That Look

"He just had that look in his eyes." The words from my principal as we debriefed on what had been an absolutely crazy 2 hours.

It all began innocently when a new student began his first day of school. What began innocently as a chld with some social anxiety saying he didn't want to eat lunch in the cafeteria, quickly turned into me slow-chasing this child around my building, while preventing him from climbing over the stair railings.

First, he refused to leave his classroom because he didn't want to eat lunch. The social worker convinced him to come to her office. He then ate lunch in the main office, which seemed to be working. I was in meetings all day so I didn't know that he spent a part of that lunch period roaming the hallway in front of the office. Someone asked me who his teacher was, because he was a new student, no one recognized him and, oh yes, he was refusing to talk. I jumped in and tried to talk to him, but that didn't work. That's when my adventure began.

I'm in an elementary school that has 3 floors. I never really thought having 3 floors in an elementary school would be cause for alarm. That is until I met this kid, Elijah (name changed for anonymity). So I was in slow pursuit up the stairs, because I knew that he had some anxiety issues, and I didn't want to make him more anxious. But he was raising my anxiety level by trying to climb onto the railings. To make matters worse, when I told him to get down, he refused, and he wasn't talking-just grunting and gesturing. The only time he spoke was when he told me he wanted to play the drums. I followed this kid around from about 20 minutes. When he tried to squeeze in between the railings that's when my principal stepped in (a little bit scared at this point) and told him he had to go downstairs. After a few minutes of "chasing" him around the office, he finally settled in the copy room. Of course to get there he had to break the sanctity of the teachers lounge. The teachers that were in there were alarmed and flabbergasted to see a kid traipse through the lounge. When he found the piano, it had a soothing effect and it pacified him. And that's where he stayed until his mother arrived to pick him up. He was immediately suspended.

The next day, his mother provided a stack of paperwork from his psychiatric intake, hospitalizations, school suspensions, and other mental health matters that occurred since last April. This would have been handy to know the day before. I immediately set up a PPT because this kid came with mental diagnosis and had a full evaluation. The report was pending at the time of our meeting.

My director did not like the idea of this student being in my building. He is too much of a risk, especially to himself. My director immediately suggested outplacement into a therapeutic school, that specializes in problem behaviors and emotionally disturbed children. I was shocked because this happened so quickly, usually this kind of outplacement takes months. It's not cheap. But I guess it's cheaper than having a possible suicide on your hands. The mom agreed to having her son attend the school while we complete an evaluation. The child has not enrolled yet, nor has the mom gone to the school for the intake interview. The child has been on homebound (receiving lessons at home) in the meantime. It will be interesting to see where this ends.

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