Vicious Teacher Leads Bullying of Disabled Child
Originally published at Enemy of Entropy. Please leave any comments there.
Teacher lets kindergarten students vote 5-year-old “out of the class”
After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn’t like about Barton’s 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.
By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex - who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism - out of the class.
The teacher, Wendy Portillo (portillow@stlucie.k12.fl.us), has acknowledged that the incident happened. She had been participating in the child’s IEP team since February, so she knew that Alex was being evaluated for a disability (most likely Asberger’s syndrome, from the information in the article).
There isn’t be any excuse for any adult treating any child that way, but a teacher to encourage children to ostracize a disabled child? That’s even worse.
The school district has refused to fire Portillo, but claims that she has been moved to non-classroom duties. That isn’t nearly enough.