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

Temper Tantrum

Before I begin, just a few thoughts. One, I'm really going to try to keep my blog postings current. I've given myself a reasonable goal of one new post each week. I'm going to aim for Tuesday. So look out for new posts each Tuesday. On another note, I'll try to use Twitter to give brief updates or thoughts about whatever I'm working on at the moment. I will also use it to follow up on some open cases so that there can be a sense of closure (if anyone cares).

Today my director asked me if I was interested in having an intern. Of course this piqued my interest, but I wasn't sure about who I would want to be my intern. I'll have to conduct some interviews in the coming weeks.

Now onto the main story: My director was in my building to discuss a difficult case. I can't believe I haven't mentioned this case before because it is all-consuming. This child has consumed a lot of our energy so far this year. He's a first-grader, but he has these major temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way. Screams at the top of his lungs, threatens to run out, cries and turns into a complete mess. This has been going on since September. Well, we're going to put a stop to it.

We met with his therapist (who was clueless about this behavior), met with his mother, and we took what info we gleaned from them and developed a plan. First order of business is to extinguish his behavior that occurs after his tantrums. One would think that the episode is over once he stops crying, but no, he takes it to a new level by grabbing onto the teacher and clinging to her in an over-apologetic manner. It's quite troubling to witness it. We worked on a behavior plan that will focus on some positive behaviors that he can accomplish and will hopefully replace his bad behaviors. His target behaviors are 1) using an inside voice at all times, 2) keeping his hands and feet to himself, and 3) following his teacher's directions. My director advised that we give our new plan 3 weeks to work. We will reconvene and evaluate the results. More to come.

BBC

The End is Near

Just a few more days and it will all be over. I actually made it through all of my annual reviews unscathed. I have a few more items of paperwork to complete, but I'm closing in on the end. Unfortunately, if it's the end of school that means the children are losing it. They are falling apart in record fashion. The kids with behavior issues are coming apart at the seams, and some of the well-behaving kids are having issues. It happens every year, but it always surprises me. There's something about the prospect of spending summer at home that causes turmoil within some kids. They can't handle the lack of structure for the entire summer. I feel for them. The ones that come from terrible homes get it the worst, because school is an escape. So for the next few days I expect to get a lot of requests for help.

BBC

Stuck in a Corner

It always happens this way: I plan out my day, know where I need to be each minute of the day, and the unforeseen happens. I was observing a child in p.e. when he decided to have a meltdown. He was participating in a shooting contest where the students had to make the most baskets in 30 seconds. He missed a few shots at the beginning, but started to make them before the time was up. He became upset because he thought that one of the student's that was supposed to retrieve the balls for him impeded his performance. Luckily I was there to witness the whole thing and felt that he was being unrealistic about what actually happened. He stormed off the court and went through the emergency exit into the stairwell. I followed him and tried to coax him out of his funk and back into the classroom, to no avail.

We sat in the hallway for over 30 minutes as he repeatedly said "no" to every request I made. I ended up recruiting the principal to sit with him because I was supposed to finish an evaluation. I wasn't in the mood to sit with him, especially when he was being so non-responsive. He was stuck and I was stuck. Of course, I was the reason he stayed there, so once I left, he was willing to leave with the principal. I try not to take it personally when that happens, but it still gets to me. Sometimes I feel absolutely helpless when a kid refuses to leave the classroom, hallway, gym, etc. There really is nothing I can do when a student doesn't want to leave. I can't physically force the student to move. I have to somehow convince them to do so, but it is impossible if the child has a) emotional difficulties, b) a language impairment or c) general behavior issues or d) problems with authority. That accounts for about 80% of my school, so when a kid doesn't want to be removed, they put up resistance and we have a standoff. I guess the one thing I have going for me is that I never let the child see me annoyed by the situation. I try to stay pretty calm no matter what. I just wish that I could get some negotiation training from the FBI or something. I need to know some tricks on getting kids to give in and do what I need them to do. That might be beneficial in the long run.

BBC

Alexander

One of my goals this year was to increase my consultation cases. I wanted to get into the real nitty-gritty of working with teachers on issues they are having in the classroom. Of course, when it comes to consultation, it also means that I evaluate the teacher to see what changes she can make to address the target behaviors. Over the past 3 weeks Alexander had floated to the top of the "Children that require extra attention" list. He was noticeably from the first day of school, but now he's been attracting my attention.

He's classically ADHD. He calls out. He can't stay seated. He sings and hums at his desk. He plays with his pencil and eraser when he should be doing classwork. I had started working with his teacher to address his behavior. We came up with different plans, one plan was to address his frustration. It was designed to give him a way to release his frustration. There was also a plan to reward him for positive behavior. The teacher just started to use these plans in conjunction, sometimes.

