[senco-forum] exclude or not?

Hi Amanda - Just to clarify : you have taken my comment about 'contempt

This has been an emotive thread, but it's all been reasoned and reasonable,
despite the strength of positions and feelings.  (Let's not stop.)

I knew reading Amanda's original post that I would want to find reasons not
to exclude.  We don't know whether the exclusion is for a day, or longer, or
permanent; don't know whether the comment was directed, said in temper, or
said for effect; we don't know much about the person.  So we're really
addressing the characteristics of the label - ASD - and having to paint our
own pictures of the events and of him.

It's right to reflect on the issue of whether exclusion constitutes
discrimination on the grounds of disability.  The critical question may be
whether the young man understood the taboo nature of what he was doing.  If
he did understand, then the exclusion wouldn't seem to relate to his
disability.  (My call, not a legal opinion!)  He would also have reached the
line in the sand that's in place for every child (although the line has the
capacity to be moved, with positive or negative intent).

I find it hard to envisage a situation in which I would support a permanent
exclusion.

The argument that his peers will be outraged and negatively influenced if he
isn't excluded is a weak reason and a poor basis for calculating the
severity of the sanction.  The effect of the sanction on him is a more
worthy consideration.  Personally, I'd quietly canvas opinion among his
peers as to the appropriate action for the school to take.

(I suspect all the contributors have an interest in the outcome, even if you
can't provide too many more details, Amanda.)

Biff Crabbe

----- Original Message -----
From: "Astryngia" <astryngia at googlemail.com>
To: "Amanda" <amandavh at btinternet.com>
Cc: "senco-forum" <senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 7:17 PM
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] exclude or not?

> Hi Amanda - Just to clarify : you have taken my comment about 'contempt
for
> people with an ASD' out of context - I wasn't referring to your question.
> The comment I was referring to was someone else's.  It reminded me
somewhat
> about how company directors used to complain about women in the workplace
> (and sometimes still do when they think nobody is listening).  "They go
> around getting pregnant all over the place and then we have to put up with
> them puking up and taking time off - AND we have to pay them after it's
> popped while they sit around doing nothing all day ."  Fortunately, times
> change.
>
> You'll have to forgive me for saying that the problem with many schools is
> that they THINK they know autism.  Sadly, they do not. A school that
> understands would not talk about 'having made allowances', it would be
> talking with compassion about 'strategies' - how to deal with the
inevitable
> fallout, how to deal with having put your foot in it bigtime AGAIN!  How
to
> 'be in the world' WITH his disability.  An exclusion does not add to his
> skills, but learning how and when and in what way to apologise just
might...
> You can't STOP him being who he is, even if you don't like who he is.
>
> He may well be evicted, barred or banned out in the big world.  Or he may
> choose not to go to places where that might be the outcome.  He may find
> friends or guides who will help him out in such situations. He may find
the
> emotional strength to handle constant rejection for being who he is.  Or
he
> may lose every job he ever has and end up lonely, isolated and known as
the
> weird smelly man who lives on the streets and shouts at everybody who
comes
> near him.
>
> If this young man is due to leave at the end of the year, go out into the
> workplace for the first time in June, why would the school want to send
him
> off with a failure reverberating in his ears in April?  How does that help
> him get off to a good start?  What does that say about the priorities of
the
> school?  I wonder what the school mission statement says that might help
you
> solve this problem??  Don't give up on him.
>
> Everyone with an ASD needs an interpreter to cope in our society and for
our
> society to cope with them.  None of us asked for it, but that's the deal.
> After all, most people with an ASD would much rather stay home out of
> everybody's way but it's we who insist they sit in a classroom and then go
> out and earn a living and force them to be amongst other people.  I'm sure
> Sartre had an ASD (L'enfer, c'est l'autre!)
>
> Our world is changing in its understanding - although much of current
> 'understanding' is based on stereotypes - so we have a way to go as yet.
> But once you truly know the confusion and fear that goes on behind the
> curtain of an ASD, you'd find a heap of compassion, even whilst
> acknowledging they get on your nerves and make you feel angry and totally
> unappreciated and like you don't exist.
>
> But whilst WE are experiencing those emotions, THEY did not inflict them -
> how's that for a paradox! Yet the desire to ban him is a result of those
> very real feelings - of staff anger, frustration, indignation and
> impotence.  But I think if staff understood this complicated paradoxical
> transaction, they wouldn't feel the need to exclude.  Can you help them do
> that?  You have a lot of influence (even if it doesn't always feel that
> way!) as the school's expert on SEN .
>
> I have great respect for Ruth's experience but the issue of the example
set
> to other pupils is a red herring.  He gets different treatment because he
> has a disability.  Being afraid of giving the other kids 'ideas' isn't a
> reason to discriminate against a child with a disability. How would you
deal
> with a child who has Tourettes and uses foul language?  (Back to company
> directors and women employees having babies!  "It shouldn't be allowed.
> Whenever one goes off on maternity leave, you can guarantee she's followed
> by three others.")
>
> I realise that this is a challenging post and I have no desire to be
roasted
> alive, but I hope something helpful will be taken from it.
>
> Astryngia
> Adult child of, spouse of, mother of people with an ASD
> Former chair of this, that and the other
> Leading light in curriculum development (when learning was in vogue)
> And a few other things ;-)
>
>
> --
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