so what do you think, if the child is disruptive, should he be asked to leave?
Boy still stinging from class vote-out
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By
CARA FITZPATRICK
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
PORT ST. LUCIE — Alex Barton, a 5-year-old boy with a cherubic face and neat blond hair, hasn't forgotten what happened last week in his classroom at Morningside Elementary.
His mother, Melissa Barton, can't forget, either.
Alex, who his mother says has been diagnosed with autism, was instructed by teacher Wendy Portillo to stand in front of the class on Wednesday and listen as other students described what they disliked about him, according to a police report.
Portillo then asked the students to vote on whether he should stay in class. The class voted 14-2 for him to leave.
"That anyone would do that to a child, it's just sickening," Barton said.
The incident, reported in local and national media, prompted outrage and condemnation from parents, community members and professionals who work with disabled children. Some have asked whether the incident is indicative of a greater problem in understanding how best to work with disabled children, while others say such behavior would have been damaging to any child.
"I would first ask the question of whether that teacher was trained as a teacher," said Jack Scott, director of Florida Atlantic University's Center for Autism and Related Disabilities. "There's really no excuse for this."
Superintendent Michael Lannon told the school board Tuesday that he has received more than 300 e-mails about the incident and that Morningside Principal Marcia Cully has received about 700.
He mentioned the incident briefly in his report to the board and noted that Portillo, a teacher at Morningside for nine years, should be considered innocent until she had admitted otherwise or been found guilty by officials.
Portillo was removed from the classroom Tuesday and will remain at the St. Lucie County School District's offices until school officials conclude an investigation. Such investigations typically take two weeks, said Janice Karst, a district spokeswoman.
Portillo, who began teaching in St. Lucie County in 1995, has never had a poor teaching evaluation. Pauline Hebb, former principal of Morningside, described her as "wonderful" and "caring" and said she was an asset to the school, according to Portillo's personnel file.
Barton said she received word from a private psychiatrist Tuesday that her son had been diagnosed with autism.
Children with autistic disorders range widely in terms of intelligence and behavior, but the disorder is often marked by difficulty relating to others and forming relationships, and by repetitive behavior.
Teachers often aren't given any special training to deal with autistic students until a child in their class has been identified as having a disability, said Bill Tomlinson, the district's director of special education.
FAU's Scott said some teachers come into the profession with very little training in handling special education issues, while others are career changers. He noted, too, that an emphasis on security within schools can lead to a tendency to punish rather than support special needs students.
"You don't punish them into being better," he said.
Barton said her son displayed behavior as a toddler that made her wonder whether he had autism. It wasn't until he reached school age, though, that he began to undergo evaluations.
Alex is smart, she said, but often chews on paper, the leather seats in the family car and anything else he can touch, she said. That behavior has been noticed by his classmates.
So it was all the more difficult to understand why his teacher would single him out in front of his peers, she said.
"He keeps saying, 'I'm not special' and 'Everybody hates me,' " she said. "He thinks it's not OK to be different and that's the opposite of what we've taught him."
Alex has not returned to Morningside since the incident, and Barton said she is unsure what she will do for school placement next year.
Scott said Portillo's actions would have been damaging to any child, but would be devastating to a child who already has a hard time making friends.
"How will this child be able to return to this class, to the school?" he said. "It's so tough for them to interact with kids and now you throw a thing like this into the mix."
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