Years ago I was a teaching assistant in a special education resource room. We saw kids from 2nd thru 6th grade, each of which had a learning disability.
Some were dyslexic, some had ADHD, but none of the kids had behavioral problems according to the testing.
I had my doubts about one of them but he was usually drugged up to the point of being more passive than anything.
Every one of them had an IEP so that the teacher could individualize a program for them. Every one of them had a pretty high IQ but just had to “learn” differently.
For most of the day they were in their regular classroom and came to us for one period or if they had to take a test. Some needed me to read it to them because of dyslexia. (Funny story, one kid loved for me to read the multiple choice answers because he said my voice changed when I read the correct answer)
When I left that job they were starting to think that mainstreaming the kids was a better way to go. The powers that be felt that when the kids were taken out of their regular classroom there was a stigma attached. I totally disagree with that theory because I could see how the smaller group and the teaching methods used really helped these kids. The teacher was excellent, which isn’t always the case, but she and I disagreed about kids needing extra curricular activities, especially if they were good at them. She felt if a kid had a test on Wednesday he shouldn’t play in his baseball game on Tuesday. My feeling was the way to get a kid to hate school was to take away his fun activity.
The real reason I started this post before I digressed was that parents have a big say in what happens with regard to their child’s education. At least around here anyway. If the parents insisted that he go to that school every day, most school districts won’t fight them on it until something like this happens.
The part of the entire story that is the most mind boggling to me is that school personnel knew he had the gun. Why weren’t the police called?
