Vicious Teacher Leads Bullying of Disabled Child
Posted by Cyn | Filed under News
Teacher lets kindergarten students vote 5-year-old “out of the class”
After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn’t like about Barton’s 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.
By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex — who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism — out of the class.
The teacher, Wendy Portillo (portillow@stlucie.k12.fl.us), has acknowledged that the incident happened. She had been participating in the child’s IEP team since February, so she knew that Alex was being evaluated for a disability (most likely Asberger’s syndrome, from the information in the article).
There isn’t be any excuse for any adult treating any child that way, but a teacher to encourage children to ostracize a disabled child? That’s even worse.
The school district has refused to fire Portillo, but claims that she has been moved to non-classroom duties. That isn’t nearly enough.
Tags: Alex Barton, Asperger's Syndrome, child abuse, Florida, Morningside Elementary, Port St. Lucie, Wendy Portillo
Civil Rights Win in Florida
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Civil Rights, Education
Months ago, I posted about Ponce de Leon High School in Florida banning the wear or display of any kind of gay pride symbols or words, claiming that they indicated involvement in an “illegal organization.” I later found out that the problem started last fall, when a lesbian student complained that she was being harassed. Instead of investigating or trying to stop the harassment, the school administration cracked down on any show of support for her. The principal later said that he was sure that gay pride symbols would cause students to visualize gay people having sex, leading to disruption.1
Anyway, Florida managed to get something right, or at least one judge there did so. Oh, wait–he was a federal judge, not a state authority. Anyway, on May 13 he issued a permanent injunction against the school! He told them that they must stop their unconstitutional censorship of expressions of support for gay people, and warned them not to try retaliating against anyone involved in the case.
1 Damn, those are powerful rainbows! Wonder what kind of porn they’d find in a raid of his house?
Tags: ACLU, Florida, GLBTQ, Ponce de Leon High School
Rainbow Stickers = Gang Affiliations? Right
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Civil Rights, Education
Yeah, I hear there’s a real problem with queer street gangs these days, tagging everything in sight with those damned rainbows.
ACLU sues Florida school for barring Pride gear
Administrators at Ponce de Leon High School stated that students’ wearing rainbow stickers could mean that they are members of an illegal organization.…
An unidentified student was suspended for five days for expressing her support for gay rights, the ACLU said. Students said a lesbian peer was harassed and tried to report the situation to administrators. She was instead greeted with censorship of supporting students writing “gay pride” on their arms and notebooks.
This story definitely goes in the “glad to be homeschooling” file, but it also gives me cause to wonder if the school administrator training process surgically removes all common sense. Or do they just prefer to recruit those who don’t have much of it in the first place?
Tags: Florida, Gang Affiliations