Has anyone filed a grievance.....

[shelly75964]

We are sooo very confused... Maybe someone can help.. We live in Texas.. We are having problems with one of my son's teachers. She is not following the 504 modifications that we set-up for my son (ie making assignments easier to understand, answering questions, when the assingment is not clear etc...) Points are taking off his agenda (behavior) for small stupid things (tapping his pencil on his desk, rolling his eyes, he accidentally shut the door too loud and she took point off for that!!!!) Out of all the teachers that my son has, this is the only one that causes problems. I believe that it is because she does not understand ADHD children. She is very sarcastic to him, she publicly ridicules him, sends him out in the hallway for the entire class time, and when he comes back in and tries to do the assignment that was given out while he was in the hallway, and has questions about it, she tells him that if he had been in the classroom, he would have heard the instructions.. OMG!!! I am so angry, hurt, depressed, and sad all in one. I want to file a grievance against the teacher, has anyone done this, and if so were you succesfull???

[Allanque]

Have you talked to the teacher and the principal to see if anything else can be done? Can he be switched to another class? If you are successful in filing a grievance, what would happen then?

[shelly75964]

[glow=red,2,300]TEXT[/glow]If you are successful in filing a grievance, what would happen then?
***********************

That is kinda my question... I'm not really sure if that is a step that I would want to take. I have spoken with the teacher and the principal.. The principal has even stated that he has noticed a problem with this teacher.. That is what makes me a more upset.. Someone else has noticed the problem, but yet no one will do anything about it..

[finnmom]

Shelly
I think you have to see the principal again and give him/her a job to do, it´s their job to take care of this. If principal doest seem too eager for that, you might "warn" them that if they dont do what they are supposed to, then you´ll make your move It´s nothing wrong with a little bit of old-fashioned blackmailing ;D Just make your opinion clear, then they can only blaim themself´s.

That´s so unfortunate situation you´re in, I´am so sorry for you!

Marja

[swmom]

That's got to be tough on both you and your son. I have heard of a similar story where a child had ADHD and the teacher just couldn't deal with him. Actually
began to be mean to him. They spoke up - I believe they talked to the principal - and the child was switched to another class. Sometimes I think there are personality conflicts that happen between teachers and students, regardless of ADHD or not. What you're describing sounds a little bit like that but also includes what I'd call verbal abuse. No child deserves that, for any reason.

[shelly75964]

My husband is at the school as we speak, and he is going to try and get this matter resolved. I have done this before, but we want to try and do it one more time before we go any further. I printed out some of the modifications that we had set-up for my son, I explained to my husband that the school is legally bound to apply those modifications. I also printed out a page from the American's with Disabilities, that showed our rights. I did that so that when my husband went in there, it would let them know that we know what our rights are and that we have people bigger than them to back us up if those rights are violated. This teacher is very mean to him. On one occasion she asked to see his agenda. He opened up his notedbook to his agenda and handed it to her. She took the notebook, told him that she wanted his agenda shut the notebook and threw it across the floor back to my son!!! He said to her that his agenda was in his notebook!!! See this is how I know that she doesn't understand ADHD at all. Anyone who understands would know that he thought that he was doing what she asked. What she wanted was for him to take his agenda out of his note book and hand the agenda only to her. I went to that school and talked to her about it and then she tried to deny it, but realized that she could not do so!!!!

[camismom]

Shelly,

I have been exactly where you are, and it was just last year! My daughter started off the year with this teacher, and she was awful! She made Cami's life miserable on a day to day basis. She was mean to her, ridiculed her in front of the class, and even at one time starting making her hold her pencil a different way (she said she was trying to help her improve her handwriting). Cami would come home almost daily with horror stories about this teacher and two of Cami's best friends were in the same class and would back up Cami's stories. I began sending notes to her voicing my concerns (I work so couldn't go up daily) and would get ugly replies. I saved them of course. She then began to go to the principal each time and complain to him, and he would call me "concerned" that I had been rude to the teacher! Well, anyway, after a few rounds with the principal, I finally got a meeting with him, at which I went fully armed with all my "ammo" on ADHD and our rights, and told him if he didn't put a stop to this teacher's abuse and out-right disregard of her privacy, then I would seek legal help. Long story short, she changed to another teacher's class whose own child is ADHD and the rest of the year went very smoothly.

It sounds like your husband made the right step in going up to the school with his own "ammo", but I don't think I'd stop there. The teacher will take this all offensively, and ultimately your child will pay. I would demand another teacher and let them know that the 504 has to be followed, no matter who the teacher is.

Good luck, and please keep us informed.

[Angelia]

Shelly75964:
I just wanted to let you know that you must be a much better woman than I, because if I ever found out that one of my sons teachers threw anything at him. I would have her head on a platter!! That is a totally unacceptable behavior from a teacher!!

