Elizabeth Has a Crush

I believe I talked about Elizabeth's* case in one of the first posts, Confidentiality. Elizabeth is a new girl who has a significant history of sexual abuse. Similar to other victims, she has a history of abusing other children as well. We learned this information on the first day of school. One of the measures we took was to limit her exposure to younger children. The one place we had limited control was the school bus. She rides a small special-ed school bus, which creates a more intimate situation. Apparently Elizabeth has developed a crush on a student 2 years younger than her. Unfortunately this student is immature and he isn't aware of her intentions. It all started when I saw the two of them walking off the bus, she had her arm around him. That didn't sit well with me. Later, when I met with the social worker, her intern informed me of some of the things that Elizabeth mentioned to her. Elizabeth told her about having a crush on this particular boy and her desire to kiss him. We knew that something had to be done immediately. The trick is doing something that doesn't raise the alarm of everyone in the school, yet ensures the safety of all children, including Elizabeth. I redid the bus seating arrangement. There is supposed to be a perimeter of empty seats around Elizabeth. I had to move her crush farther away. I often wonder if any of the children, including her, get why we go through all these motions. I wonder if she knows why she has an escort whenever she leaves her classroom. I wonder if she scares herself as much as she sometimes scares us.

BBC

Angela's Twin?

Today was Alejandro's PPT, but that story will have to wait. First, my day started off at a frenzied pace because I had to talk to one of my students who I see for counseling. Her teacher was concerned because Angela* told her about her twin sister dying in a drowning accident. I doubted that the student ever had a twin so I tread carefully when I spoke. I talked to her about what it meant to have a twin sister. I tried to figure out her timeline, because she kept changing it from having a sister that died at birth to having a sister that died when she was old enough to drown. It was frustrating because I felt like I was dealing with someone who possesses a poor sense of reality. I reasoned with her and I talked about the fact that she didn't have any pictures of herself with her twin, which is something that all twins experience. I asked her if she had any pictures of herself when she was a baby. I pointed out that there were no pictures with her twin. I knew that there was a possibility that she may have had a twin that died at birth and maybe she misunderstood a story. Well, she has many misunderstandings of this magnitude. She also talked about finding out that she was adopted. I wasn't sure how true that was. Apparently I forgot that I meant to call her mom after my morning PPT to ask about the source of these interesting stories. Luckily I was reminded when I walked into the teacher's lounge and had a teacher ask me "What's up with Angela? She has a dead twin sister?" Another teacher remarked, "Oh yeah, didn't she say that last year?" Then another chimed in, "I just saw her telling the nurse about it." Now, I talked to her first thing in the morning, and she was still talking about it hours later. I called her mother and she didn't give me the response I was looking for. I wanted some kind of reaction. Mom told me that the stories weren't true. She mentioned that Angela does want siblings, but there was no basis for her ideas about a twin sister or her adoption. Mom was too calm to me for having heard that her daughter was saying crazy and bizarre things throughout school. She was a little too cavalier about her daughter's ramblings. It was like she had heard it all before.

BBC

The Package

For some reason my latest case feels like an episode of "Alias". And I'm not sure if they used the term "the package" on the show, but it has that feel. You await the arrival of something monumental, something that you've discussed, yet have never met. The stories you hear are ominous, yet you need to be prepared and professional, and most of all warm and welcoming. so when it was decided that Alejandro* would indeed attend my school, we had a lot of information to consider and yet we didn't have the privilege of knowing anyone who had actually met the child. This is a kid who only attended school for 4 days last year before he was suspended from school and put on homebound for the rest of the year. They had a PPT at the end of the year to suggest a psychiatric evaluation. it was determined that some of his issues were caused by the fact that he spoke no English and was placed into an all-English classroom. My school district doesn't have any bilingual schools, so he was participating in his former school's English Language Learner's program (all 4 days that he attended). Anyway, based on everything that happened last year, including running away from the school which required the police to come and apprehend him and threatening kindergartners on the playground, my principal was reluctant to have this kid start school in my building. We were trying to determine what would be an appropriate placement. My district decided that it would be in my school with a part-time bilingual aide.

