Oh dear, that would be very distracting! Can you go into the classroom yourself armed with a can of flyspray and a mini-vac? Or give DS a rolled up newspaper to whack it if he's brave enough?
I also wouldn't bring it up with the teacher I don't think ...
LOL! I guess I will just have to go in there in Hazmat suit tomorrow (I am scared of brown recluses, too). No way would DS do that--this is a longstanding fear of his.
No time to reply really eco, but fwiw, I've found that we see this same type of reaction with our ds' teachers and counselors whenever we try to report something not being followed in the 504/IEP/whatever. Rather than address our question, we get immediate bounce-back re something that is allegedly our ds not living up to something-or-other. Re that - you have to let it not throw you off. Keep the issue that is the true issue at the forefront of *your* communication with the school. If they say other things are going on, ask for details or respond briefly as appropriate, but don't let them use that to get past the actual issue.
I think I handled it okay--I asked for specifics and teacher agreed to make sure his planner is more detailed. I just don't like the tone, but can deal with that part. If he's not supposed to do what's in his 504, why was that accommodation made? Thanks for good advice.
Re the spider - my advice to your ds is to tell all his classmates at once (in a voice that can be heard) "Look! There's a cool spider by my desk that looks like a Brown Recluse!" I'm guessing you'd then have 1/2 the class screaming and running from the classroom, and the other 1/2 jumping up to immediately check out the spider. No one would be listening to the teacher or care what she had to say. That might serve as a life lesson for the teacher that spiders are, in fact, a big deal to most kids your ds' age!
I wouldn't be surprised if he did something kind of like that, already. Thing is--for DS, he might use humor/distraction to cope. This never, ever ends well. I know he is actually pretty fried out by having the spider in his orbit--both his grandmother and aunt have had brown recluse bites, and they are really pretty serious. Don't know if this really is one (but DS swears that he shines the flashlight on it with his cell phone and it recedes into its shadowy corner--ha ha!) I guess I'll just go in tomorrow and kill the stupid thing.
