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Parents petition to fire teacher who voted autistic boy out of class
Submitted by anthony on Wed, 2008-05-28 17:09
Story here. Excerpt:
'Hundreds of parents of autistic children are signing an online petition to get Florida teacher Wendy Portillo fired for her alleged tactics toward a 5-year-old boy that mirror the reality show “Survivor.”
Morningside Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Fla., alerted Melissa Barton this year that her son, Alex, suffers from a high-functioning form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome, FOX 29 reported.
Barton claims that Alex was punished for symptoms of his disability, such as humming and eating his homework. She says Portillo went too far last week when she kicked Alex out of class, and then allowed the other students to vote on whether he should be allowed back in.
...
But the state attorney's office decided the matter did not meet criteria for emotional child abuse, so no criminal charges will be filed, Steele said.'
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Video interview with boy's mother, school contact info
Off-linked from the Drudge Report: http://www.breitbart.tv/html/103693.html. So, this story really has gotten wide exposure.
The so-called teacher needs to be fired, ASAP. Let the school principal know. What school, you ask? It's public knowledge. It's named in this story. The school district even has a web site, right here. Notice the home page banner: "Every Child. Every Day". Well, unless it's a boy with special needs, then they have no time for that.
What's the contact info. for the school, you ask? That, too, is on-line, right here! Click the hyperlinked number 3 in the listing and you'll find this information:
Morningside Elementary
2300 S.E. Gowin Drive
Port St. Lucie, FL 34952
phone: 772-337-6730
FAX: 772-337-6744 <---- NOTE!!!!
Marcia Cully, Principal
It has its own web site, but curiously, it is currently unavailable. But keep checking, it's eventually bound to come back on-line.
Oh, and just who is this example of teacher ethics, this sterling, shining light of loving acceptance, tolerance, and sensitivity to the needs of children (yet, even boys!)? Mrs. Wendy Portillo is our current #1 Teacher of the Year candidate. She is proudly listed here and in case they get to pulling the page, her email is portillow-at-stlucie.k12.fl.us. How did I get this info? The magic power of Google! Amazing what's out there. Special thanks to the people who posted this information here.
Don't overlook the listing of board members on the lower left side of the district's web site's home page. It's as follows; we'll see if it lasts the night:
St. Lucie County School Board
District Offices
4204 Okeechobee Rd.
Fort Pierce, FL 34947
Phone: (772) 429-3600
Superintendent
Michael J. Lannon
Board Members
Carol Hilson
Chairman
Dr. Judi Miller
Vice Chairman
Dr. John Carvelli
Troy Ingersoll
Kathryn Hensley
Email Us <-- that address is webmastr-at-stlucie.k12.fl.us. Did they forget that last 'e' or have they changed the address to break the incoming mail? Well now I am just getting a bit too imaginative! ;)
But before you start sending notes, faxes, and making phone calls, remember this: how you say something is as, if not more, important, than what you say. Anger is one thing; profanity and language that could be construed as threatening is another, and it only makes the other party look like a "victim" (as we know, certain members of this species are very good at doing that), as well as distract from the point you are making or the opinion you seek to express. So read and re-read your notes two or three times before sending them, decide what you are going to say on the phone, then say nothing else (ie, put the damn receiver down!), if not for anyone else's sake, then for your own. No one likes phone calls and visits from police investigators, do they?
Some say there's no war on boys. Uh-huh. A female teacher decides an autistic boy is just too much trouble, so rather than go to the principal, the school board, or the state for help, she decided to marshal the class to gang up on him and vote him out of class, then taunt and question him about how that felt to be ostracized. Even if she had done all those other things and been turned away, there still would have been no excuse for her behavior. It is inexcusable and at the least she needs to be shown the door. As for her boss, the principal, well, I am unimpressed with her defense of the "teacher" in question. Maybe the school board needs to take a look at that appointment as well.
Nope, no war on boys here. You know, I can't imagine a male teacher doing something like this, though it is entirely possible; there is no monopoly anywhere on either vice or virtue. But it looks to me like this so-called teacher picked the weakest boy she could find and let him have it. No war on boys... yeah, sure...
Alex Barton
I am out right disgusted with this matter.This is the kind of trash we have teaching our children in public schools today.
I couldn't agree more with the statement about picking the weakest boy.Sounds to me that she may have been a bully in her school years.
Thank you for posting,I am new to your site and love it.Hope you guys don't mind an anti-womans liber on your sight.Thank God we have men to think rationally!
Hey, L.h.i.f.t.b.'s
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Welcome aboard.
And don't wory about being an "anti-womens liber".
We get all kinds, here.
Personaly I am pro "womens lib". But, I am also pro MEN'S lib.
Women have "lib", men do not. That's why I'm a men's rights activist.
Hope your with us for a long time and I look forward to what ya have to contribute. It's become kind of a catch phraze with us here, "We need all the help we can get!"
See ya.
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(the new and improved)
Thundercloud.
Ladies, remember; you can't preach EQUALITY while claiming SUPERIORITY. Dig?
More from teachers-behaving-badly
Not really MR issues-related in and of itself, but still quite "interesting"...
'Explicit Descriptions': Middle School Teacher Under Fire for Masturbation Tutorial
She hasn't been sacked, just suspended. With pay.
The National Autistic Society
Autism and boys:
"It is not difficult to demonstrate the fact that there are more boys with autistic spectrum disorders than girls. Hans Asperger originally believed that no girls were affected by the syndrome he described in 1944, although clinical evidence later caused him to revise this statement. In Kanner's 1943 study of a small group of children with autistic syndrome there were four times as many boys as girls; and in their much larger study of Asperger syndrome in mainstream schools in Sweden in 1993, Ehlers and Gillberg found the same male to female ratio of 4:1. The ratio of male to female clients in NAS adult services is approximately 3:1."