u/ArdenceMK

I have a student (male, 6th grade) who is functionally a toddler. He requires bathroom supervision, can't read or write, and can't be left alone at any time during the day. He is nonverbal, only speaking to repeat whatever the last word he heard was, other than that he just vocalizes loudly.

He has an AAC, but won't use it. We've spent the year repeatedly prompting, modeling, trying different pictures. But he'll still just stare blankly if prompted or use it for babbling. We have yet to get an "actual" response or request. He has a chart where we log whether he did something independently (I), prompted (P), or no response (NR). Almost everything is either P or NR. He doesn't have the motor skills for signs and can't write without hand-holding or rigid tracing.

I have seen no improvement academically, he still can't read basic sentences. If given a book he will just flip through pictures and gets aggressive if you try and read out loud or gesture to words. We do fill in the blank sheets where we glue words in sentences, but he again just stares blankly or picks randomly. In the past month or so we've shifted all goals towards communication and independence (though he will not be taking any high school classes and does not receive grades or formal tests).

Impulse control is a big barrier. If it's in his reach and he wants it, he will go for it. He's taken a drink right out of my hand and chugged it and eaten another kid's snack right out of his hands. Food and drink is now banned in our room and he'll also take from the trash. He once held a 6th grade girl down at recess to feel her braces, and he did not react to any attempts to remove him (he's also extremely large which makes physical removal difficult). When redirected or told no he doesn't show any reaction or understanding, and sometimes gets physical if you block him.

I just feel like I'm spinning my wheels and not going anywhere. He's very sweet, but he just doesn't seem to understand what's going on around him. He very much lives in his own little world and I want to try and reach him to give him an easier chance as he ages.

(Side note: our violent 5th grader that I asked for help with previously is currently gone after appendicitis. So the last weeks of school will be spent with little to no fear of getting attacked.)

We have a student who has ODD and is extremely smart. Up until 4th grade he could barely come to school at all because he was so violent. Now we have slowly moved from half days to full days, but he's still having issues.

He never does any homework, anything he does get done takes weeks because he'll just refuse or get aggressive. He failed the state tests because he just sat and played with the accessibility menu and refused to answer any questions. We had to turn his behavior chart into an online form for teachers because he'd purposely hide the chart, and sometimes he hides around the school to avoid going to class. When I try and get him to class, that's when the injuries happen.

Me and the other paras have been spit on, kicked, stabbed with pencils, cursed out, furniture thrown, and I got tackled into a wall. De-escalation gets us nowhere because he doesn't stop until he gets what he wants or is forcibly removed from the school. He was laying down kicking the SPED room cabinets until the doors were busted off (3rd time he's broken those this year) and he'd periodically stop and look at my face for a reaction before resuming. He has threatened us and made threats of violence against his classmates.

We do not have a safe room to take him when he's violent, and I can't keep him in the SPED room because I have other students in there. Our only option is to just keep sending him to the office where he gets to play card games with the principal. We have all told her about his threats towards peers and getting physical and she just smiles and says "Oh he wants a reaction!" then they play cards. His tantrums have gotten worse since then because he knows the principal will come get him and he'll get to play instead of doing classwork.

I've tried everything to prevent escalation. He doesn't care about rewards, he's told me he doesn't care if he gets held back because "they'll kick me out when I'm twenty-one anyway". When I say we have to go to class he'll just repeatedly say "No I don't" or "I don't care". He doesn't even want to show up on field trip or party days where there isn't any real classwork. When he's trying to get physical or break things I just remain impassive and remind him that he'll still have to do his work even if he acts this way. Sometimes I'll walk away and say "I won't talk to you until you've calmed down".

We're all at a loss for what to do, and the principal is not doing her job. There's been some talk about going to the school board, because he clearly needs a level of intervention we aren't capable of. The other day a coworker told me "Sometimes he looks at you and I think he's going to rip into you." I want to help him, but I also don't want to walk into the room every afternoon wondering if I'm going to be seriously hurt again.

Our 4th grade teacher has been out of work most of the year battling breast cancer. She still zoom called the kids as often as possible and we took turns using personal days to drive her to appointments. This has been very hard on students in ALL grades, as she is very beloved in our district and has done a lot for the students. She was MY 4th grade teacher, if that tells you how long she's been doing this.

Today, she got to ring the bell and was deemed all clear. Her son drove her through our school's circle drive for all the kids to come greet her. The entire elementary, including a portion of the high school, lined the driveway with signs and bells. She won't be able to come back to work just yet, but it's a big relief knowing she has officially beat cancer.