Well, once we realized we would be getting this kid, we had to make sure everything was ready. But we didn't know what to expect. The kid was receiving therapy over the summer, so we could possibly see a transformed child, or the same angry threatening child that the other school saw last April. We spent so much time planning and fretting over this, that it was actually an odd relief once he arrived.

Alejandro arrived in the morning with his mother. Both of them spoke only a few English words. My Spanish is really rusty, having studied it in college over a decade ago. I struggled to communicate some basic ideas, but I think that the mother appreciated my struggle in Spanish. I'd like to think that she knew I empathized with her struggles in English. I talked to Alejandro a little bit. By talk, I mean that I asked him questions that I could remember from exercises in Spanish. Te gusta deportes? I gave myself a vocabulary refresher by pointing and labeling objects in the room to his approval. It was interesting, because there were a few words that he didn't know and his mother had to correct him. Alejandro's aide arrived and they went to class. I was on call for most of the day, which meant that someone had to know where I was at all times. My principal decided that she would hang out in the hallway near Alejandro's class, just in case she needed to intervene. We were on full alert for the day. His first day went without incident. I was glad that he had a good first day. We know that this may be the honeymoon period so we are keeping our fingers crossed and thinking positive thoughts. I must be rubbing off on everyone, because the first thing out of the special ed teacher and the principal's mouths that morning were "I'm going to think positively about this" More converts to positivity.

BBC
*of course Alejandro is not his real name, silly.

TAG, You're Not It (Again)

I swear I'm not recycling blog titles, it's just that the last two were appropriate for the subject. I've come to dislike IQ testing for Talented and Gifted (TAG) eligibility. At first I relished it as an opportunity to give some of the brightest students in my school the chance to receive an enriched educational experience. What has happened is that I've actually made pre-teens cry in my office during IQ tests. I figured out what it is. All of the students that I have tested have been smart enough to know what they don't know. It's one thing to be completely ignorant and think you're acing a test when in fact you're bombing it miserably. It's another to know when you are bombing it. This can affect performance, especially for a student who thinks that he or she is smart and now feels stupid because of what he or she doesn't know. It's difficult seeing the anguish on their faces. I try to be reassuring and tell them that they are doing well, but they're probably thinking, "Bull, I know I suck." I think what's worse for me is that I see how smart they are, but they don't qualify as gifted. That's what sucks. I don't want them to feel like failures, because they are far from it. But who knows what messages they tell themselves when they aren't accepted into the TAG program. I know that teacher recommendations are important, but I'm kidding myself if I think that the program is lenient when it comes to the IQ cutoff score which I believe is 130 in my district. If my district is strict about that number then the 2 students I tested this week aren't getting in.

The Art of the Question II

Today I had two PPTs and they were both successful. One was for a new student who is having some difficulty making the adjustment to our school. Mom requested a PPT immediately and we've had the opportunity to meet and learn more about her son before the meeting, which is always nice. There were things that the mom told me in private about the student's history that I wanted to share in the meeting, but I felt like it was off-limits until she mentioned them. Luckily for me, she opened the door with some choice comments about her family's history of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and depression. This admission led to other questions that we all had about the medication the student is currently on and his behavior at home. I felt like a lawyer in a tv drama where there is evidence that is inadmissable but then the defendant makes a statement that allows for a certain line of questioning. I felt on edge because I was afraid that we would end the meeting without discussing some of the bizarre behaviors we had seen, his medication regiment, or our thoughts about further testing. We were so focused on making the meeting a positive and safe experience for mom, who evidently has her own mental issues, that I was afraid we were treading too lightly and would leave the meeting with no substantial knowledge gained. Fortunately, Mom was forthcoming with some of the information, but as someone once told me, for every one thing admitted, there's most likely two or three more alarming things that are omitted. In the meeting she mentioned that her son was "institutionalized" (to use her word) over the summer. When I spoke to her before the beginning of school she told me why this occurred. During the meeting she didn't mention the reason, but she talked about the boy's issues with his absent father. Classically Freudian or Oedipal, take your pick. As the mother was talking I felt myself enter the zone and all of a sudden not only did I know what to ask, but I also knew how to phrase it in a way that would give me what I wanted without making the mother defensive. My clinical interview skills are improving. I felt like I accomplished what I wanted to do. This student will require a lot of brainstorming and program reviewing because I feel that we will have to change our strategies frequently to meet his needs.

