It is a very sad thing to see a child taken away from the school on a stretcher, headed for a mental institution. It is an especially sad thing to see two children taken away in less than a week's period of time.
When all is said and done, fifty percent of my students have special needs. I teach a third grade room with ability levels ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade levels, so small group instruction is not optional for me. However, the greater challenge is how to handle students with emotional needs. I have never before in my teaching career made so many calls to SASS or to DCFS. I witnessed a mother hit her daughter so hard she had a black eye the next day, and I had another mother come in with a bat under her coat so she could discipline her child. There are many views on the line between discipline and abuse, and my own opinions have changed over time. As a mandated reporter, I have a narrower rule I follow.
In the past week two of my students, on separate occasions, have been hospitalized for threatening to kill themselves. These students have been having issues all year, and we have been working to get them what they need using what resources we have.
One of the students has been fascinating to watch. Over the year I have seen behavior charts work to curb his ability to control specific behaviors (sitting in his seat, keeping his hands off others, not touching other students' butts, etc.) but when he is so focused on his behavior, it makes him seemingly incapable of focusing on the learning he needs to do. His mother insists that he doesn't behave those same ways at home (I insist that if I got to plop my students in front of TV and video games all day at home, they wouldn't exhibit those behaviors, either). His mother has been resistant to using medication or finding therapy, since she sees her child's issues as a result of choice.
However, his behavior escalated to the point of needing hospitalization. As I watched him hug his mother goodbye before being taken to the mental health facility, my heart broke for this tiny boy. But at the same time, I felt a little proud of him. He is a survivor. Deep down, I know he needs help, and he knows he needs help, and he was willing to do and threaten whatever it took in order to get the help he needed. He screamed with his behavior what he was not able to say with his words.
Children are amazingly resilient, and persistent, and will keep asking until they get what they want. I think sometimes we try to beat that out of them, and I think that's sad, because in some cases, it's their only chance of being heard.