Yesterday afternoon, I was called to deal with Alexander three times in about an hour and a half. It was getting ridiculous because I was trying assess a student. I knew that I could have been on call, so I was only conducting an interview. The student got to see some of the things I have to do in school, and he marveled at how often my intercom phone rang. After dealing with Alexander and seeing how frustrated his teacher was, I knew that I had to develop some ideas. I felt like I was stuck in the "No Idea" corner. I knew I had to kick it old school and hit the books. It was the first time in a while that I wished I was still in grad school; just to be able to brainstorm with my classmates. I really needed to talk to them last night. My SO told me to email them, but that would take to long. I would have to spell out all of the details in order to get an adequate response. So I hit the books and the internet and found some inspiration. I had to remember what the goal of consultation is. At the moment all I wanted was a peaceful day without having to report to this classroom multiple times a day to remove Alexander to another room. After some thought, I remembered the goal of consultation: empower the teacher. With that, I knew what I had to do.

To start, I really needed to see what was going on in the classroom, because by the time I got there, I ended up witnessing the tail end of a long spiral of behavior that went from bad to worse. Multiple incidents usually started with Alexander getting frustrated and instead of leaving the classroom to cool-off, he would have a stand-off with his teacher and refuse to leave. She would request someone to come to the room, to escort him to a neighboring class to cool-off. And of course, he would still refuse. I would ask what happened, and I wasn't able to get a clear answer to what set him off. I decided that an observation would give me the opportunity to see what led up to Alexander's removals.

I sat in the classroom for about 2 hours this morning, and what I saw was jaw-dropping. This kid was non-stop. He was a constant ball of energy; all over his desk and chair, seriously sitting upside down in his chair, I didn't think that was possible. He was singing and talking to himself. He was calling out for no real reason. All of his behavior was attention-seeking. To her credit, his teacher ignores a huge amount of it, but that may be part of the problem. Most of the students were ignoring him, which was remarkable on their part. But Alexander wouldn't be denied, he kept pushing and pushing until someone was going to notice him. The students eat breakfast at their desks in the morning, so they eat breakfast while they complete their morning work. Alexander was focused on eating and playing with his breakfast, and decided that he could use his milk to gain the attention of his classmates.

As I sat only four feet away from him, he proceeded to shake his milk carton, open it and giggle like a 4 year old, and stick his hand up to his wrist into the milk. Then, he started to fling his hands around in order to spray anything in his vicinity with milk. A couple of his classmates felt the milk hit them and started to say something. At this point I intervened because it was obvious that his teacher wasn't paying attention to this either. That was the perfect opportunity for the teacher to address his behavior and she didn't. When I intervened, I wished I had a camera, because my words cannot do justice to what I was watching. Alexander turned to me, his face, hands, and forearms dripping with milk. At that moment I wanted a camera. Before he could deny his involvement in the situation or question mine, someone announced that the principal was coming. Alexander looked bewildered and when the principal walked in, I had never seen a kid try to get his act together so quickly. He became a completely different child. (I wanted to tell someone about his unbelievable behavior and I realized that with my wireless laptop, I could email the principal, who was most likely sitting at her desk at that moment. However, I never imagined that she would actually come in for an observation.)

So my principal found a seat and it just so happened that the class was transitioning to group reading activity. This required them to sit on the floor while the teacher read them a short passage. As the students gathered on the floor, Alexander worked on cleaning off his desk and the floor around him. When he made it to the group, he was the model student; sitting with his legs crossed, hands in his lap, looking forward, and raising his hand to answer questions. He was a different student. The principal left after a short time and Alexander managed to maintain his appropriate behavior. When the class made it back to their seats, Alexander's good behavior lasted for about 5 minutes. Then the noises and movement around his desk returned.

What I had witnessed for those 2 hours provided me with many ideas to help the teacher. I left with a better picture of what occurs in the class. I met with the teacher and gave her some ideas. My principal and the social worker also had some ideas. I was worried at first because I didn't know where to go, so I went back to the basics. It's amazing what a good ol' observation can do.

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

Manifestation

I sat in on my first manifestation determination meeting today. There was a middle schooler with LD who threw urine on to another student. We were supposed to determine if the behavior was caused by (or a manifestation of) his disability. Here's what happened: The boy had to use the bathroom and school security didn't allow him go back into the building. He decided to urinate into a Pringles can and in order to get rid of it, tossed it from the can out the window of the bus. Meanwhile the bus was next to another bus, in which a student had his window down. The victim basically had urine thrown on him.

I still had questions about how all of this really happened, because I felt like there were some details missing. Nonetheless, it was determined that this was not a manifestation of his disability, so he was suspended.

It was nice to see that his mother was livid at the meeting. Cursing up a storm and disgusted with him. I'm so used to parents that look like they have given up, or have no control over their kids. I'm not saying she has any control, but at least she cared enough to put on a show. I just hope the kid doesn't get into further trouble while he's out of school.

And that was just part of a crazy day which included a girlfight in which a security guard got punched in the face when he tried to break it up, and a model student bringing a cap gun to school. Good times.