http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/04/17/georgia-kindergarten-handcuffed.html?cmp=rss
My gut reaction to sending a child to jail is negative. The response is heavy handed and inappropriate. We have gone a long way toward criminalizing youth in society. Are we going to criminalize childhood, too? If so, we will actually need all those jails the conservatives plan to build. I posted the article on facebook.
Well to my surprise, the responses were not as negative as I would have thought. Only one person hated the thought. Others, thoughtful and caring folk, had witnessed children behave this way. Seen other students and teachers hurt by tantrum behaviour. They felt that this measure made sense to them and, definitely, the generally folks felt the parents had failed the child. Made me think....
- The child has behavioural problems.
- The parents have not or cannot address these problems.
- The child is in mainstream public school.
- There is no teacher's assistant or caregiver applied to the child.
- The teachers were simply unable to calm the child.
- The teachers probably cannot touch or restrain the child for fear of reprisal or suit.
- The only public servants we have who are empowered enough to physically restrain anyone are the police.
Right. And there are a ton of questions.
Should teachers have the right to physically restrain a child? Would they want to, if they did? Could they have sought help? A social worker or other professional might have been consulted. Teachers can be key in children's development. Many troubled kids cite a teacher along the way who mentored and guided them on a clearer path. But, do teachers really have the time or energy with schools being turned into factories with severely reduced bottom-lined resources, demanding curriculums, and standardized testing?
The child would have, certainly, been an ongoing problem. Why was the child in a mainstream class and not in special ed? Where were the resources to support that teacher in class? Where was a TA or Caregiver for the child? These measures would come down to resources which, we all know, no longer exist in many school systems. There are no provisions for TA or special ed classes because the board in question simply cannot afford them.
And, then, we get back to the parents. One assumes they've noticed their child is a handful. These behaviours don't all of a sudden express at school. Why did they not diagnose, get help? Why have they not done the work to adjust her behaviour? Perhaps they, too, do not have the resources either in ability or the time or money to seek help.
It's pretty clear that the child is living in a system that cannot accommodate her or help her. Though I don't think that she should be allowed to run roughshod over every other person in school, there were many steps along the way in which the child, maybe, could have been helped to adjust her behaviour - well before she was dumped in a cell.
At the end of the day, I am pretty sure that the child carted off in handcuffs is actually just another victim, the smallest and saddest one.
Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012: The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July. She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/. She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.
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"And, then, we get back to the parents. One assumes they've noticed their child is a handful. These behaviours don't all of a sudden express at school. Why did they not diagnose, get help? Why have they not done the work to adjust her behaviour? Perhaps they, too, do not have the resources either in ability or the time or money to seek help."
ReplyDeleteActually, sometimes these behaviours DO all of a sudden express at school. For many american kids, 6 years old represents their first year in school. A child with sensory integration issues (my armchair diagnosis, in this case, with a big ole salt lick applied, since there's little info in the article) and sensitive parents might never have felt themselves so overwhelmed at home as in a classroom. Particularly if the teacher's classroom management skills are sub-par (which, honestly, I think they are, if she feels a 911 call is more appropriate than, say, keeping the other children out of harm's way, calling in spec ed support from within the school-every american school has a spec ed teacher on staff-and waiting for the kid to calm down)
Assuming the child acts like this at home, however, insinuating that the parents haven't attempted to seek a diagnosis is unfair. It's incredibly hard to be taken seriously when your biggest symptom is outrageous tantrums. More so for parents of colour, young parents, poor parents or first time parents and, unfortunately, for parents of girls who are struggling. Doctors, unfortunately, are not immune to prejudicial assessments. They could easily have been to several doctors who, like the doctors I took Basil to, assumed that the parents simply didn't "get" kids behaviour. Without seeing the tantrum first hand, it's easy to assume (I guess) that an "overwhelmed" or "attention seeking" parent is exaggerating. Kids who can't control their temper usually struggle with communication issues, in addition to sensory issues. This also makes diagnosis difficult.
Even with LOTS of work on mine and Basil's behalf, and a variety of therapeutic interventions, by 6 he was still very much struggling (part of why we kept him out of school). His last school tantrum (that they told me about) was in grade 5. For anyone to assume that he was behaving this way because we didn't seek help for him would be incredibly hurtful and not at all helpful to Basil.
Tantrum management and at-risk assessment needs to be a part of a teacher's training if said teacher is going to teach early grades. Different kids mature at different rates, and it's not that outrageous to hear of a 6 year old throwing tantrums we more regularly associate with younger children. With attendant strength and size (making the tantrum less manageable)
Finally, criminalizing ANY six year old is simply outrageous. (and I can't help but wonder if race played a role in the response) If emergency professional help needed to be called, FFS, how about a psychiatric ambulance? I mean, come on, people!
I hear you and I appreciate you telling your story. I absolutely agree that criminalizing youth and children, though common right now, is not right and counter to one of the basic reasons our society evolved -- to support and proliferate the species.
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