By Colleen Wixon (Contact)
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/nov/19/attorney-alex-barton-case-teachers-side-will-be-he/
PORT ST. LUCIE — Morningside Elementary School teacher Wendy Portillo’s attorney said his client’s side will be heard when she appeals the St. Lucie County School Board’s one-year unpaid suspension from work.
Other than that attorney David Walker of Stuart declined to comment about Portillo’s punishment as a result of the Alex Barton case.
According to police reports, Portillo brought Alex Barton, then 5 years old, to the front of his kindergarten classroom and asked other students to tell him how his behavior affected them. Alex, who was being diagnosed with a type of autism at the time, had left the class twice that day for discipline referrals. Portillo then asked the class to vote on whether Alex should stay in the class. Alex lost the vote.
St. Lucie County School Board unanimously approved Superintendent Michael Lannon’s recommendation Tuesday to suspend Portillo for one year without pay and return her to an annual contract. Lannon also plans to ask the state Board of Education to revoke her teaching certificate for one year.
Portillo is appealing, which means a hearing must be scheduled within 60 days.
Alex’s mother, Melissa Barton, said Portillo should be fired because of the incident.
Meanwhile, Jack Scott, director of the Florida Atlantic University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, called the board’s action “a slap on the wrist.”
The action didn’t match the severity of the action done to Alex Barton in his kindergarten classroom in May, Scott said.
“I think a much more definitive action was appropriate,” he said.
Scott said the school district has an obligation to model what to do when a wrong is committed. The district should apologize to Alex and his family, he said.
“Right now there doesn’t seem to be a mechanism for the school to apologize,” he said.
Scott said the board’s action shows the system dealing with students’ rights is not strong. There might be an undue concern for teachers’ employment rights, he said.
He said the St. Lucie County School District works hard with the center regarding services for children with autism, and there are some positive things happening in the district.
“The whole incident (involving the Morningside teacher) is just really unfortunate,” Scott said.
Showing posts with label St. Lucie County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Lucie County. Show all posts
Friday, November 21, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
IA: Experts question benefit of school time-out rooms
By MICHAEL J. CRUMB, Associated Press Writer Michael J. Crumb, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 17, 6:49 am ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081017/ap_on_re_us/time_out_rooms
DES MOINES, Iowa – After failing to finish a reading assignment, 8-year-old Isabel Loeffler was sent to the school's time-out room — a converted storage area under a staircase — where she was left alone for three hours.
The autistic Iowa girl wet herself before she was finally allowed to leave.
Appalled, her parents removed her from the school district and filed a lawsuit.
Some educators say time-out rooms are being used with increased frequency to discipline children with behavioral disorders. And the time outs are probably doing more harm than good, they add.
"It really is a form of abuse," said Ken Merrell, head of the Department for Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the University of Oregon. "It's going to do nothing to change the behavior. You're using it as an isolation booth."
Segregating children removes them from the positive aspect of the classroom and highlights that they're different from other children, said Stephen Camarata, director of the Kennedy Center for Behavioral Research at Vanderbilt University. And isolating an autistic child might be particularly counterproductive.
"They don't like being around other people so they might increase their negative behavior because they view it a reward," he said.
Though there is no data on the use of time-out rooms, Camarata speculates that they've become widespread as schools confronted a growing enrollment of children with behavior disorders.
"I believe it's because classrooms are much less flexible with more focus on compliance," he said.
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund in Berkeley, Calif., receives calls from parents across the country who complain about time-out rooms, said Cheryl Theis, an education advocate for the organization.
"Parents call and say their child's disability has been exacerbated by this and are traumatized by this," she said.
Merrell said he's encountered time-out rooms he felt were unsafe.
"I once consulted with a school in another state and had a weekly appointment with a child to do some counseling and when I got there they told me he was in a time-out room," he said. "He was in a janitor's closet with no windows, no ventilation, open cans of paint, a mop bucket with disinfectant and he had been in there for over an hour."
Merrell, who has published nearly 100 studies and 10 books on teaching social and emotional skills, said time-out rooms can be used effectively but seldom are. The key, he said, is to combine the time outs with social skills training.
Patti Ralabate, a special education analyst with the National Education Association, said time-out rooms are common but should be used sparingly.
"And when they are used, all of the educators involved need to have appropriate professional development to see how this is used and how to use them appropriately," she said.
Ralabate said a time-out room can be effective if it is intended to provide a space for a child to calm down and reflect on their behavior.
"If it is used to isolate the child, punish the child for a behavior, then we would view it as not productive and not positive," she said.
In Iowa, Doug and Eva Loeffler started to notice changes in their daughter in December 2004, soon after she began school in the Des Moines suburb of Waukee. It prompted them to take Isabel to University Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City for evaluations.
