension is effective discipline for Wee, so he was very wishy washy, and ended up reducing it to 5 days.

So I got to wondering how he could change this mandate, and one thought lead to another, and I dug around the school's website for 2 nights and found a handbook...and the handbook says, for special needs kiddos with a history or aggressive outbursts, a "behavior management contincency plan" (BMCP) will be written into the IEP, and that BMCP can include "short term suspension (not more than 3 days)", but whatever it is must be written into the IEP, and agreed to by the parents.

In wee's IEP, we have a BIP that has a flow-chart for dealing with Wee. And if all else fails, the "plan" is to call mom and get him outta there for the day asap.

I called the SpEd director the next morning after finding this and said they could not suspend wee because its not in his IEP, that wee's BMCP is to get him out of school for the day that he is having a problem, etc. During the meeting, the SpEd Director about fell all over herself getting something written into the IEP for us.

I agreed to allowing a 1 day suspension for aggressive outburts such as that, and the school administration happily followed along.

I had also gone ahead and requested a manifestation hearing, so the subject of "10 days" came up (they were trying to argue that the half-days weren't "suspensions" because its in the IEP). I finally got a little testy and stood up and said, sternly, "No, its not. No where in his IEP will you find a team decision to move Wee to half days because that decision was made by Principal Pretty Boy and the Super at 6am on the morning of February 27, 2009, and I was informed of it when I brought Wee to school right here in this room. When I said I did not agree with the decision and it was not an IEP team decision, I was told by Pretty Boy that it was that or Wee didn't go to school there."

You could have heard a pin drop. SpEd director finally spoke and apologized to me for that and said she was not aware of how that happened (which is bs, cause I had a meeting with her 1:1 on March 11, 2009, and that's one of the things we covered). ExMIL said it was perfect and couldn't have played out any better. ExMIL said I was intense and protective and extremely confident in that, and coupled with my "find" in the handbook, she said she thinks they got the message that I am more than willing to work with you, but this sort of bull stops here and now. I hope ExMIL is right about that, too. And the way SpEd director was scrambling to cover her butt about the BMCP, exMIL may well be right.

At least til the next crummy incident happens.

 

[alongfortheride]

You rock, Warrior Mom!

 

[Shari]

I didn't take him yesterday, because SpEd teacher was out. He's also not going Thursday for the same reason.
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But apparently, this "only 1 day suspensions" was intended for in the future, and the statement that he'll be in school "Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday" wasn't really supposed to be how it worked.
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'Cause they didn't want him til tomorrow, today is day 5 of his suspension, and I got talked to.
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They didn't make me take him home, but principal, at least, wasn't real happy.
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I don't expect it to be a good day/week. Very first thing said to him by another student when he walked in was "have you been sick all this time????" and of course, Wee said, "no", very quiet and sad. Everyone is wearing a hat today for "Hats for Haiti". Of course, Wee didn't know, so he is not. He has an inch of homework in his mailbox that he's worried about doing. And they started a new token system last week in math, the kids earn fake coins for doing things and then get to "buy" something later. Everyone has a bag full of money. Wee has none.
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He lost it last week 'cause he felt stupid and left out.
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Yup. This is gonna help lots.