Behavior Intervention Plans need to be written for the adults, not the student. As a public school based SLP with several campuses, I personally know that my own students experience this kind of scenario often: ADHD or Autistic kid gets bullied. It’s often sneaky and subtle, but bad enough to cause trauma. Sometimes the kid asks an adult for help (as they’ve been instructed over and over to do). And rather than helping, the teacher replies “handle it yourself”, or they ignore the bullying (and this kid) altogether. So the kid can’t take anymore, feels helpless and overwhelmed, has a trauma response in the form of a meltdown. And the school’s response is to:
1) Blame and punish the ADHD or Autistic kid for their aggressive behavior. Blame them for being the instigator. Punish them.
2) Demand immediate behavior compliance rather than acknowledging the kid’s suffering, distress and trauma (or even their justified anger at being bullied).
3) Escalate rather than deescalate the situation, ending with the kid in seclusion, restraint and in the case of the kid in the article with a violent arrest.
We need to stop traumatizing our neurodivergent students. We are literally piling on trauma on top of trauma when we don’t see, acknowledge, and respond to their trauma – Julie
Article: “… the filing claims, J.H. was being bullied, bothered, and taunted by another student. It further states the teacher allowed it “to escalate to the point where J.H. began breathing heavily and yelling because he was so frustrated and angry.
With his disorder, there are certain signs an episode is coming on, and that should have triggered the teacher to step in and calm him down, the plaintiffs say.
(‼️This is why the adults need the behavior intervention plan, instead of the kid!‼️)
The boy’s type of ADHD makes it challenging for him to manage his own responses “to frustration; to control his anger; to express his emotions, wants, and needs; and to adjust to social and physical transitions.” So, when he felt unheard and his cry out for help against a bully went unresolved, the claim suggests, he acted out.
J.H. had a custom of eating lunch in his principal’s office, the lawsuit alleges, because the school has documented a history of the boy being picked on.
“While sitting in the office, J.H. refused to eat his lunch because he was still so distraught and angry from the previous class period,” the complaint explained.
Principal Doyle and other administrators told him to “eat or else go hungry for the rest of the day. Out of further frustration with this demand and lack of sympathy, J.H. threw a ball of yarn, hand sanitizer, and a tissue box.”
The court filing says the four calls came between 12:58 p.m. and 1:10 p.m. The calls described to the dispatchers what J.H. had on, that he had assaulted the principal, erroneously said he “punched her in the jaw,” she required “medical attention,” and that he “knocked” her to the ground.
The school, in their report of the incident, never communicated the child had a disability.
Within minutes Sgt. Steven Trapani, Deputy Gary Bavaret, Deputy Colin Dunning, and Deputy Brandon Cheron arrived at the school. When they found J.H. outside the building, but in the area of the campus, he was crying, “disassociating, non-communicative, and clearly manifesting symptoms of his disabilities,” the claim states.
Sgt. Trapani forcefully grabbed J.H. by the arm and pulled J.H.’s arm behind his back,” the lawsuit said.
When the 4-foot-5, 93-pound boy yanked away from Trapani, then the officer “forcefully grabbed J.H., placed him in a chokehold, and pulled J.H. to the ground,” and dragged him while still holding him around his neck.
Lawyers for the family claim, “While he was in a chokehold, J.H. was fearful for his life.”
Eventually, the sheriff’s officials handcuffed the tween for the interrogation. When he complained that the cuffs were too tight, standing up to advocate for himself in his limited capacity, the claim states an officer pushed him. J.H. responded, still with no parents around, by kicking the officer.
J.H. was then placed in the back of a squad car and taken to the Jefferson Parish Juvenile Assessment Center. Upon arriving at the juvenile detention center, officers handcuffed J.H.’s legs and booked and processed him. [The boy was] charged with two counts of battery of a police officer, one count of resisting arrest, one count of battery of a schoolteacher, and one count of simple criminal damage of less than $1000 the lawsuit stated. Five hours after the officers initially arrived at the school, the parents were allowed to see their son.”
atlantablackstar.com/2022/05/18/louisiana-parents-file-lawsuit-against-jefferson-parish-school-di… … See MoreSee Less
