A teacher who taught kindergarten in Florida has been removed from her teaching position after she had students vote last week on whether a 5-year-old should be allowed to stay in class.
The boy's mother and police officials at the Port St. Lucie Police Department said that the teacher, Wendy P., made the boy stand in front of the classroom while his peers told him what bothered them about him. The class was studying tallies and vote-taking and that was when the teacher told the class to vote on whether the boy should be allowed to stay in the class.
The students
voted 14 to 2 and the boy spent the rest of his school day in the nurse's office and he was upset when his mother picked him up.
On Tuesday the mother told sources that her son was diagnosed with an autism-spectrum disorder and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder which is also known as ADHD. She said that public shame and humiliation can have lifelong consequences and that this is a case that illustrates a problem that children face on the autism spectrum and that is bullying.
Illinois school districts are suppose to have a policy that protects kids from bullying which includes includes preventing intimidation, student victimization, sexual harassment and sexual violence. If a child is bullied and they have a disability than the school violated several acts, including Americans With Disabilities Act.
Many parents of autistic children say that the policies are never enforced and they are afraid that the kids will be affected for life if they are not protected.
People who are defending the teacher say that she has her side of the story that needs to be told and she has not been able to tell it yet.
Anthony Westbury who is a columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast newspapers in Florida and knows the teacher, defends her and says that there is another side of the story and that he will not pass judgement onto her. He goes on and says that other people should not judge her either because she has been a teacher for the past 12 years in the St. Lucie County.
Westbury says do not judge her because she has been a teacher for twelve years but all that means is that she could have done something like this more than once. Twelve years is a long time and who knows how many times she has embarrassed a student by putting them in a position like this one.
