Isolation from teacher and other students in rural South Carolina School!
Behind the blue box!
Today has been an emotional day. I learned last night a friend's child had been punished in a way I deem harmful to his emotional health. Her eleven year old son who has dyslexia was repeatedly placed in/behind the blue wall (the children call the blue box) for hours day after day for punishment. When my friend approached the teacher and principle they could not or would not give her an answer as to what he had done, yet both agreed the punishment was acceptable. My friend does not tolerate bad behavior and wants her child properly disciplined, however this method is clearly harmful. He was also placed in silent lunch and had no recess for Wednesday and Thursday. Still she had no answers!
No answers for punishment of this kind and only justifications, she called the district office and there got no real help. She withdrew her son from school on Thursday around noon and took him straight to the doctor. Her son told his physician while in tears, "I am just retarded...there is no hope for me." The physician has given my friend an excuse for school for the next couple of days stating: Emotional Distress at school.
My christian sisters and brothers, I am outraged. I grew up in a family of educators and have many friends who are educators, none of whom would resort to this method of isolation as a form of punishment with a child. This method is archaic at best and in my opinion is clearly abusive.
Please pray for this family, but most especially this precious child. Pray he will be healed, restored, and become the triumphant human being GOD created him to be. I am confident GOD has awesome plans for this young boy and will use this experience for HIS good will and purpose.
Continued prayers for resolve and healing,
Andrea
33 comments:
Dearest Andrea,
I saw your comment on my blog for prayer. Please know that I have been praying for this child and will continue to do so. He will have my fervent covering of prayers dear sister.
I am absolutely shaken to the core by this. As I looked at the blue box and the desk and then to hear what this child had said to the doctor, I was overwhelmed with just the site of it all and crushed myself to the core on the inside. To receive no answers for this action is ridiculous in itself, but to do this to a child day after day for such long periods of time, is cruel in every sense of the word.
Hold on dear one, hold on and unleash this burden on to the Lord as best you can right now. I'm standing along side of you on His Word and Promises and our prayers and the prayers of those who read this post WILL BE HEARD BY HIM!
I love you dear woman. I'm with you in any way that I possibly can be at this time. Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.
Many hugs and much love,
Alleluiabelle
Been running around today and I came by here first and to read about that kind of punishment was just very inappropriate. On top of all, the school couldn't even give the reason for doing so. Praying for this child and his family. May this come into His light and let it be exposed. Take care sister Andrea. God bless. Love and prayers-Rosel
Andrea, 1st I am sad for the family going through this and am praying for them. 2nd, the Friday funny joke was meant to laugh and not upset. If I offended you...that was not my intent and I am sorry! I have several friends who have gone through and still going through some of the same things.
I would never make fun of their situation.
Blessings!
Andrea:
This kind of punishment outrages me also. I shared this story with my daughter and we validate your feelings. Certainly I will pray for this family and this 11 year old boy. Please keep us up to date.
Thank you, dear friend, for your kind comments on my blog. I love being here with Susanna and her smiles thrill me. She's a cuddler!!
Have a good day and I always pray for your health.
Love,
Mary
Andrea,
Truly praying for the family and this loved little boy. I am appalled but not surprise by the treatment of our children in the schools today. With so much of God being removed, and more students being crammed into one more classroom, teachers are at wits end.
This by no means, justifies the treatment of the little boy. This does nothing to change the behavior and only makes the child feel less than worthy.
My littlest daughter went through the same thing, and even though the principle and teacher involved wouldn't change the behavior, we did. We removed her from the school and choose homeschooling as our option.
I would schedule a meeting with all the parties involved and even the school board. This type of behavior has only one word, discrimination!
I can climb down off my soap box now and begin to pray for the teacher and principal as well that their hearts may be softened from God.
Love and Hugs ~ Kat
That is very sad, Andrea. I will pray for the boy and the family. I hope they find the courage to fight this and put an end to it in their district.
Thank you for making people aware of this situation!
We are in the wonderful position to be able to homeschool, and stories like this only serve to reinforce that dedision.
Your friends are in my prayers!
This truly hurts my heart. This is beyond wrong. I will be praying for this family, especially this precious boy, God bless him.
This is totally unexceptable behavior on behalf of a school system! This child is not retarded. He has been abused. That's strong, but true. It is total abuse, especially if the teacher can't even come up with a behavior problem of any kind. I am an educator, and this saddens me greatly.
