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I wrote before about the incident on the bus with Ben last week. After talking to several people, we have pieced together exactly what happened. On that particular day Ben's teacher had to leave the classroom early for a mandatory meeting of some sort, so at the end of the day it was up to one of the Paras (that's ParaProfessional) to take him to the bus. The para did not check to make sure he had all his things, and apparently ignored him as she drug him to the bus and he fought to get back to the classroom. The para simply dropped him off with the bus driver and then left. When Ben continued to be very upset, the driver enlisted the help of another teacher. Ben fought kicking, hitting, screaming, and (at least according to the teacher involved) biting. Now, we have never heard of Ben biting anyone. Ever. That the entire situation could have been avoided by just listening to Ben is almost beyond the point. It's that it was allowed to escalate to that level without ever informing us. We had to find out about it through the bus driver, and requests for more information to the teachers went unanswered for days.
This morning Sara took the day off from work and the two of us went into the school to talk to the vice principal to try to make some sense of this mess. Before going to the meeting, Sara went by Ben's classroom. She said the room reeked of urine. One of the paras was out of the classroom on an errand. The second Para was in the bathroom with a student. The teacher was sitting at a computer with her back to the room. The rest of the students were running around the room in pure chaos. Ben was laying on the couch, hiding under a blanket. The teacher did not even hear Sara come into the room. Sara spoke to the teacher briefly, and then came up to the meeting with the vice principal.
In all fairness, at the meeting the vice principal seemed extremely and genuinely concerned. But after a half an hour we arrived at the conclusion that what we needed was another meeting with more people. Sara and I were not particularly relieved at that conclusion.
After the meeting, Sara was beside herself worrying about Ben in that classroom. She finally decided that since she had the day off, she may as well take Ben out of class for the day and let him spend the day with her. She went back to the school and was on her way to the office to sign him out when she heard his voice. She followed the sound, and found him sitting to the side of the playground while the two paras were bouncing balls with other kids in his class. She sat down next to him and talked to him for several minutes, and then got him up to take him back to the classroom to gather his things. It was at that point that she realized that neither of the Paras had even noticed her yet. Rather than alert them to her presence, she decided to just head back to the classroom with Ben and see how long it took for them to notice he was missing. In the classroom she gathered up his things, spoke to the teacher, and was just about to head out the door when finally one of the Paras came running into the room in a panic looking for Ben. Now, this is a kid who twice earlier in the year had tried to climb out of the classroom window to escape (and succedded once); this is a kid who is a know risk for wandering off, and that's how closely they were watching him.
So yeah, not happy about that.
This afternoon we decided to go out to Princeton House for a visit to check it out and drop off an application. I didn't have anything pressing happening at work, so I was able to sneak away for a few hours to do this. (So sue me. On my wife's birthday I worked eighteen hours straight coding to be sure something was finished on time, so it all balances out.) Let me tell you about the Princeton House Charter School. It is a charter school specifically for autistic children. Every single person on campus understands autism and knows how to interact with autistic children. Every single person that we met there *got* Ben as soon as they saw him. They knew how to talk to him, how to interact with him. The campus is very secure, gated all around. The classrooms have an absolute 1 - 3 teacher to student ratio, no exceptions. Although Ben was apprehensive at first, by the time we were leaving he was smiling and happy. The school has a strong acedemic program, and at the middle school level they have an equally strong life skills program. We met several teachers and therapists, all of whom seemed fantastic.
Best of all, through an odd series of coincidences there was a classroom with two slots that had just come open. One child had just moved out of state, and another had gone back to his home school. Also in our favor, one of the administrators at the school has a teenage son who was in Sara's class last year, so they already knew Sara and knew about Ben. After the full tour we were talking to the administrator, and we asked what the timeline was. He looked at us and said, "About seven months." We were crushed. Then he smiled and said, "Sorry, I was just kidding. He could start here as soon as this Wednesday. Would that be ok?"