I also live in Texas, and have had the horrible teacher with my son last year. We filed a grievence with the teacher and the school. My son is also in a 504 program, and his teacher did not want to work the program. She wanted to have him place into resource classes, and be done with him, because working the 504 program would have made her actually work for a change. Well we started off day one with me letting her know that my child was adhd, and I needed to have a teacher conference with her to let her know how his modifications worked, and how she would have to do with my son. Well she told me before she had even laid eyes on my son that maybe we should think about having him placed into resource classes this year. I told her at that time that we did not need to do that at this time because my child was an A, B student as long as his modifications were being done properly. Well from then on every chance this teacher got she would call me at home she would write me, or if she saw me in the hallway at school she would ask me when we were going to place my son into resource classes. Everytime I told this teacher we were not going too. Finally I went to the school counselor and had a talk with her about it. She recommend that I go ahead and have my son tested for resource classes to show her that he would not quailify. So, we did and of course he did not quailify. So, I thought it would be over. Boy was I mistaken! She and the resource teacher got together, and let me know that just because he had not qualified with the testing, because he was adhd, and was under a doctors care for this his doctor could sign for him to be place into resource classes. I by this time was seeing red, and was like do you people not understand I do not want my child to be in resource classes if he does not need it!! So, this teacher as a last ditch effort proceded to call my sons doctors office and act like she was me, and asked the doctor if he could sign for my son to be put into resource classes, and my doctor did, because he thought he was talking to me. Now you would think that this teacher would have kept this to herself well this is when she get really stupid. She writes me a letter home from school one day to ask me if I could help my son with his classwork because he was behind in somethings, because he had been with the resource teacher the last two weeks. She also wanted to thank me for letting my sons doctor sign for him to be put into resource classes. I was furious when I read this letter. I immediately called my sons doctors office, and we figured everything out. He was furious!!He typed up a letter and wanted me to send it with my son to school the next day. Stating that I would be into the school today at her conference period with a child advocate, and we were to no longer communicate about this matter it was also signed cc: (which means carbon copy) with his doctors name, my doctors attorneys name, and three different child advocated names. My sons child advocate called the school and told them that we need to meet, and stated that the teacher, principal, superinent, vice principal, and counselor needed to be present. When we stepped into the school the next day needless to say this teacher about had a heart attack!! We told them then that we would be filing a formal grievence with the school and nothing at this time would change our minds. It did go through, and the school got fined! The teacher lost her job, and the Texas board of education made the school for the next 5 years have a formal meeting available to the community on all specialized programs for the school. There are people from the Texas board of education there, and comments and questions are made at this meeting, and I go every year now to make sure that people are aware that if things are not going alright there are other options. So, the law is on your side if you feel like your child is being taken advantage of and you can be heard by just one voice I was!!

[swmom]

I know of another situation where the teacher wound up verbally abusing the child(ADHD) because she didn't know how to handle him. The parent approached the principal. The child was placed in another class. Problem solved.

Good luck.

[camismom]

Angelia,

Oh my gosh! Reading your story made me furious! >:(Grrrr! All I can say is good for you for not taking it! To call and impersonate a parent deserve more than a firing as far as I'm concerned. She should have her teaching certificate revoked.

I commend you for not killing her, would have been hard for me not to!

[shelly75964]

Angela:

OMG!!!! That was horrible, what happened to you and your child. Some of the things that "your teacher" did are close to the same excpet for the impersonation part. She is very disrespectful to my son, and therefore, it is hard for my son to repsect her. We have always taught my children to repsect adults, even when he has had some teachers that were pains in the neck, but with this teacher, it is so hard for me to have him respect her. I just told him to not say anything to her, unless it is necessary, and when she starts on him for him to just do as she says and tell me about it when I pick him up from school. He is on Spring Break right now. There was an incident right before spring break though that infuriated me so much that I am calling up there on Monday. Thursday, was what they call "Super Liberty Day" This is where all the kids that have made an average grade of 80 or above on their agenda (basically agenda is how the teachers perceive their attitude and behavior). Well, my son for the first time, after hard work, made the grade!!! We were so excited, he was extatic!! He was going to get to watch a movie, eat popcorn, just mess around the whole day.. Until, his teacher went in his agenda and noticed that he was missing some sheets from the month of January, so she took 10 points off for each sheet missing, so needless to say, he then was not eligible for "Super Liberty Day". He got in the car when I picked him up and he was so upset. I asked him what he would do while the other kids were attending the event. He proceeded to tell me that the kids that didn't make the grade were put in a class room, kind of like In School Suspension, and they had to do classwork all day. I was so ticked off, so furious that I couldn't even call the school because I knew if I did I would cuss someone, and I just recently got an advocate so, it wouldn't look good on my part to do that. So instead, after church he asked if he could spend the night with some friends of his, whom are homeshcooled, so his dad and I talked it over, and decided we would give our son his own "Super Liberty Day". We let him go!!!!!! I usually do not promote skipping school, but I had to make an exception this one time... LOL

[Angelia]

I can tell you what happend to my son and I regaurding the school. It has been really nice since this happend, because now it has made the school look up and take notice when it comes to my sons education. This last summer when they were trying to determine which teacher to give each student. I recieved a phone call asking if the teacher he was to recieve would be fine with me, because they were taking into consideration that my son had special needs, and wanted to make sure that he got the best teacher for him. Also, if I happen to go up to the school for anything they get really jumpy! For instance, last week my daughter had a field trip and had forgotten her sack lunch she was to take on the trip, and I was bringing it to her before she left, and before I could get to her class I had the principal and the vice principal stop me in the hall and ask, Mrs. Riley is everything ok is thier anything we can do for you? I stated that I was fine and I was not even up at the school for my son but my daughter. I like the school this way it keeps them on thier toes!! I also do not have to call when it is time to review his 504 program anymore they notify me. This was the best thing that we could have ever done for my sons education. I hate that it had to go this far, but the school forced our hand on the matter.
I can also tell you that one of the things that I noticed out of all of this when I first started was that I was so angry, and when I would go in for a meeting it was so hard for the anger not to come out in my actions and voice. The lawyer that we used (note that the school had to pay for also.) told me that that is what they want. They want you to go in there half thingyed, and so mad that you sound like a ediot because you are so furious that you do not even know what you have said by the time you get out of there. They told me to go in and be as nice and calm as you can be, because it totally throws them off. They do not know how to handle someone that may have a little of intelligance behind them. It scares them. My favorite thing that he told me was they do not know how to deal with adults if they did they would not have choosen to work with children. So, there is a special way that you have to deal with teachers!! Especially thier bosses!!