BBC

When Background Knowledge Backfires

I was in my office today when a teacher knocked on my door. She has a new student and she was worried about some things that were occurring in the classroom. She mentioned that the child hasn't caught on to the rules yet, that he's needed to go to the bathroom several times in the morning. The other issue, and I suspect the main issue was that the student told another student that he didn't have to listen to her because she's white. This obviously flustered the teacher because she was in my room talking about the student and she didn't know how to handle it. All of this became clear when I learned that the student started school yesterday. He hasn't been exposed to our positive behavior support system long enough to understand it fully. He's still feeling his way around the teacher and figuring out what he can and cannot do. I was surprised to hear her concerns when this kid hasn't been here for 2 full days yet. His racial comments must have struck a nerve. In addition to those issues, there was a history of animosity from the family. His older brother attended the school years ago and developed quite a reputation. Apparently his father threatened a teacher and the police were involved. So now this student is carrying the baggage of his family's actions, which one could argue is warranted, but still, this has cast him in a negative light. Now it seems that his new teacher sees him in that same light. My principal shared the history with the teacher, but I wish that this kid could have had a chance. We'll see if she comes around. The social worker and I told her that she has to make a connection with the student, besides, we don't know his true feelings or intentions. He could have made those comments for shock value. Nonetheless, I think she has to present herself in a manner that debunks his theory on why he doesn't have to listen to her. I envision many teachable moments for the two of them. Let's see what happens.

BBC

9/11

Today was the anniversary of 9/11 and its always interesting to hear the perspective of children who were either in preschool or not even born yet. I talked with 6th graders today and their experience and knowledge of the event varied greatly. I could tell that they really hadn't talked about it and understood the magnitude of what happened until now. It was as if they were finally able to ask certain questions and be able to understand the answers. We discussed why the towers collapsed, why so many people died, and how people responded in heroic ways that day. I was able to share my own 9/11 experience with them. I think it helped to demystify the event, although I know it's still unfathomable to them and to me as well sometimes. I spent a lot of time trying to explain how large the buildings were, but to children who have no concept of size and living in a small suburban town with nothing that comes close to a skyscraper, that's extremely difficult. Saying that they were really, really big just doesn't cut. I was reminded of how children perceive things based on their cognitive development when the primary teachers (3rd grade and below) complained about how the moment of silence was announced. My principal mentioned words like terrorist, attack, and airplanes, and some of the children thought that she was talking about the present. I'll have to discuss with her about choosing her words wisely.

BBC

Obama's Education Plan

This article caught my eye on The New York Times website today. It gives some insight on Obama's experience in reforming education and what he is likely to do as president.

BBC

Investigative Reporter

There are so many new kids in my school this year with significant behavior concerns that I've spent the majority of my time on fact-finding missions. I've been contacting numerous PPT coordinators, school psychologists, directors of special education, and pupil and personnel directors since the first day of school by email, snail mail, fax and phone.

Today I learned that a child that was supposed to have been outplaced in a different district is now coming to my school. I heard that he was a handful from his former school psychologist. He only speaks Spanish and exhibited some disturbing behaviors after being in school for a total of 4 days last year (he enrolled in April). After being suspended twice, his mother requested a PPT and a psychiatric evaluation was recommended. The results came back over the summer and for some reason the higher-ups (my director) thinks that my school would be an appropriate placement. This child is apparently very aggressive; at his last school he bit the social worker.

Today I was on the phone talking to his former school psychologist. As she was giving me detail after detail I felt like I should take a course in shorthand because there was too much information for me to write down. I may need to go to some type of journalistic training to learn how people take notes so quickly. I felt like a reporter because I wanted to get every detail correct so that I can share accurate information with my team members. I will have to schedule a PPT to determine this kid's eligibility and quickly devise a plan for how to address his needs. Just another opportunity to gain valuable experience (that's what I keep telling myself.)

