GA Student Says School Employee Is Bullying Her

[White Rain]

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. -- A Clayton County student has asked the school board to protect her from a bully -- and that bully is not a fellow student.

Sophia Evans, 16, got emotional Monday night when she was talking about the way she says her paraprofessional has talked to her at school.

"I have been bullied, picked on, teased, criticized, disrupted. Please send help and do the right thing and help me," said Evans during a Clayton County School Board meeting.

The junior at Morrow High School is diagnosed with EBD, Emotional Behavior Disorder. Her special ed paraprofessional is supposed to work closely with her during the day to help her complete assignments. But instead, Evans said the worker has called her evil and ugly and talked badly about her parents.
more: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/15223329/detail.html

[txsvicki]

This would not shock me one bit. I hope the school helps her and gets another teacher's aide to help.

[deanws]

I am not so quick to judge. The kid might be making this all up because the lady is trying to make her do her work. I wouldn't be willing to believe this without proof.

[Taximom]

Originally Posted by deanws

I am not so quick to judge. The kid might be making this all up because the lady is trying to make her do her work. I wouldn't be willing to believe this without proof.

Yeah, I would want some proof too. Just keep them from each other for now until this is settled.

[southcitymom]

Originally Posted by Taximom

Yeah, I would want some proof too. Just keep them from each other for now until this is settled.

Yes - I agree with you and deanws. What is EBD? I guess I'll go google it...

okay found this :

"In order for a student to be identified as EBD there are 4 key concepts to be addressed: (1) the student exhibits social, emotional or behavioral functioning that so departs from generally accepted, age appropriate ethnic or cultural norms that it adversely affects a child's academic progress, social relationships, personal adjustment, classroom adjustment, self-care or vocational skills; (2) the behaviors are severe, chronic, and frequent, occur at school and at least 1 other setting, and the student exhibits at least 1 of 8 characteristics or patterns of behavior indicative of EBD; (3) the IEP team used a variety of sources of information including observations and has reviewed prior, documented interventions; and, (4) the IEP team did not identify or refuse to identify a student as EBD solely on the basis of another disability, social maladjustment, adjudicated delinquency, dropout, chemically dependency, cultural deprivation, familial instability, suspected child abuse, socio-economic circumstances, or medical or psychiatric diagnostic statements"

All that lingo confuses me. God bless the people who have to sort it all out, but clearly this young lady has some issues. I hope she is not being abused and I hope they get to the bottom of this.

[Texana]

Any child who is diagnosed with ED/EBD has more than just a few issues. These are the most difficult students to work with and I include severely autistic or mentally handicapped students when I say that. ED students see the world very differently than the rest of us...and they usually have parents who see the world rather differently as well.

And special education is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

At the same time of course, not all paraprofessional employees are up to this challenge, although I will say that the ones I know are the most dedicated and motivated for the child's well being employees I know. Hands down, many of them are better natural teachers than many actual certified teachers, and many of them do a teacher's job for much less pay.

It's entirely possible that the child was called names such as "evil" but without hearing the whole story it's really hard to know what's going on here. The employee can't talk because that violates the student's privacy rights, so the student can say whatever they want to say.

[southcitymom]

Originally Posted by Texana

Any child who is diagnosed with ED/EBD has more than just a few issues. These are the most difficult students to work with and I include severely autistic or mentally handicapped students when I say that. ED students see the world very differently than the rest of us...and they usually have parents who see the world rather differently as well.

And special education is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

At the same time of course, not all paraprofessional employees are up to this challenge, although I will say that the ones I know are the most dedicated and motivated for the child's well being employees I know. Hands down, many of them are better natural teachers than many actual certified teachers, and many of them do a teacher's job for much less pay.

It's entirely possible that the child was called names such as "evil" but without hearing the whole story it's really hard to know what's going on here. The employee can't talk because that violates the student's privacy rights, so the student can say whatever they want to say.

Wow - that's awful!

[MeoW333]

There's a video of the girl in the link in the first post. She is 16 years old; if that were my child there is no way i would let her get on video on the web. Just a matter of privacy concerns and i'm be worried that others (fellow students) may tease her about the matter. Especially with a ED she will be more sensitive. I hope they can get her a new paraprofessional who is for her best interests.

[pixies]

Back in the early 90's when I was in High School, they had students working with the special ed kids. I know these kids laughed at and tormented those special kids. It was sickening. I remember one time sitting in the lunchroom and seeing the teachers laugh at the special kids being bullied by their supposed helper.
Nothing was done to help them. Ever.

If my children have special needs, NO WAY would I send them to public schools. (We are blessed financially, But I do understand that not everyone has that option. I just hope there are better schools out there for this little girl)
Everyone knows how teenagers are (most, not all, I should say) and some of the teachers are the same way. I feel very bad for this girl. She is begging for help.

[believe09]

She is also the perfect target in that who is going to believe her with that laundry list of symptoms?

