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Well said, Pemberley.

This is heartbreaking, Irena. I'm so sorry your son is being harassed and wantonly discriminated against for his disability. I can only imagine the toll it is taking on him and you.

The administrators at your school sound cruel and irrational. They need to be hit with the full extent of your legal power. Those kinds of abuses are never acceptable. To me, it's akin to taking a paraplegic out of a wheelchair and deriding and vilifying him because he can't walk.

My heart goes out to your family. Do keep us posted. As always, I'm cheering for you.

So sorry this is happening.

I hope the school will respond and make appropriate changes!

Keep us posted!

Thanks so much all. And thank you Pemberly, great post - good reminder. The principal emailed back wanting to have a "meeting for me to hear the teacher's side" and contends that "that is only fair." He does this every time I complain about a teacher's disparaging comments or reluctance to give accommodations! I just want him to say "thanks I'll talk to said teacher and it won't happen again." But instead he turns it into this fiasco where I have to come in to meet and hear the teacher "defend herself." It's just a way to bully me into not complaining, I think. (btw, What happened was that ATP uses DS's advanced math teacher's classroom for ATP and so she happened to be in the class. When the substitute ATP teacher starting giving DS scribing accommodations b/c he was falling so far behind in his writing the math teacher admonished him from her desk telling him "the substitute teacher has to write for him because he can't follow along!") I told him I was confident he could handle it and he wrote a long email back saying he's not doing anything unless we all hear the teacher's side. So, I am not getting sucked in by this again this year. I forwarded it to my attorney. I hope she can write a letter and that should sort this out quickly. Such jerks.

So, of course they are lying now. Saying that the teacher never said that. Why on earth does anyone think that an 8 year old would spontaneously make this stuff up out of the blue? (I guess because he's "always" "out of touch with reality"?) But every time it happens they say DS is lying. And then it's a 2nd grader's word again the teacher-that-has-been-there-for-years.


Short of putting a listening device on DS what the heck stops this? So frustrating! I'd have so much more respect for them if they just said "we'll take care of it." Instead of going on to insist that my child is lying pathologically.

I am waiting for my attorney's response.

My 8 year old says some things that are truly bizarre and just plain made-up, but you know your kid and whether he has that tendency.
DD came home from school one day shortly after the school year started and told me that her writing teacher made them play a "game" where they all had to stand in two rows and hide their faces with their hands. A few kids at a time were "tappers" and had to go around tapping other kids' heads when the teacher asked questions. DD said the teachers questions were things like "Who is mean and catty?" "Who can keep an important secret" (sounds like something a pedophile would ask), "Who don't you get along with". For the "mean and catty" question DD tapped the heads of two kids that she has had problems with in the past. One of the kids was of course peeking, and slapped her after she tapped him.
This sounded like such a bizarre story that I didn't think it could possibly be true. What kind of third grade teacher would have the kids play a game like that? It wouldn't even be appropriate for older kids. I called another mom to see if DD was lying or if it was true. She asked her DD and her DD confirmed everything my DD said (plus added more bizarre questions). So in that case it was all true! But sometimes I never know. She comes up with strange stories sometimes and later admits that she was making it up.

The other mom (who I asked about the head tapping game) was a bit horrified and went to the regular classroom teacher and asked about it. The teacher said "sounds like it was a fun game." and totally pooh poohed it, saying this other teacher is "great". They are all going to defend each other, no matter what a parent or child says. I wonder if you can ask another mom in the class if her child heard that comment? If you have verification or a witness, maybe it would be more evidence?

I hate to sound like a mom who thinks her kid is perfecto but he really doesn't lie like that. He would never out of the blue make up an entire story. He is actually really uncomfortable lying in general (like denying he took a candy). Both previous teachers have noted pleasantly he's honest to a fault. Plus it just came out in the course of discussing the good and the bad of the day. He had no agenda but us chatting about the stuff that made him happy and sad during the day. He has no reason to lie. I hear you tho - his best buddy makes all kinds of stuff up not about teachers but wild stories like that there is a secret passageway in the boys bathroom that led him to a scientist who is conducting experiments lol.

Have you considered asking your attorney about the laws in your state for tape recording what is going on in the classroom? Just a thought -- I am sure your child is telling the truth, so it would help to have proof.

It is a lot of work constantly having to point out learning differences to people who are supposedly in the business of educating the human mind.

Wouldn't you think they would have to understand the human mind first before they could teach humans?

So many times I want to say, "Would it kill you to read a book?"

Aren't people in the education field required to be educated?

We are as confused / perplexed as you are. It just does not compute or make sense to what we consider a logical or even a reasonable mind.

That's when I try to have compassion and think, "Maybe they can't see or figure out what is going on." Their brains (for some unstated reason) can't detect or evaluate what they are doing and that it is the wrong thing to do.

Shameful!!!

Will you remain at the school next year? Hoping you say no...