I will be praying for your friend and her precious son.
How outrageous!!! I'm not surprised due to the times we live in when it appears that "everything" is acceptable! This is not acceptable! I am praying for the emotional, mental and spiritual healing of this precious boy and for Godly wisdom for his Mom to know where to go and who to talk to to have this situation handled. I also pray that the other students who witnessed this will SEE THIS AS WRONG and not think that anyone should be treated this way. May GOD convict the hearts of the principal and teacher for putting this child through something like this that has hurt his spirit.
I come alongside of my sisters that I know well here and echo in their chorus of injustice and will pause and pray for this family and mostly for this precious little one who has deemed himself 'retarded'.
May the Lord, Himself, stand watdh over this sweet child and be his Balm of Gilead and erase the torturous comments and behaviors that have been dealt to him.
May conviction set heavily upon anyone who reads this and may they be drawn to pray. May conviction be a heavy heart upon the teacher and principal and may they repent. In the name of Jesus, Lord of all Lords, King of all Kings, we ask it....Amen
Your friend has my prayers and the prayers of my home church...this is awful.. every child is special and should be loved..
A similar thing happened to my nephew in the '80's. It's very important for this family to fight this treatment. My nephew STILL struggles with feelings of inferiority because of this kind of treatment in second grade. It is unacceptable and shows a lack of proper training and/or ability to work with a student. Prayers going up for this child and his family.
Father God, I pray for this precious child. Please protect him from further harm, and whisper Your Truths in his ear. Lord, please wrong this right, and prompt us to pray often for justice in this situation. We believe you can rescue this boy, in body, mind and spirit. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Thank you! Everyone for your love, support, and prayers. A huge thank you to Mary at Divinely Designed for posting a link to my page with comments about her concerns about this situation. GOD BLESS all of you...Please keep praying. We are trying to make a difference so this does NOT happen to another child in "any" state. Please prayerfully consider posting as Mary did on your blogs.
Serving GOD together...andrea
What a shocking, heartbreaking thing to happen. Putting a child with dyslexia into solitary confinement in full view of all the others students, for hours day after day, is totally unacceptable. Not only does this wound the poor child, but this will affect the attitudes of all the other students towards this child too.
I would recommend the child's parents to firstly demand answers and not take excuses or delaying tactics, from the school. Why is this being done? Quite obiously the teacher is unable or unwilling to cope, if this is their solution? Teachers have a responsibility to look after all of their students, not stick some out of sight like this.
Sometimes parents need to fight for their kids for how they are treated at school. And if the school won't respond, fight at the next level up.
Otherwise, is there another school he can go to instead?
Praying as well. Dyslexia affects many, and should not be discriminated against.
This is the sort of thing you would expect to happen the 1950's, NOT in the year 2009. The teacher and the principal both show a distinct lack of understanding as to what is required of someone who has a duty of care towards children. Praying for the little boy.
Andrea,
I am so sorry to hear about your friend's son. I am praying for him and his mom to know what to do. I know nothing like that would ever take place in the counties I taught. I am cerain something should be done about it, but again I don't know the part your friend has to play.
I am praying God will reveal Himself to the boy and that he would know his tremendous value in Christ. I love you sis and appreciate the good friend you are to so many, including me:)
This poor little boy. I am so sorry to hear about this. How many other children are sent behind that blue wall as well?
I am shocked that the parents can't get any cooperation from the school. We have news anchors here in NC that we can contact to do reports on things like this. Has she considered taking this to the local news station? The squeaky wheel gets the grease, right? Please pass that idea along to your friend IF you think she is interested.
Bless you and God bless the children who are subjected to rejection and humiliation.
Beth
This is a disgusting state of affairs. Discipline is needed for all children otherwise they would have no boundaries and would not learn right from wrong but the way they are treating this little boy is unjust. He has a right to be treated fairly and with respect by the teachers whose care his is in. It is no wonder children become rebelious when they are treated like this. I would hope this situation is not just swept under the carpet. Maybe these replies could be emailed to the school principal and any other relevant authorities to let them know we will not stand for this sort of abuse of authority. Please keep us informed as to any action taken on behalf of this little boy.
Blessings Gail
Thank you, Again. Beth about your suggestion. I have even sent a link to my blog to local media in SC and so far it has not been publisized. I have not heard today, but as of yesterday.
