Mass Exodus

A week ago was Alejandro's last day at school. He enrolled in the alternative school last Friday. His last day was somewhat chaotic because we had an emergency snow closing. It was a sad day because he kept telling his teacher that he didn't want to leave, but there was nothing anyone could do. Once the paperwork had gone through, there were a couple of days when he was well behaved and appeared to be well-adjusted. My principal expressed regret on these days and I had to remind her that this wasn't consistent and we had done all that we could for him. So now he's there and we are left to wonder how it will turn out.

There was a kid headed down the PPT pipeline that ended up moving at the last minute. This kid demanded so much energy and time from everyone. He was hyper-emotional, (if that's possible), and any perceived slight turned him into a sobbing mess. We tried multiple behavior plans to no avail. Interestingly, this was a kid that was an affection addict. Whenever he suffered a meltdown, he immediately sought a hug from the teacher, but then he would refuse to let go. It was as if he tried to suck the affection right out of her. To make matters worse, his teacher was the affectionate type. She hugged children a lot, and this wouldn't be a problem for 99% of children because most of them need hugs. But for this kid it was like an addict rooming with a drug dealer. He may have matured eventually, but he had been emotionally unstable since the beginning of the school year. We had reached the point where we were going to evaluate him, but of course, he moved. Usually students move once they are evaluated, but he moved away before we even scheduled the PPT. At least he saved us the trouble.

The PPT for That Look kid is coming next week. I finished my evaluation and got a nice compliment on my report from my director. It's nice to get good and useful feedback. I'm sure this PPT will be interesting. I'll post the play-by-play next week.

BBC