ok so something happened last night.
dreamed of the answers to the letter.
a online friend lorelie sent links to read on web pages.
about aspergers. about teaching autism kids, about.. about.. toney attwood and aspergers pages.. and more...
and read them all last night.
went to bed.
the words were swimming around and around forming pictures and connections and links and fell together into a good picture.
got quickly out of bed at 3 20AM and wrote and wrote.
before the pictures fell off the edge of the mind.
the pictures started fading when was more awake.
it wouldbe good to be able to write and sleep at the same time.
ideas would save lives.
so wrote what could.
faxed it all away from the modem.
good invention this modem.
emailed copies to them all aswell.
so the faxes didnt get lost in someones trash.
set it on notifying when it was read.
it was read.
by them all!@
cc: the letter to 5 people.
here are parts of the letter:
"I am quite dismayed that the deterioration of Mr. Foucault’s grade 6 classroom condition has been permitted to proceed to this stage. Furthermore, I am disappointed to realize that my two previous telephone calls concerning Mr. Foucaults aggressive conduct have not been addressed prior to the escalation of Mika’s distress to the point that he is now reacting with inappropriate behaviour. "
and then..." As I have indicated, Mika is afraid of Mr. Foucault (as is my daughter Michelle, who had Mr. Foucault teaching a (social?) science class). Both of the children have indicated that Mr. Foucault has displayed his lack of anger management skills through conduct injurious to the moral tone of the school (one of the criteria for a suspension if a student engages in this behaviour). Mr. Foucault has engaged in verbally abusive, as well as threatening behaviour in both of the children’s classrooms. He has yelled at the children, stomped his feet in anger, and slammed the clipboard on the benches in gym. Furthermore, he has slammed doors (On May 15th 2002 hurting Mika’s finger as a response to Mika asking him why he is frightening the children in the class). Finally, Mr. Foucault has been threatening the children in his class by hitting their desks with a ruler very close to their fingers, so the children fear being hit. I am appalled that this type of behaviour is condoned and accepted at Our Lady of Fatima School."
" I have already indicated to you that when Mika is stressed, a "fight or flight’ instinctual response is triggered. The most recent events in school are indicative of such a reaction. Mika has not been suspended from school for several years and the recent two suspensions are serious stress responses. "It is essential that we recognize the degree of stress experienced by such children, as the signs can become evident in their behaviour and mood. The signs include the child who is described as a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde in that the indicators of stress are not conspicuous at school but the child is a very different character at home. They may be quiet and compliant in the classroom but intolerant and aggressive immediately they return home. Some children become extremely anxious in the morning before going to school and school refusal or walking out of school can be a sign of unbearable stress. Other children can express the signs at school by episodes of extreme anger, with incidents of disruptive and explosive behaviour." (Source:
http://www.tonyattwood.com/paper8.htm ) "
more...
"... Rage reactions/temper outbursts are common in response to stress/frustration. Children with AS are easily overwhelmed when things are not as their own views dictate they should be." (source:
http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/karen_williams_guidelines.html ) "
"This type of overwhelm was the source of Mikas behaviour on the school bus. He was told by the bus monitor to stop talking while she came to sit beside him. He told her that she was too close to him, and asked her to move to the seat across the aisle. She declined, and continued her presentation. Mika does not react well to close physical contact (without his initiating) and asked her to move farther away from him, as I have taught him to do when he is uncomfortable. Her refusal (and understandable inability to comprehend Mika’s reasoning for his request) created a stress loop which was waiting to spill over. Thus Mika’s outburst telling her to "get away from me", and anger. We are continually working with Mika on developing his skills in managing his reactions and Mika has progressed well to not have had any incidents of suspensions for aggressive outbursts in years. I am very discouraged with the recent events and am hoping that we will all work together to deal with this issue now. "
"Finally, I look forward to your response regarding Mr. Foucault’s "conduct injurious to the Moral Tone Of the School", which is inappropriate as a Christian role model and contrary to the Sudbury catholic District School board’s Mission statement:
TO PROVIDE a quality education which integrates faith with culture so that every aspect of the curriculum is taught in light of the Gospel and the Gospel is expressed in terms of the life witness of all those associated with Catholic Education
TO CREATE a faith community which recognizes the interdependence of the members of the Catholic educational community - students, parents, priests, teachers, trustees and administrators - in the transmission of the beliefs and values of the community.
I trust that this serious matter will be resolved at the school board level, therefore excluding the Ontario College of Teachers registrars office involvement to investigate Mr. Foucaults conduct in reference to Regulation 437/97 -- Professional Misconduct section 1.7- Abusing a student physically, sexually, verbally, psychologically or emotionally. "
the favorite thing that wanted to quote several times was "conduct injurious to the Moral Tone Of the School" it was what they put on the suspension forms as one possibility for a suspension.. which is actually what the second form says.. this is because he swore...
SO if swearing is "injurious to the moral tone of the shcool" then surely what the teacher is doing must also be...
now if only this brain would work like this in waking state..
HA. if onlyu....
BUt that letter got a response from the director of education where he basically says all the different other poeple he is sending mine letter to (like the principals supervisor, and the supervisor of the special education consultant who had cc:'d the letter to) and this is a quote from HIS letter.. what do you think? do you think it means they are doing something good about it?
this is what he said : "I will be asking both Mr. Csinos and Mrs. Zubac to pursue this matter as expeditiously as possible and to contact you in order to bring an acceptable solution to this issue.
Again ,thank you for your interest in your child's education"
is that a good sign?
or is he just trying to say something nice?
am so lost when it comes to understanding stuff like that...
have NO idea...
ofcourse am not catholic, and the kids only qualify to go ther ebecause their father is catholic, (they arent either), but quoting their "catholic" rhetoric of being "good catholic" examples was useful.. because am not thinking that this teacher is not being a good example of catholic to us noncatholics..
after all, we are some of those "heathen" "pagans" who the missionaires came to save... so reminding the catholic school about being a example of christ is what they are saying they want to be...
dono if that made anys ense to anyone else except mineself...
but this is what happend.
lg
