Last year I had a student with severe behavior problems. I tried so hard to help the child, used all the interventions I could think of and did all the things I was told to do to help the child. Documented everything, communicated with the family, jumped through all the hoops.
I was told I needed to use color coded "clickers" for two different behaviors and click every time either of the behaviors happened. If I had to "click the clicker" for either behavior I had to stop teaching and immediately fill out an elaborate documentation sheet with the antecedent, the specific behavior, what was the child doing, what was I doing, how did I respond, what did I do after the behavior, how did the child react, what type of misbehavior it was, etc., etc., etc..... I had to do this for both types of behaviors on two different forms. Plus I had to keep two different tally sheets with how many clicks I made for each type of behavior every 15 minutes, then reset the clicker and start over. All that while teaching and managing all the other children and their issues and needs and interventions. It was untenable and insane, and I had no support. This was in addition to all the other things I was already doing for the child as well- just "one more layer of support" I was supposed to add onto all the other things. But it didn't support him- it was just more paperwork and documentation and for what? Nothing came of it. It didn't get him any help. It didn't get me any support to help this child. I never understood what it was all for. And do you know who had to buy the clickers and clipboards for all this mess? Not the school, nope. Me, they expected me to do it. So stupid me trotted off to the sporting goods store and bought two clickers and found two lanyards to put them on- one blue one because "blue is for bruises" as my husband said, and black for disrupting the class/lessons/instructional time. It all was total insanity.
Last year I was punched in the head so hard I had a headache, and all that happened was that I was asked if I needed a Tylenol, and the child had a ten-minute timeout in a neighboring classroom before returning to my room.
Last year a child sat in my class pointing his fingers like a pretend gun (holding his pretend gun with his other hand like you'd see on a police show and cocking the "gun" back making clicking sounds) and pointing his "gun" at different children and at me saying "head shot," over and over as he pointed to each of us. When I let administration know this, they said they'd speak to his parent. After school, admin told me that they spoke to the child's parent and told her that "Mrs. Thomas is sensitive to these things. I understand (emphasis on I) that he was just pretending and acting out something he saw in a video game, but some (emphasis on some) people get offended easily by these things." I couldn't believe she told me that she said these things to the mom. Duh, of course he was reenacting something he saw in a game or video, and duh, of course I didn't think he was actually going to shoot us with his finger. I'm not that dumb, but in light of the first grader that brought a gun to school last year and shot his teacher and in light of all the other issues this child was having shouldn't we be getting this child some mental health support so he doesn't become another statistic? I wasn't actually saying I thought he was going to shoot us, but I was saying I was deeply concerned about a child that was already violent who thought it would be appropriate or funny to sit there and pretend that. Maybe we could try to, I don't know, offer him some counseling????
Last year I had a first grader try to shove his penis in a girl's mouth and grope a girl's crotch. FIRST GRADE.
After all of this I was made to feel like it was all my fault and I was a failure as a teacher. The kid never got any counseling or support or help.
Now I am, once again, in a similar situation, and I am so frustrated. I am over here waving flags like I can't even say. I want the child with the behavior concerns to get help so we can change the path this child is heading down and make a new trajectory for him/her. What does it take before we can get help for a child with severe behavior problems? How much damage does a child have to do before he/she gets help? How many other children have to lose instructional time? Get hurt? Get damaged by behaviors that may affect them for life? Why do I have to work this hard to get try to get people to see what is going on and still get nothing? I just don't understand why we can't get help for children who need it most. And I am so very, very tired of being the teacher who has to walk this road. Of feeling like I am killing myself for absolutely nothing (I think I might literally be doing this). Of waving the flag and caring when no one else seems to. What is the point?
