What to Know
Supporting your children through challenges and stressors at school can be difficult for any parent. For parents of neurodivergent kids, it can get even more complicated, especially if it feels like your kid isn’t getting the support and understanding that they need.
One mom from Georgia has raised concerns about how her son’s school has disciplined him. He is six years old and has autism. In the past few years, his school has disciplined him more than 30 times and suspended him 14 times, according to a report from Atlanta News First. The mom, Kristin Medina, is trying to advocate for her son, who now seems to feel like “a bad kid.”
The mom was ‘baffled’ by a sandwich-related suspension.
According to Atlanta News First, the six-year-old student, John, bit his sandwich into the shape of a gun while at Sara Harp Minter Elementary last year. He then reportedly pointed it at one of his classmates, which ultimately resulted in a suspension.
Kristin told the publication that the school surprised her by reaching out and telling her that her son would be suspended.
“They informed me over that phone call that he was getting suspended for it,” she told the publication. “And you’re just like baffled.”
After this happened, John’s family decided to hire extra support.
Former special education director (from a different school) Donna Reynolds would represent them at meetings with the school district, the family decided.
Reynolds pointed out that in addition to having autism, John is only six years old. “I don’t think a six-year-old without autism would understand that that’s not appropriate,” she said.
And it’s not that she thinks kids should just get away with whatever they do at that age without anyone saying anything about it. However, she pointed out that there are less extreme alternatives to suspension—and sometimes those can be more effective as well.
“They need to look at the whole picture,” she told the publication. “You need to look at his age. You need to look at his disability. You need to look at past behavior, and you need to determine whether this is more of a teaching moment or is this something that really needs discipline, and is that discipline then going to change the behavior?”
The mom is sharing this story now to increase awareness.
She’s hoping to avoid incidents like this in the future. At the same time, she also wants to help other parents who have had similar experiences with their children’s schools.
In addition to the sandwich incident, the school has John disciplined John for drawing a pilgrim shooting a turkey, and for aggressive behavior, like kicking and punching another kid.
Kristin can tell that the disciplinary actions have been hard on her son. Because of that, they’ve been hard for her to deal with as well.
“There were definitely times when he would come home and say ‘I’m a bad kid’ and that’s really hard to hear as a mom,” she said.
In a statement shared with the publication, Fayette County Schools Superintendent Jonathan Patterson said the school district is “committed to meeting parents to try to work through these challenging situations.”
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