Yesterday I got a phone call from the soft spoken secretary at Tommy’s middle school. I was being asked to come pick Tommy up. I asked for an explanation and was told that Tommy was hiding behind the curtains during an event in the auditorium. When asked to leave he deliberately spit in a teacher’s face and the teacher immediately walked in the office and filed paperwork asking that Tommy be suspended. I hopped in the car and drove to the school. Tommy was not in the office and no one was sure where he was at that point. I imagined him wandering the halls and classrooms. The secretary called the classroom (which used to be a closet, btw) and Tommy answered. He was all alone in the class unaware that he was being sent home. He gathered his own things and came to the office looking very confused. I waited for a teacher or anyone in authority to come explain what happenned. No one came so I left a message with the secretary that I NEEDED a phone call. I was told that the aide or substitute would call because Tomm’y teacher’s Aunt died and the teacher would be out all week. My grandmother died last year and I missed two day because of travel. I don’t believe the teacher was THAT close to an Aunt. I suspect she is job hunting.
On the way home Tommy gave me his version of what happenned. I believe Tommy. He and another boy from the Asperger’s classroom were sent to gym only to learn that they were supposed to go to the auditorium for a school assembly. They went to the auditorium where the entire school was gathering. I can imagine the volume in that room. Tommy and his friend decided to hide behind the curtain in the BACK of the room. Seems like a good place to seek less stimuli to me. Another special ed teacher appeared and asked the two boys to leave. At this point Tommy explained that the teacher didn’t like him. This point may or may not be true. I interpret it to mean that she has never tried to communicate with Tommy. She talks AT him instead of TO him. Anyway, the other boy made a raspberry (”fart noise”) and Tommy followed with one. The teacher was standing so close to Tommy that he got spit on her when this happened. The teacher became furious and went in the office demanding that Tommy be suspended.
Technicality explanation here. Because Tommy is a certified special ed student, before he can be suspended there has to be a meeting to determine if the incident was caused by his disability and beyond his realm of control. I would say that Tommy’s impulsiveness prevented him from thinking about the consequences before he made the raspberry. The school will say that Tommy made a choice to make that noise. The meeting can’t happen until the teacher comes back and I won’t be invited to the meeting anyway. So, I told the aide that I would just keep Tommy home the rest of the week and she thanked me. How can they ask me to keep Tommy in this placement another year when they can’t handle him now?