[txsvicki]

I guess if you're not mentally perfect, then you're just making it all up, and why did the girl have to go before the school board to be heard? It sounds as if she's gotten no help. I would be very leary of any hourly school employee who does not have any professional degree and is just some helper. From what I understand, it's federal law that any child who is in special ed and having problems can be assigned one of these assistants. I've seen school bus drivers sneaking and smoking beside buses, heard a headstart assistant screaming and threatening to take and keep a child's coat making him cry, almost had my eardrum busted by another headstart aide who walked past me while screaming at a child, and last but not least have recently been sexually harassed by an obsessed school crossing guard. Are they all still on the job? Oh Yes, despite complaints about them!

[White Rain]

Originally Posted by txsvicki

I guess if you're not mentally perfect, then you're just making it all up, and why did the girl have to go before the school board to be heard? It sounds as if she's gotten no help. I would be very leary of any hourly school employee who does not have any professional degree and is just some helper. From what I understand, it's federal law that any child who is in special ed and having problems can be assigned one of these assistants. I've seen school bus drivers sneaking and smoking beside buses, heard a headstart assistant screaming and threatening to take and keep a child's coat making him cry, almost had my eardrum busted by another headstart aide who walked past me while screaming at a child, and last but not least have recently been sexually harassed by an obsessed school crossing guard. Are they all still on the job? Oh Yes, despite complaints about them!

nice post.

[philamena]

[deanws]

Originally Posted by txsvicki

I guess if you're not mentally perfect, then you're just making it all up, and why did the girl have to go before the school board to be heard? It sounds as if she's gotten no help. I would be very leary of any hourly school employee who does not have any professional degree and is just some helper. From what I understand, it's federal law that any child who is in special ed and having problems can be assigned one of these assistants. I've seen school bus drivers sneaking and smoking beside buses, heard a headstart assistant screaming and threatening to take and keep a child's coat making him cry, almost had my eardrum busted by another headstart aide who walked past me while screaming at a child, and last but not least have recently been sexually harassed by an obsessed school crossing guard. Are they all still on the job? Oh Yes, despite complaints about them!

I have seen kids ball face lie and make up stuff about teachers that NEVER happened. Is it easier to believe a problem child than the adult? She is ED...emotionally disturbed, not just mentally challenged. I usually agree with you, but in this instance I can't. I think we need WAY more information before we just blindly believe that this teacher's aid is in the wrong.

[believe09]

Originally Posted by deanws

I have seen kids ball face lie and make up stuff about teachers that NEVER happened. Is it easier to believe a problem child than the adult? She is ED...emotionally disturbed, not just mentally challenged. I usually agree with you, but in this instance I can't. I think we need WAY more information before we just blindly believe that this teacher's aid is in the wrong.

Agreed-however, I think that bullies and predators often pick targets like these because of their "muddied" background. The bonus with this child, is because of her ailment she may not know 100% what is truth or fiction, right? She sees her world a certain way...I hope everyone treads carefully here...

[Amraann]

Originally Posted by txsvicki

I guess if you're not mentally perfect, then you're just making it all up, and why did the girl have to go before the school board to be heard? It sounds as if she's gotten no help. I would be very leary of any hourly school employee who does not have any professional degree and is just some helper. From what I understand, it's federal law that any child who is in special ed and having problems can be assigned one of these assistants. I've seen school bus drivers sneaking and smoking beside buses, heard a headstart assistant screaming and threatening to take and keep a child's coat making him cry, almost had my eardrum busted by another headstart aide who walked past me while screaming at a child, and last but not least have recently been sexually harassed by an obsessed school crossing guard. Are they all still on the job? Oh Yes, despite complaints about them!

I understand why some would not take this claim at face value... But I also have seen some awful behavior by school employees and proven or not this child obviously cannot work with that person.
I don't understand why she had to go to the school board??
Her guardian should have handled this.

[SLP]

Originally Posted by Amraann

I understand why some would not take this claim at face value... But I also have seen some awful behavior by school employees and proven or not this child obviously cannot work with that person.
I don't understand why she had to go to the school board??
Her guardian should have handled this.

Exactly what I was thinking. Since she is on an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) her guardian has a lot of say and has to agree and sign off on everything the school is doing for her. This should have been handled at an ARD or by a complaint through the district special education system not at a school board meeting. Since they did not bring up attempting to handle it in the appropriate way, or show a paper trail that would have been there if they had tried, I have doubts that they did. Even if her claims are valid they will now have a much harder time getting things resolved. JMHO on this.

[Amraann]

Originally Posted by SLP

Exactly what I was thinking. Since she is on an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) her guardian has a lot of say and has to agree and sign off on everything the school is doing for her. This should have been handled at an ARD or by a complaint through the district special education system not at a school board meeting. Since they did not bring up attempting to handle it in the appropriate way, or show a paper trail that would have been there if they had tried, I have doubts that they did. Even if her claims are valid they will now have a much harder time getting things resolved. JMHO on this.

I am not sure if it will be harder since the bad publicity may make the school board take action they otherwise would not have.
But I do wonder what type of documentation has been made..
Did they go to a principal.. or were there witnesses to any of this?
Where they simply ignored or not informed of the proper action to take?
(I found that its very common for parents not to be told how to handle such things ... Especially ESE parents)

[Tricia]

Does anyone know what happened with this case?