Saturday, February 18, 2006

get off my roster

As mentioned in a prior post, two new students were placed on my class roster. One of the students, Cory, assaulted a teacher last year and went to a suspension center for a year. The other student, Keevan, has been bouncing in and out of suspension, and was re-evaluated for a more restrictive setting. Both boys were scheduled to start my class at the same time.

Cory and I spent less than 20 minutes together. He appeared at my morning homeroom and that was about it. Keevan appeared in my room with his mother, but was soon paged over the P.A. to return to the main office. Both students are once again in a suspension center. Why?

Because before morning homeroom began, the boys jumped another student walking to school. They beat this student (special ed) with a metal pipe. For a dollar. Cory even wore a ski mask to hide his identity. His planning was for naught, as a school safety officer (on his way to work) observed Cory running from the scene.

On Friday, as I was pulling together all of my paperwork to bring home during the break, I noticed that Cory's IEP is due in two weeks. Ugh!

After meeting with my A.P., the school psychologist, and a bunch of other administrators, and adamantly arguing that I will not write an IEP for a student I don't know, I'm still stuck. This is bullshit. I know nothing of this child's academic abilities or performance. And it appears that the more that I argue that I won't write this IEP, the greater the likelihood that I'll get an official reprimand for insubordination (as stated by one administrator).

Fine. I'll write the dumb thing. But every page will state: TEACHER OF RECORD HAS NO INSTRUCTIONAL HISTORY WITH CHILD AND CANNOT MAKE ANY STATEMENTS AS TO CHILD'S PAST, PRESENT, OR ANTICIPATED ABILITIES OR BEHAVIORS. A REVIEW OF THE DOCUMENTS PROVIDED TO TEACHER OF RECORD INDICATE ...

And I will not revise it, reprimand or not.

2 comments:

Chaz said...

Good for you! Write the IEP stating that you have no first-hand information to evaluate him. You cannot receive a LIF since you are stating the truth and followed instructions.

An Educational Voyage said...

I believe you are doing exactly what you need and must do. Kudos to you for sticking to your good sense of ethics!