Case
ESE Parent Blaming Teachers

In my internship, I am working in a middle school in the ASD unit. One of our students has a tendency to make violent and inappropriate comments. For example, he recently told one of the teachers in the unit that he was going to slit her throat after she took away a drawing that he was making during instruction time. More recently, he had an altercation with the PE Coach which resulted in him kicking her four times. Due to his situation, the coach did not decide to take serious action against the student, but he was written a disciplinary referral and his parents were contacted. In response to the situation, the student's mother sent a quite nasty email basically blaming the coach which stated that she felt as though the PE Coach could benefit from learning strategies on how to deal with students with autism, and that in future altercations, her son responds best to simply being ignored when he gets upset. She then kept her son out of school for a week so that he could "deal with the trauma he had experienced in PE". The PE coach at our school is ESE certified and has worked with students in our unit for many years. She is understandably quite upset at the mother's response to this altercation, and is now considering pressing charges against the student. How do you all think that the coach should respond to this situation?

Posted on: 02/22/18 | Views: 648
Solution #1
Top Solution
I would recommend that the coach ask for a conference with the parent and teacher. Sometimes it is easier to explain the extent of a situation in person. This would also give the coach an opportunity to explain their qualifications and experience with students with ASD. Knowing that the teacher and coach are coming from a place of experience and knowledge, on top of love, may help the parent to make any necessary adjustments for the student.
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Solution #2
I think that administration should be involved in the situation explaining to the parent that the PE teacher does have ESE training. I'm not sure if the situation wasn't explained to the parent correctly but the PE teacher does show grace to the student by not pressing charges at first. Its important for them to talk and see what action can be taken to make sure this doesn't happen in the future.

I agree that involving admin is the best way to go about this that way the pe teacher isn’t alone.

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Solution #3
Before pressing any charges the PE coach should meet with the parent as well as an administration staff member to talk about the issue and see if it can be solved. If the parent is still feeling unwilling to come to a conclusion and is upset with the PE coach then the coach might want to ignore the issue and only take matters further if the offense is repeated.
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Solution #4
I would not consider pressing charges.
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Solution #5
I do not believe that pressing charges would help the situation whatsoever. Maybe a parent-teacher conference with the students parents and each of his teachers would help the parents to better understand the incidents that the child is causing. Sometimes parents tend to think that students are being attacked and mistreated and at times email is not the best form of communication for a parent to truly understand a situation. It sounds like all of the students teachers truly just want the best for him.
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Solution #6
I wouldn't consider pressing charges. Rather I would have a meeting with the parent to better un dsrstand the situation .

yes i agree, you need know why the child is acting out.

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Solution #7
Try setting up a conference with the parent and teacher.
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Solution #8
I would not press charges seeing as the boy does have violent tendencies and he only kicked her. Not saying it was okay, but I think it would just make matters worse, especially with that parent. Conferencing with the parent is going to be one of the best options. I would definitely have administrators and his classroom teacher there to confirm that everything the PE coach is saying is accurate. The PE coach should explain her qualifications for it doesn't seem the mother knows and probably assumes that the PE coach is just a basic PE coach.
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Solution #9
Try setting up a conference with the parents and teachers.
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Solution #10
I would hold a conference with the teacher and parent. Some parents will never see their child being in the wrong and sometimes we just have to accept that.
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Solution #11
There should be an attempt at a different solution. The PE teacher should contact you to try to set up a conference with the parent. In this situation it is important to be confident and let the parent know there is nothing wrong with the PE teacher. She is certified to teach ESE students and the disciplinary referral is something written in the student code of conduct, which the parent agrees to at the beginning of the year. A behavior plan should be created to monitor the student's behavior. The student needs to know that this behavior is unacceptable and that there are consequences for it.
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