Keep praying..we will all make a difference for this child and many others. Serving GOD together, andrea
Andrea,
I posted this on my site yesterday. See comments from others there as well.
Love you,
Alleluiabelle
My son also was diagnosed with dyslexia several years ago. My other son was diagnosed with ADHD. Sadly, I discovered, public schools in our area were not in tune with these learning differences. I switched to private schools and that is where we have been ever since. However, because the public schools provided services, I still had to strongly advocate for both of my children. Thankfully, I have a background in education as well as support of therapists and my son's classroom teachers, so I was not as easily bullied by administration. And, both are doing well and NEVER received the type of discipline your friend's child did which is an outrage and unexcusable. I find most teachers do not understand boys, let alone those with learning differences. Is there a private school in her area that is affordable and trained to be more sensitive? Also, if her son sees a therapist, that person needs to be involved as well. The more people with professional degrees you can get to support you, the more of an impact can be made on the school district if you decide to stay there. My prayers are lifted for you and your son.
I meant to say 'some teachers' not 'most' because there are quite a few educators who reinvent their teaching styles and lessons to include every child's learning abilities and enable self esteem to be built not broken.
Just want to thank you for passing by my site and giving me an update about Colton. I'm glad that you did something right away to help out your friend and that is to request prayers from all of us which is the best help we all can do first thing! And we must never cease in lifting Colton up and his family. To God be the glory. God bless you sis Andrea and may He guide Colton's family with His wisdom and protect them. Take care yourself.
Colton continues to be in my prayers.
Thanks for stopping by our ministry blog. My personal blog is Marsha's Musings.
Hi Andrea,
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I am so sorry for what this family is going through and has to fight against! I am praying there will be a solution that comes through. Thank you for sharing about it!
Oh, just reading this galls me! It's not clear if he's being punished because of his learning disability or because of behavior, but with the lack of answers it's clearly not because of bad behavior or else they'd 'fess up.
Imagining what this is doing to his self-esteem is heartbreaking! I will certainly be in prayer for this family and for this Mom as she protects her baby chick. Oh, arrrgh!
Folks, Thank you all for your prayers. Things are not going as well as I had hoped today. She met with an attorney who told her he NO longer takes this type case. She explained last friday when making the appt. why she wanted it and was told she had a case and given an appt. Now, he say he doesnt do these cases anymore. To say the least she is discouraged and frustrated. Please everyone...KEEP PRAYING.
I hope to post an update soon with a link back to this article....I am not good with the techy stuff and have to figure that part out. Thanks again, andrea
Sweet Andrea,
My prayers are fervently being said for Colton and his family. Tell them not to get discouraged and to keep perservering. He's not the only lawyer around. God is watching over all of this and will lead them.
Dear Heavenly Father,
I humbly bow my head at this moment and ask for your tender mercies, love, guidance, knowledge, wisdom, grace, courage, strength, peace, serenity and so much more to flood Colton and his parents. Lord, you know this situation. As a unity of praying sisters and brothers with lift Colton and his parents up higher and higher and higher to you, into the highest of heavenlies. They need your divine intervention and miracles to happen right now Father. Father, I ask that you lead Colton and his parents right now. Point them in the right direction of your hand Father for you are watching over all of this. Shower them with your blessings, with your grace. We gerd them up with your full armor for them. We ask that you place ten thousand upon ten thousands of angels and warring angels around them. Encamp them around this family at all times never leaving them alone. Let them feel your presence Lord, let them feel your grace. Let them see through your eyes, hear with your ears, and speak with your mouth with all of it directed by you this very day. I pray all of this in Jesus precious name. Amen!
Thank you Father for what you are doing right now and for what you are about to do today in their lives.
I love you Andrea and this family. Please relay that to them. Oh Father, give them faith, believe, hope and trust in you at all times in Jesus precious name. Amen.
Hugs,
Alleluiabelle
I actually spent many a day in a closet in my old school... and God's grace was there... and healed me up, and gave me hope! I am praying that God will heal this beautiful young boy and mould him into the Man of God he is destined to be!!!
I am so sorry Andrea. And I pray that this young man will know deep within his dear little heart the HOPE of our dear sweet Jesus in even in this unsettling time in his life. Joining you in prayer for healing and restoration.
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