BBC

Hot Mess

This was Friday's story that I never got to write about. There's this kid, let's call him Tony. Well, Tony has ADHD and he has his good days and his bad days. It first started with Tony jumping off the bus and running into the school. That was the beginning of a rough day for him. The social worker, her interns and I set up a system that allows breaks for Tony from the classroom. Around 10 o'clock someone goes to Tony's classroom and gives him a walking break. We just walk around the building for about 10 minutes and then he returns to the classroom. The unfortunate thing about Tony's situation is that A) we never know if he's actually on meds or not. His mother claims that she gives him his pill every morning. Some mornings he's okay, others, like this past Friday, he's the Tasmanian Devil. B) his former teacher contaminated his current teacher by telling her all of the things that Tony doesn't do well, but nothing about what his strengths are. His teacher now has a very negative attitude towards him. It's to the point where I avoid her because I don't want to hear her negative comments.

Friday, Tony was a hot mess. His entire day was a long, drawn-out episode of what happens when a kid with ADHD is bored with school. After getting off the bus, his morning got off to a rocky start. I got a phone call in my office from his teacher telling me that I was needed in the music room. I arrived to find him sitting in his seat following what the teacher said. (This is interesting, because for the past two years whenever I've been called to someone's room I'm usually greeted by a sobbing child who won't leave the classroom and can't tell me what's wrong. So far this year, I've walked into classrooms and couldn't immediately tell what the big emergency was.) Anyway, I called Tony out of the room and asked him if he knew why I was called there. He told me something about classmates laughing at him. We discussed why they may have been laughing and what that had to do with me being called to the room. I didn't get much out of him and I was ready to send him back to the room when he asked if he could use the restroom. I sent him in and told him he had 2 minutes. He has become notorious for spending extraordinary amounts of time in the restroom. While he was in there another student went in there and then left. I knocked and went in. He was washing his hands. He was probably playing around in there, but I was able to retrieve him from there.

Later that day, I saw him twirling in the lunch line. I ignored him because I know that he really can't contain himself. About an hour later I made my way down to the main office to look at someone's permanent record. I passed by the table where children who lose recess have to sit and noticed it was unoccupied but there was paper strewn all over the floor and table. I said, "what's going on here?" The receptionist simply said, "Tony." So then I chatted with my principal, and went looking through the files and then made a couple of phone calls in the conference room. I probably spent 15 to 20 minutes there. As I was about to leave to go back to my office I noticed that the table was still unoccupied. I asked my principal, "Where's Tony?" She thought he was still sitting at the table. The receptionist finally turned around from her chair to see that he was no longer there as well. she just assumed that he was sitting there when I passed through the first time. The principal remembered that he went to the restroom in the nurses office, so she sent me to get him.

When I walked into the nurse's office, she told me that he was still using it because she could hear water running. I shook my head and knocked on the door. It was unlocked and when the nurse opened it we saw that the entire mirror and counter were covered in sudsy water as if he was cleaning the bathroom. Meanwhile, his hands were soapy and his clothing was wet. My immediate thought was, "You're a hot mess." The nurse couldn't believe it, but I did. He has been using the bathroom as an escape from the classroom since school started. Now he found another way to occupy his time in the bathroom. What else could he get into by the end of the day? The principal was not happy and she made him clean up the mess. Friday was definitely not a good day for him.

BBC

School Psychologist vs. Social Worker

I was going to post about something that happened today, but then I remembered something that happened yesterday.

It's one thing to describe what it is that I do exactly in my school, it's another to describe how it's different from what another professional does when the duties tend to overlap. At work, someone asked me what was the difference between a school psychologist and a social worker. I was kind of thrown by that question because a lot of what we do in the building tends to overlap. Everyone knows that when a kid is having a rough time in class it's either me or the social worker that shows up. There are differences: The training is different, I had to go beyond my Master's to get a specialist's degree. Social workers tend to stop at the Master's of Social Work (MSW). My internship existed solely within schools. Social work students complete their internships in schools, hospitals, counseling centers, etc. My training deals more with cognition and behavior and I have more exposure to mental disorders. Social Workers focus more on social aspects of a child's life. They are more experienced in integrating family and school. My social worker is more aware of resources that exist in communities for families than I will ever be. I'm slowly becoming acquainted with the different resources that are available but her knowledge of what is out there is pretty extensive. We both meet with children and provide counseling, her counseling tends to focus more on social skills while my counseling may fall under more cognitive and academic tasks such as changing a child's self-perception, improving their organization skills, and making them more self-aware of their actions in the classroom. Of course, the social worker could work on these skills as well, just as I could work with a child on social skills-those things tend to overlap. Finally I added that I could give IQ tests and I was the only person in the building qualified to do so. That piqued everyone's interest.

