HI everyone I am back...
I am SOOO TIRED emotionally.
I am just how I thought I would be...totally frustrated and confused.
Super hard for me because I miss teaching. I see the kids in the autism program and I want to be working with them.
The things they told the truth about....
1. the SUN 1 and 2 programs are at the end of a hall. When I walked in the building, to the left there was locked doors, the office was locked too. The director is young, maybe mid thirties. I got to ask a few questions and we went to go to the classroom area and a code was called and a sheriff and police showed up. They call this code and all students have to stay in their room (our school used the term "fishbowl" and that meant we had to close doors go under desks etc...) People were actually very very calm. No raised voices, it was easy to see which kid was upset but the director just took us to the rooms and didn't even get involved.... (she said this has been done three times, one for a kid who fell and hit his head so they needed an ambulance, one for a seizure, and this time. the kid calmed and they said by... end of it....I watched thru some windows and walking by.) I saw that from the two rooms that are used for the program they are talking about for Q, you could see it all, police cars etc. Well, I told them that would be the end for Q... he would either be on the wall or doing anything he could to be the next in line. He is so afraid of that stuff. She said since this is the first year, they already decided that of the four SUN rooms they are going to flip them...put the Quin like classes on the other side where out the window is a pond and nice things to look at. The kids in the SUN1 room are non verbal or low verbal, lie on the ground, spin etc... and the teachers say they dont notice what is going on and/or are not affected by waht is going on outside. There are 4 kids in that class... two classrooms and a sensory room in between . There are large swings and matts and balls just for SUN 1
FOR SUN 2 they have the same but more like office spots with their desks, matts, swings, sensory room in the middle AND t here are two more sensory rooms, large ones...along with an activity room with pool and foose ball etc... THe bus drops off right there by their class door. One of the kids in the class is a friend of Q's from elementary school. The other one is very dysfluent in speech has this beautiful pattern he is making on a bulletin board and he said some things about hating kids that leave early and dont follow rules and I thought, oh good... I am going to hear that Q is ruining his day... SO I told the director that... I said, Q will make that kids world miserable because he will be frustrated by his speech, and his rigid rules and it will be hard for both of them. the other boy, they might do ok with. I didn't get to see any teaching..the kids have such individualized schedules that they each were out doing things or when they came in they were working on power points etc.
The school has tons of technology...He would get his own laptop to use all day because they got a grant and all new computers so they kept the laptops for kids. down the hall with many rooms separating the SUN rooms start the elementary EBD classes, and one of the kids came with me to give a tour because another kids was puffed up like he was going to beat him up.....I have to say that the talking between staff about what is going on is limited to calling a staff name, they look and I watched 3 separate de-escalation procedures that involved no drama, from a ball being thrown toward us and I ended up catching it actually... the kid I was with ignored and was given props for doing so. The EBD class has break out rooms for the kids and the kid who toured me said, this is the room I go to to go in and just think in my head, now what did I do, how can I calm down...all the rooms are locked from the outside but kids can get OUT of the rooms..they can't just go into anyone else's room. All the teachers have walkies so it does not look like they are targeting any student.
of the two kids in the class that they want Q to go to one does nto want to be with anyone, but the other does so he goes to join a small reading group and a gym group. the two boys dont do anything together. I said over and over, it is the same as what he gets now (minus the negativity from staff) but he would not even see anyone in the halls which at least now he can say hi to a couple of neighborhood kids.
So, from my view and as I said before I am sure that from a teaching perspective Q would be better off in that kind of setting...probably can do a great job of setting things up for him. But he is likely to be very very lonely.
As we were in the hall I heard this familiar voice... Stop it! Get out of my f***ing way. Shut up you b-word and he marched thru the halls and went outside (which is fine there..they can walk around the school, that is good because Q does that). I said to the director, THAT sounds just like Q. I asked them how long it would take them to be sick of having a kid swear at them and push and shove them... they do it daily so they said they just do what they do. they really do (I saw it) use non verbal interventions to calm...ONLY ONE person talks to the child if needed and the rest is all done by the book. They call admin for back up but said they all do it as a team, not for them to take the kid away, and usually everything is calm by the time they get there (there IS only the director anyway...and two lead teachers. It is far bigger than the school where Q was abused years ago...but no where near the size of a typical school. It goes to highschool but the director said she wants to have the first batch of 12th graders who dont fit the two transition programs in our district now (post 12th grade) so she wants to have a transition SUN program if the kids want it. There are four 12th grade boys who were ready to go back to their high schools on the EBD side who choose to stay there because they wanted to graduate with their real friends so they said that was fine and one is hired to help design the new school website because it is only the old one which I think I told you described only the EBD program.
There are no locked seclusion rooms. They only do holds on one girl who is non verbal and seeks it...they do a squish kind of sensory hold because she gets sudden pain and then it makes her violent and she runs to them to be held (I saw it happen) and it was totally appropriate no one tried to make me leave or anything.
Would I want this for Q??? Maybe.
Would I want this for me?? Yes, it is my thing, I love working in a setting like that.
Would Q want it, he says he will not go, he will not even go look at it and he will go see it after he graduates from high school. Now, he has no choice of course if I decide it but I do have to think about if it will work because for him it is not just being manipulative, it is intense need for routine and difficulty with change etc. She seemed actually upset about the treatment, such as his not being allowed to run in the halls (then as a kid came bounding down the hall, NO ONE cared. They just watched him. She said they would just let him out early and tell him to run. Power struggle gone. I believe it, because I saw it.
Q is soooo social. I just dont know what to do about that piece.
Turns out the director knows our home psychologist and loves him, she is a psychologist herself. She said we can come Mon or Tues in the morning through lunch.... that would be good. then I can bring Q (OH my how to do that, I told him we may just go look and have a tour like at the high school and he said fine but he is going to the highschool... SO I really need to see.
I guess the sp ed coordinator told the principal that we would NOT be talking transition out of this school any time soon. Both the attorney and I said, you know he is not going to listen to you and that will be the first thing out of his mouth. I would pick this isolated school over more abuse from the current principal so???
I just dont know... I am so stupid, I believe these people and then I will find out it is all not what I saw or thought. I guess I just have to stop thinking now... Let the next visit happen and wait and see.