It made me cry. That teacher should lose her job. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but how can you possibly justify treating a child in this manner?

I'm appalled. I don't even know what to say. I'm just...appalled!

School as a popularity contest run by the teacher? Um, no. Just no.

Oh my - that is so incredibly sad! Just because a child doesn't fit a particular mold they should be set up as a target by a paid professional? Unbelievable. That teacher should definitely lose her job. Poor little boy.

Really! He's 5! What was she thinking.

I'd love to hear her side of things because I can't even imagine how an adult could think this was a good idea. Even if he didn't have AS--and it's beyond unconscionable to treat a child with AS like this!--I can't imagine thinking that you're doing anyone any good with this sort of action.

It sounds like she'd just had it with him, and she lashed out. But what an awful way to lash out! Just rotten.

Now is this the same case that was in the news yesterday morning where the parents put a tape recorder in the kid's pants and heard the bad things the teacher said to the kid? This teacher also shamed the kid in front of the class but in the interview, no voting out was mentioned and they didn't mention AS. The case I'm referring to happened in NYC I think.

This one is in FL, if I'm reading the article correctly. I didn't hear about the NYC case.

Two cases? Geez! What's with these people? Time for summer, I guess!

The teacher in NYC was suspended if I remember correctly pending an investigation. The tape recorder is pretty da&*(&ing.

I saw this yesterday and it really, really bothered me. My son is older now and he handles adult bullies like this teacher better than he did at that age. His first experience with an adult bully was in a gymnastics class at age 5. I could tell that the new teacher didn't like the way he talked--he talked like a geek even at 5--and she didn't like the fact that he took longer to do the activities and when he flopped to the floor when he landed in a very uncoordinated manner. The previous teacher thought it was cute the way he talked and she always asked him to go look at the clock and tell her what time it was because none of the other kids in the class knew how to tell time. He really liked her and she seemed to like him. He was heartbroken when the new gymnastics instructor gave all the other kids a sticker as a reward for doing well and then told him that he didn't get one because he didn't do well enough in front of everyone. I had already told the owner of the gymnastics class about his hypotonia and I am sure the instructor knew about it also, but she didn't care. I walked out that day after telling the owner that I would not be back and why. It still upsets me to think about it. I think that probably nothing was said to the instructor. People in the sports obsessed community where we live think nothing of verbally abusing kids like mine. Even the musical theatre teacher used to verbally abuse him in front of his friends even though she knew about the hypotonia, until he stood up to her, looked her straight in the eye and calmly and firmly said something back to her that I didn't think sounded disrespectful, but definitely let her know that he would not tolerate it any more. She didn't know I was listening. I was so proud of him that day and I told him so. I told him that he has the right to protect himself from verbal bullies whether they are adults or not.

He didn't want me to say anything last year to the YMCA swimming instructor who called him a wuss and I respected that. He said he was okay but that he didn't want to take swimming lessons from anyone who was going to be condescending toward him, so we stopped going there too. It seems there is no place for us except on online message boards. I have found that there are a lot of not very nice people around here, even among the homeschoolers. I see the world from a completely different perspective now than I did as the mom of a pretty cheerleader.

unconscionable...

My son, who is usually very precise in his use of words, describes people like this teacher as evil and I thought this was too strong a word, but after looking up the definition, I think it might actually fit.

Hmm. . . Sounds like a TV show. And people say that what happends on TV doesn't affect children. I would like to hear the teacher's side, just to see what her reasoning was. Not that any reasoning would justify this.

I'm suspect that the teacher is dealing with her own mental health issue. She is obviously not thinking clearly.

I second Lorel's feelings on this issue, it's purely saddening. I can actually picture this little 5 year old boy repeating over and over: "I'm not special"
It gives me a sick feeling and I hope the parents and authorities follow through with child abuse charges.

That is just wrong. Anyone who cannot deal with a five year old has not business being a teacher. If there were issues with his behavior they needed to be dealt with in private and with the parents.

Also, if I were the parent of one of the children that "voted him out" I would be having a long discussion about kindness.

Good point!

Here is a link to the recording of the *other* heartbreaking incident where the parents decided to hide a tape recorder in their 5 y/o son's pants. Apparently, he was crying about school on a daily basis and, thank goodness, the parents trusted their instincts and ultimately this teacher was suspended. Warning: listening to this is heart-wrenching... but it is a good reminder to trust your gut when it comes to your kid.
http://www.wave3.com/global/Story.asp?s=8388558

Why didn't I think of putting a tape recorder in C-dog's pants?

grrrrrrr.

What do you think you'd have heard?

The devil?

Oooh. That bad, huh? Yikes.

I knew it wasn't good, but the devil is really, really bad!

Well I guess since I didn't think of the tape recorder we'll never know!

But, yes, it was pretty bad. Obviously it wasn't as overt as the situations we have been talking about.

But as C-dog is so very perceptive, the subtle messages were very damaging as well.

Indeed.

Total agreement Lori H.

This story just breaks my heart - I have no idea how I would react if that happened to my child - I would probably go off the deep end at the school and teacher. How dare a teacher do that to a child!

I hope the media will cover the story further. I really want to know what happens.

My heart bleeds for this family.

Makes me wonder what the standard for emotional child abuse there actually is, if Portilla's actions don't meet it.

If she made the child leave the school without herself suffering any consequences, I suppose she may be encouraged to try this again.

It's a hard world sometimes.