So yeah, tomorrow Sara needs to fax over some additional paperwork and Ben's current school needs to be notified that he is being disenrolled from their school. Then he starts bright and early on Wednesday morning at his new school. He is going to be *so* much happier there. I can already tell that he will be happier, will learn much more, and will just be better off for going there. However awful the situation was that led us to this point, in the end it got Ben right to where he needs to be. For that I am very, very thankful.
This morning Sara took the day off from work and the two of us went into the school to talk to the vice principal to try to make some sense of this mess. Before going to the meeting, Sara went by Ben's classroom. She said the room reeked of urine. One of the paras was out of the classroom on an errand. The second Para was in the bathroom with a student. The teacher was sitting at a computer with her back to the room. The rest of the students were running around the room in pure chaos. Ben was laying on the couch, hiding under a blanket. The teacher did not even hear Sara come into the room. Sara spoke to the teacher briefly, and then came up to the meeting with the vice principal.
In all fairness, at the meeting the vice principal seemed extremely and genuinely concerned. But after a half an hour we arrived at the conclusion that what we needed was another meeting with more people. Sara and I were not particularly relieved at that conclusion.
After the meeting, Sara was beside herself worrying about Ben in that classroom. She finally decided that since she had the day off, she may as well take Ben out of class for the day and let him spend the day with her. She went back to the school and was on her way to the office to sign him out when she heard his voice. She followed the sound, and found him sitting to the side of the playground while the two paras were bouncing balls with other kids in his class. She sat down next to him and talked to him for several minutes, and then got him up to take him back to the classroom to gather his things. It was at that point that she realized that neither of the Paras had even noticed her yet. Rather than alert them to her presence, she decided to just head back to the classroom with Ben and see how long it took for them to notice he was missing. In the classroom she gathered up his things, spoke to the teacher, and was just about to head out the door when finally one of the Paras came running into the room in a panic looking for Ben. Now, this is a kid who twice earlier in the year had tried to climb out of the classroom window to escape (and succedded once); this is a kid who is a know risk for wandering off, and that's how closely they were watching him.
So yeah, not happy about that.
This afternoon we decided to go out to Princeton House for a visit to check it out and drop off an application. I didn't have anything pressing happening at work, so I was able to sneak away for a few hours to do this. (So sue me. On my wife's birthday I worked eighteen hours straight coding to be sure something was finished on time, so it all balances out.) Let me tell you about the Princeton House Charter School. It is a charter school specifically for autistic children. Every single person on campus understands autism and knows how to interact with autistic children. Every single person that we met there *got* Ben as soon as they saw him. They knew how to talk to him, how to interact with him. The campus is very secure, gated all around. The classrooms have an absolute 1 - 3 teacher to student ratio, no exceptions. Although Ben was apprehensive at first, by the time we were leaving he was smiling and happy. The school has a strong acedemic program, and at the middle school level they have an equally strong life skills program. We met several teachers and therapists, all of whom seemed fantastic.
Best of all, through an odd series of coincidences there was a classroom with two slots that had just come open. One child had just moved out of state, and another had gone back to his home school. Also in our favor, one of the administrators at the school has a teenage son who was in Sara's class last year, so they already knew Sara and knew about Ben. After the full tour we were talking to the administrator, and we asked what the timeline was. He looked at us and said, "About seven months." We were crushed. Then he smiled and said, "Sorry, I was just kidding. He could start here as soon as this Wednesday. Would that be ok?"
So yeah, tomorrow Sara needs to fax over some additional paperwork and Ben's current school needs to be notified that he is being disenrolled from their school. Then he starts bright and early on Wednesday morning at his new school. He is going to be *so* much happier there. I can already tell that he will be happier, will learn much more, and will just be better off for going there. However awful the situation was that led us to this point, in the end it got Ben right to where he needs to be. For that I am very, very thankful.
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From:
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Please, if you can, please follow up on registering the complaint about the other school. That-- jesus. Inexcusable doesn't begin to cover it.
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Pete