Why Focus on Special Ed? Read On
In Texas (from Disability Scoop):
In what’s believed to be a first, a new law in Texas will require schools to install cameras upon request in classrooms serving students with disabilities.
The law signed by Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this month mandates that school districts and open-enrollment charter schools in the state employ video cameras if they are requested by a parent, trustee or staff member.
Under the measure, such requests can only be made for self-contained classrooms and other environments where the majority of students are receiving special education services.
“We heard testimony from students with special needs and parents whose lives have been forever changed by mistreatment in the classroom,” state Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr., who authored the legislation, told Disability Scoop. “It is my intention that the presence of cameras in these students’ classrooms will provide evidence in cases of abuse, and will also protect teachers who face wrongful accusations.”
From Georgia from the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
Georgia illegally segregates thousands of students with behavioral disorders in schools that often are dirty, in poor repair and, in some cases, once served as blacks-only facilities before court-ordered integration, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Wednesday.
In a strongly worded letter to Gov. Nathan Deal and Attorney General Sam Olens, the DOJ said the state is “unnecessarily segregating students with disabilities from their peers.” Further, the letter said, those students receive inferior instruction and have few if any opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities.
The so-called GNETS schools date to 1970 and once were officially known as “psycho-ed” institutions. About 5,000 students attend the schools, often after their home schools have declared their behavioral or mental health issues to be disruptive for other children.
At a school in Cordele, students with behavioral disorders must use segregated restrooms. They have separate lunch periods. They have to enter through a special door and, unlike their peers without disabilities, pass through a metal detector.
In Rome, students in the GNETS program aren’t allowed to engage with other students – or even leave the basement.
“School,” one student said, “is like prison where I am in the weird class.”
On a much more hopeful note, from Ollibean on the 25 years of ADA and one young woman's ask so she could attend a favorite band's concert.
In what’s believed to be a first, a new law in Texas will require schools to install cameras upon request in classrooms serving students with disabilities.
The law signed by Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this month mandates that school districts and open-enrollment charter schools in the state employ video cameras if they are requested by a parent, trustee or staff member.
Under the measure, such requests can only be made for self-contained classrooms and other environments where the majority of students are receiving special education services.
“We heard testimony from students with special needs and parents whose lives have been forever changed by mistreatment in the classroom,” state Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr., who authored the legislation, told Disability Scoop. “It is my intention that the presence of cameras in these students’ classrooms will provide evidence in cases of abuse, and will also protect teachers who face wrongful accusations.”
From Georgia from the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
Georgia illegally segregates thousands of students with behavioral disorders in schools that often are dirty, in poor repair and, in some cases, once served as blacks-only facilities before court-ordered integration, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Wednesday.
In a strongly worded letter to Gov. Nathan Deal and Attorney General Sam Olens, the DOJ said the state is “unnecessarily segregating students with disabilities from their peers.” Further, the letter said, those students receive inferior instruction and have few if any opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities.
The so-called GNETS schools date to 1970 and once were officially known as “psycho-ed” institutions. About 5,000 students attend the schools, often after their home schools have declared their behavioral or mental health issues to be disruptive for other children.
At a school in Cordele, students with behavioral disorders must use segregated restrooms. They have separate lunch periods. They have to enter through a special door and, unlike their peers without disabilities, pass through a metal detector.
In Rome, students in the GNETS program aren’t allowed to engage with other students – or even leave the basement.
“School,” one student said, “is like prison where I am in the weird class.”
On a much more hopeful note, from Ollibean on the 25 years of ADA and one young woman's ask so she could attend a favorite band's concert.
Comments
Jan
Video Monitoring of Employees
Generally, videotaping isn’t highly offensive if it’s limited to job performance and related workplace activities. Employers may videotape to prevent theft or other bad behavior in the workplace. Videotaping increases safety to all employees, promotes good behavior or preserves crime evidence.
However, your employer may have violated your right to privacy if they videotaped you in areas considered private and personal without a necessary business reason. Such areas include bathrooms, locker rooms or break rooms.
Balance Interests in the Workplace
Employers must let you know why and where they use video and notify all employees in writing that video surveillance is conducted. They also need to ask you to sign a document saying you know you may be monitored. However, this doesn’t stop them from doing it without your knowledge. Additionally, employers must clearly state the areas that are off limits from videotaping and explain they’re for personal use and don’t have any job related function.
I don't be;live this covers the students, but as long as there isn't sound being recorded it's legal. Which might make the whole thing useless, because much of the abuse is verbal.
karma
If tapes capture any staff doing something that ultimately results in corrective action, then those tapes are fair game once that happens.
Sped reader
Self-contained Teacher .
reader
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I believe video would be good for a number of reasons, including in the case of injury. It would build a case for providing additional support, where needed.
Sped Reader
As for allowing people to look in - when SPS requires its building administrators to stop bullying and abuse - I can see a real need to protect those who've been stigmatized by SPS' rampant exclusion of students with disabilities.
Your assertion "We wouldn't do this job, or put up with this abuse, if we didn't love what we do" actually disturbs me. The fact that you see kids who are dysregulated as "abusing you" shows a lack of insight. You are personalizing disability-related behavior way too much for a professional educator, are you not? Isn't behavior communication? When children become dysregulated, it is a sign of many possible things e.g. they are overstimulated, or an adult unwittingly placed demands on the child when they weren't able to handle demands, or they became escalated because of something that happened that you didn't see, or the environment is chaotic, or they are not learning anything because you are so focused on behaviors that you can't see that if you would address the learning needs, many of the behaviors would lessen, or any myriad of other reasons. I hope you will seek assistance from a program specialist because your current frame of mind is very concerning.
I am fine with the use of video cameras after what has happened to my child in sped classrooms and on the bus (by adults).
Camera Approver
Cameras Good
CPI also teaches you how to break loose from an attempted bite or hair-pull without hurting the student or yourself. Good stuff. Too bad so many people only pay attention during the "How to do the holds" part.
- DWD
Personally, I would like for more special ed teachers to post, even the ones who are human.
SPEdmama
Sure, anybody can post. Great if teachers do. But, this reaction isn't about poor word choice. If you make negative comments about students (who can't defend themselves), and claim that your teaching methodology looks negative because observers are just "naive"...
how do you expect parents and the public at large to react? Guess what? Parents aren't perfect either. And those type of comments will draw negative reactions, guaranteed.
CG
Thank you for your concern about my cognitive functioning, but the teachers I was talking about could not take CPI due to it not being offered or not being able to get subs. I didn't say anything about them not signing up for it. I agree with you that it should be offered during the day and subs should be available. Better yet, it should be offered during the summer, like during the upcoming sped trainings.
You are right, no one said anything about teachers "hating" students, but accusations of teachers projecting their baggage onto children, denying them an education ("Wow, self-contained teacher, safety of students is your number one priority? What about teaching them? We have higher aspirations for our kids beyond warehousing them in a safe place all day." followed by "Most people like you paper over their windows so that nobody sees in, so there's no accountability. It isn't a witch hunt, it's safety. Safer that people know what's happening. Safer for students who literally have no voice, no way to communicate abuse. Safer for teachers who would be accused of something they didn't do." So is safety important, or is it not? I think the environment needs to be safe for teaching academics to happen.
These sort of negative intentional acts towards children sure don't sound like love (or even like/respect), and definitely do not sound like anything that any of my child's teachers have done.
I counted over 20 special ed positions that are still open at SPS. Hopefully they aren't filled by the type of people that some of you seem to assume most special ed teachers are.
De-escalation is an important skill to use in all dealings with others if things are to be positive and productive, not just teacher to student.
SPEdmama