Before I knew it I was peppered with requests from the teachers standing around to test their IQs. I told them that I wouldn't do it, and there was nothing they could do to convince me otherwise. I tried to explain how obsessive people can become when it comes to IQ. One teacher was willing to pay me, but I knew that it wasn't worth it. I remember being in my program and trying to find test subjects to practice administering IQ tests. Some people could handle it because they knew that they were just helping me out. Others took it too seriously, even though my methods were flawed back then, making some parts of the test invalid. I also tried to tell them that people can become obsessed with their "weaknesses" and the last thing I want are depressed teachers because they weren't as "smart" as they thought they were. After they kept whining and asking me why I wouldn't do it, one teacher chimed in saying "Jut look at how you're acting now and he hasn't even given you a test yet." That seemed to work for now.

I am thankful for having a knowledgeable social worker, it takes some of the pressure off me from having to know all of the answers. That's a good thing, since I find myself searching for those answers every day.


BBC

Sad Father

Since school started before Labor Day, I couldn't take any of the children's absences seriously, especially those who missed every day of the brand new school year. Those kids could always show up after Labor Day, following their own idea of what truly marks the end of summer vacation. There was one particular girl who hadn't shown up at school and was officially going to receive "No-Show" status. The school receptionist finally contacted a family member and was told that the family moved back to the city.

I was disappointed but I can understand how difficult it was to make that decision. The city's school district was the one that retained the girl twice. The family had enough and in the middle of last school year decided to move into the suburbs to give their daughter a fighting chance. We noticed right away how underdeveloped her skills were. She had some real deficits and after interventions didn't work, we tested her. She became eligible for special education at the end of last year and we designed a program that would have been implemented this year. It was disheartening to put forth the effort only to have to child leave the school, especially since she was returning to her former school district. I suspect that my suburban district was too expensive for the family. I remember near the end of last year having a difficult time trying to contact them. I've learned that disconnected or non-working phone numbers are sign of financial trouble. To their credit, the parents did stay in touch with me during the evaluation process, they were extremely helpful and grateful for the attention and assistance their daughter was finally going to receive. And now they've left. The father came by the school today to see the principal. My principal called me into the conference telling me that she had a "sad father' who wanted to speak to me. As I walked down the hall I was trying to figure out who it could have been and what it was I did to make him sad. When I saw who it was I was relieved. He stopped by to find out what he needed to do to ensure that his daughter's special ed program would follow her to the new school. I explained the procedure and informed him of his rights as a parent. He also expressed how he wished they could have stayed in the district but things didn't work out. That was nice of him. So many people just leave and we never find out why. My district is very transient that way. While someone has left, we have plenty who will take her place. Everything has to balance out-special ed homeostasis.

BBC

Confidentiality

Today we met with teachers to discuss the accommodations page in each child's IEP. This meeting usually isn't a big deal because the teacher has only known the child for a couple of days at this point. We met with the specials teachers (art, music, gym and media) to discuss all of the children who have IEPs. We had to discuss the new child who has a history of sexual abuse. We had to make certain arrangements so that the child would have an escort for whenever she left the room. We had to inform the teachers about this plan, without explaining why. It was hard to emphasize the need for constant supervision without giving any details. I adhere to confidentiality, almost to the point where I don't even share information with team members. I don't participate in hearsay, if someone wants information I tell him or her to consult the file, if he or she has permission to do so.

I am sensitive to this child's needs, but I'm also sensitive to the safety and well-being of the other children. I also don't want to single-out this child, but I'm not sure how to ensure safety without doing so. This will be tough.

BBC