"We laid awake at nights thinking we'd have to institutionalize her," Doug Loeffler said. "We went to three evaluations at the hospital and all of a sudden we find out she's being mistreated."
Loeffler said they weren't told in school evaluation reports that their daughter had been restrained and placed in a time-out room. During one incident in December 2005, Isabel wet herself because she was locked in the room for three hours and not allowed to use a restroom, he said.
Loeffler said the time-out room rules required that before she could be released, she must sit on the floor with her legs crossed without moving a muscle for at least five minutes.
"If she said something, grimaced at them, they would restart the clock and she was not capable of doing that," Loeffler said. "That's why it was three hours."
Loeffler said the couple homeschooled Isabel until he took a new job and the family moved last year to California. Isabel has shown signs of progress and is back in public school, he said.
David Wilkerson, superintendent of the Waukee school district, declined to speak about the accusations because of the pending lawsuit. But he said time-out rooms are a "pretty common practice" and that the district complies with the state's guidelines for such rooms.
Loeffler said he is pressing ahead with the lawsuit and hopes to draw attention to the need for nationwide standards for time-out rooms.
Fri Oct 17, 6:49 am ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081017/ap_on_re_us/time_out_rooms
DES MOINES, Iowa – After failing to finish a reading assignment, 8-year-old Isabel Loeffler was sent to the school's time-out room — a converted storage area under a staircase — where she was left alone for three hours.
The autistic Iowa girl wet herself before she was finally allowed to leave.
Appalled, her parents removed her from the school district and filed a lawsuit.
Some educators say time-out rooms are being used with increased frequency to discipline children with behavioral disorders. And the time outs are probably doing more harm than good, they add.
"It really is a form of abuse," said Ken Merrell, head of the Department for Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the University of Oregon. "It's going to do nothing to change the behavior. You're using it as an isolation booth."
Segregating children removes them from the positive aspect of the classroom and highlights that they're different from other children, said Stephen Camarata, director of the Kennedy Center for Behavioral Research at Vanderbilt University. And isolating an autistic child might be particularly counterproductive.
"They don't like being around other people so they might increase their negative behavior because they view it a reward," he said.
Though there is no data on the use of time-out rooms, Camarata speculates that they've become widespread as schools confronted a growing enrollment of children with behavior disorders.
"I believe it's because classrooms are much less flexible with more focus on compliance," he said.
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund in Berkeley, Calif., receives calls from parents across the country who complain about time-out rooms, said Cheryl Theis, an education advocate for the organization.
"Parents call and say their child's disability has been exacerbated by this and are traumatized by this," she said.
Merrell said he's encountered time-out rooms he felt were unsafe.
"I once consulted with a school in another state and had a weekly appointment with a child to do some counseling and when I got there they told me he was in a time-out room," he said. "He was in a janitor's closet with no windows, no ventilation, open cans of paint, a mop bucket with disinfectant and he had been in there for over an hour."
Merrell, who has published nearly 100 studies and 10 books on teaching social and emotional skills, said time-out rooms can be used effectively but seldom are. The key, he said, is to combine the time outs with social skills training.
Patti Ralabate, a special education analyst with the National Education Association, said time-out rooms are common but should be used sparingly.
"And when they are used, all of the educators involved need to have appropriate professional development to see how this is used and how to use them appropriately," she said.
Ralabate said a time-out room can be effective if it is intended to provide a space for a child to calm down and reflect on their behavior.
"If it is used to isolate the child, punish the child for a behavior, then we would view it as not productive and not positive," she said.
In Iowa, Doug and Eva Loeffler started to notice changes in their daughter in December 2004, soon after she began school in the Des Moines suburb of Waukee. It prompted them to take Isabel to University Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City for evaluations.
"We laid awake at nights thinking we'd have to institutionalize her," Doug Loeffler said. "We went to three evaluations at the hospital and all of a sudden we find out she's being mistreated."
Loeffler said they weren't told in school evaluation reports that their daughter had been restrained and placed in a time-out room. During one incident in December 2005, Isabel wet herself because she was locked in the room for three hours and not allowed to use a restroom, he said.
Loeffler said the time-out room rules required that before she could be released, she must sit on the floor with her legs crossed without moving a muscle for at least five minutes.
"If she said something, grimaced at them, they would restart the clock and she was not capable of doing that," Loeffler said. "That's why it was three hours."
Loeffler said the couple homeschooled Isabel until he took a new job and the family moved last year to California. Isabel has shown signs of progress and is back in public school, he said.
David Wilkerson, superintendent of the Waukee school district, declined to speak about the accusations because of the pending lawsuit. But he said time-out rooms are a "pretty common practice" and that the district complies with the state's guidelines for such rooms.
Loeffler said he is pressing ahead with the lawsuit and hopes to draw attention to the need for nationwide standards for time-out rooms.
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