Lauren and Avonte

We have now reached week three in the search for Avonte Oquendo. If you not are aware of who Avonte is and what happened to him, here is a brief explanation.  Avonte is a 14 year old boy who is severely autistic.  He is unable to speak or use language. On October 4^th he went missing from his school in Queens NY. Since then, there has been a search going on around the city to locate the missing boy. Police and search teams have been paying close attention to the subway, because his family says that the boy loves the train system. Since he is also non verbal, he is unable to tell someone that he is lost, hurt, or needs to get home. The police are also trying a new approach to help locate him, which is playing a recording of his mother speaking to him.    They play this recording out of an emergency response vehicle hoping he will hear it and follow the sound of the voice.  Since he is autistic, the authorities believe that Avonte might  respond to his mother’s voice rather than to the voice of a stranger.
            My concern is  more with the school at which Avonte was a student. How could this have happened and how could it have been prevented?   The  special school that Avonte attended was part of another regular middle school.   The school did not house just special education students.   Avonte’s brother had met with a Manhattan civil rights attorney who specialized in special education litigation.   Gary Mayerson, the attorney,  outlined three layers of protection that should have been followed:  

·        First is the IEP. Mayerson stated that a student who is non-verbal, as is Avonte, and a student who is a known wanderer and who has been found in subway tunnels in the past, should have had goals and objectives on his IEP to deal with that issue.   Instead Avonte was in a classroom with one teacher, one aide and six students.  

·         Avonte’s IEP should have had a behavior intervention plan that would tell the teachers what to do if he began to wander.  

·        There should have been better security measures in place in the school that Avonte attended.  It is suggested that there should have been specific protocols in place for when people/students left the building and those reason for leaving needed to be stated.   

            Do you think that the school administration was negligent in this case?    What better security measures should the school have implemented knowing that there were special education children within in the building?  Do you agree with the attorney in this case and why?   

Jessica asks, "Are two teachers in a classroom necessary?"

Elizabeth Stein’s post “What Kids Say about Inclusion” reveals students’ perspectives on co-teaching and management in inclusion classrooms. Generally, students view co teaching as a positive and like the extra help the second teacher can provide. However, students typically view one teacher, usually the general education teacher, as the “real” teacher and the special education teacher as the “co-teacher” or “helping teacher.” Steins' students stated that they understand the second teacher is there to support those students who need a little extra help, but believe that the two teachers are not there to benefit all students. 

            What is your opinion on co-teaching? Do you view it as a positive or a negative? What do you imagine classroom management in an inclusion classroom to look like? Do you think it is possible for both teachers to be viewed as “real” teachers or will one always be viewed as the “helping teacher?”  Can a better message be sent besides “a second teacher is there to help the special education kid”?  

http://www.middleweb.com/5729/what-kids-say-about-inclusion/

Jessica and Paul on Monday

Paul is a bright first grader placed in an inclusion setting who loves to draw. He can write sentences relating to his picture but needs some push from the teacher. He is distracted very easily. However while he can write a sentence, he struggles when asked to verbally tell one. While he seems interested in language arts, because he can draw a picture to correlate with his sentence, he does not enjoy math.

Paul does not make eye contact. He does not speak with other children or interact socially with them. Paul sits at the table with the boys at lunch but eats by himself and plays with a toy he brings, usually an action figure, alone. His parents are aware of the issue and say it is something he has dealt with his entire life. After being in school for a month, Paul speaks with his special education teacher, Mr. Carter and me. He rarely speaks with the regular education teacher or many of the specials teachers.

Paul does receive speech therapy twice a week to help him with social settings and has received it since kindergarten. The speech therapist has informed Mr. Carter that he does talk to her, telling her about very basic things pertaining to his life but nothing in detail.

Paul also does not quite know how to act in social settings. During a special, when there are social interactions he does not play or talk with the children. He attends an after school enrichment program that Mr. Carter runs. Mr. Carter asked one of the students to grab Paul and bring him to play basketball in the gym, while waiting for the parents to pick the children up at the end of the session. Paul did hesitate at first but Mr. Carter encouraged him and he became involved in the game. Paul will not go into a social situation on his own, even with other children, he needs a push.

If put into this position, how would you handle it, how can you help this little six year old feel more comfortable in a social setting and with other children each day?