The Autism News | English

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — A special needs teacher in Florida could lose her job for allegedly using hot sauce to keep students in line.

Lillian Gomez is accused of pouring hot sauce on crayons that belonged to the autistic children she taught at Sunrise Elementary in Osceola County.

“I was really upset. I couldn’t believe it, honestly, I was like, ‘how can a teacher of so many years do something like that,’” said Karina Holguin, who is aunt to two 5-year-olds in Gomez’s the class.

When Holguin learned of the hot sauce, she said she was outraged.

“I was just shocked, and confused,” she said.

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The Autism News | English


HILLSBORO — Hayden Amanna, 5, and Justin Ngo, 4, don’t know it, but they’re being spied on.

The boys are working with teachers in an intensive learning classroom at the Northwest Regional Education Service District Hillsboro Education Center.

What looks like a mirror in their classroom is actually a window and, typically, teachers in training are watching and making notes. Sometimes it’s a parent, keeping tabs on a son or daughter.

The center, which opened in September, is the only statewide center for autism teacher training and observation. It also caters to 3- to 5-year-olds with disabilities in western Washington County. About 500 students visit the center, and nearly two dozen have an autism disorder.

The Education Service District (ESD) used $4.3 million in federal stimulus funds to purchase and remodel a former Hillsboro School District school in the 700 block of Washington Street.

One of the center’s main purposes is to provide autism training to teachers across the state — in person and online — who take it to their home school districts and train others to work with students up to age 21.

Classroom instructors may have degrees in special education but not specifically in autism, said Laura LaMarsh, ESD coordinator for autism services. There is no teacher certification for autism like there is for deaf/hard-of-hearing and visually impaired.

Nationally, about 1 out of every 100 children is diagnosed with autism, which ranges widely in severity. It is diagnosed based on behavior, not biology, because there is no test for autism.

According to the Autism Society of Oregon, these children may struggle with language, have abnormal social interactions, repetitive behaviors, sensory integration issues, obsessive compulsive behaviors and anxiety.

Often, change is difficult for them. Something as simple as rain can set off a child with autism, as it did with Hayden, who glanced out the window at the dark, dreary day and threw himself on a mattress, crying.

OregonLive

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A mother wants justice after she says a North Myrtle Beach High School teacher’s aide physically abused her special needs daughter.

Leslie McCabe’s 15-year-old daughter, Aubrey, suffers from severe autism that leaves her with minimal communication skills.

“She would tell me, “No school mommy. Is hurt”,” said Leslie. She wasn’t sure what her child meant by those words until a few weeks ago.

Two teachers at North Myrtle Beach High wrote letters to the principal saying a teacher’s aide pushed, grabbed and hit Aubrey. In one letter, the teacher says Aubrey was hit so hard, it left a red mark on her arm.

“He [the principal] looked at me and basically said this is the worst thing I ever want to say, but we found out that your daughter is being hit and abused by one of her teachers,” said Leslie.

On November 10th, the school suspended the aide who remains on administrative leave while the Horry County School District conducts an investigation, said spokesperson Teal Britton.

CarolinaLive

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The Autism News | English

View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

Imagine no one, not even your parents, believing you after you claimed you were bullied at school.

That’s what one student at Bankbridge Regional School in Gloucester County, N.J., says happened to him. So he decided to take things into his own hands and videotape the bully who happened to hold an important position; he was his teacher.

“It makes me feel like I’m trash,” said 15-year-old Julio Artuz.

The NBC10 Investigators showed Artuz’s cellphone video to David Arnold. Arnold represents parents of children with special needs when they have problems with school districts. After watching the video, Arnold said that situations like Julio’s should be handled in private. He also stressed that students should feel comfortable in their classroom, so that they can ask questions. In one part of the tape, you can see other students at their desks clearly hearing the entire exchange. Hairston contacted the school district who said that they put the teacher on administrative leave pending board of education action. After the story aired, the school district emailed us this additional statement from Superintendent Michael Dicken:

NBC Philadelphia

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A Germantown special education teacher at Meadow Hall Elementary School is facing accusations that he solicited teens for sex in online chatrooms.

Police on Tuesday arrested Jeremy Earle Brown II, 28, and charged him with three counts of sexual solicitation of a minor and one count of possession of child pornography.

He posted $50,000 bond and was released from custody.

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If my wife wanted to teach a general education class in California, she wouldn’t be allowed.

Why not? Because she has a special education credential (from San Diego State University). She’s specifically qualified to teach students with disabilities like autism, cerebral palsy, emotional disturbance or Asperger’s syndrome.

That makes sense, right? She’s been trained to do a certain job. She spent two years doing a credential program specifically designed to give her the skills needed to meet the challenge of teaching kids with special needs.

But in the last few years at San Diego Unified School District, general education teachers have essentially had to become special educators almost overnight. As separate special education classes have been phased out, thousands of kids with disabilities have been moved to general education classes in their neighborhood schools.

So, you might expect that the teachers who will be teaching those children will have had to get trained up on how to do that, right?

Wrong.

There’s been no mandate at San Diego Unified School District that general education teachers or school principals get training in special education before receiving an influx of students with special needs into their classrooms.

The district says it has provided oodles of training for general education teachers who want to learn how to connect with a child with severe autism, say, or a child with emotional disturbance. That training has ranged from one-day sessions to week-long intense training.

But teachers don’t have to take that training. It’s optional.

So, that means thousands of kids with learning disabilities, autism, Asperger’s syndrome and other disabilities have trooped off to general education classes to be taught by teachers whose last training on special education might have been 20 years earlier during their university credentials.

General education teachers have suddenly been faced with students with emotional disturbance, who scream or run around classrooms. They have been asked to teach children with severe autism, who may be extremely hard to reach without specialized intervention techniques and methods. The range of scenarios runs the gamut from the benign to the potentially hazardous.

When I met with Joe Fulcher, the district’s director of special education, I pressed him pretty hard on this. Why wasn’t training mandated?

“That’s something that was out of my hands, unfortunately,” Fulcher told me.

“I would certainly like to see more gen-ed and special-ed teachers take more advantage of the training,” he added.

Fulcher said any decision on mandating extra training for teachers would have to be made in conjunction with the district’s bargaining units.

On Monday, I called Bill Freeman, president of the teachers union, and asked him if he’d be against mandating special education training for general education teachers in light of the new paradigm of inclusion at San Diego Unified.

Voice of San Diego

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In all fields, the demand for special-education teachers is growing.

According to new research by the U.S. Department of Education, half of the teaching staff at universities is retiring soon.

And that will lead to a 50 percent reduction in educating students who will become future teachers.

“So very scary in how this will affect kids in special education, including kids with autism,” said Marla Root with Step by Step Academy.

Root says getting grad students interested in become special-education teachers is a struggle. Many feel there’s very little support in this challenging field once they graduate.

“Better trained teachers coming out can help promote the field as well as parents becoming more satisfied with services. They talk about services and that may spark the interest of other people to go into the field,” explains Root.

NBC4i

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It takes a special type of educator to teach children with learning disabilities. Kennedy Elementary teacher Debbie Wulf-Walter is one of those educators, and last week she was recognized for her hard work and named Sunflower Bank’s Teacher of the Month.

“I was surprised most excited to see a family that nominated me,” Wulf-Walter said. “I love the kids I love seeing the progress they make every day, even if it’s a new word or something different that they’re doing, it’s exciting to see their progress.”

6 News Lawrence

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