Lounge of Doom

VII Communication
B. Elaboration of significant episode:
Each and every day at school my teacher and I get a break for lunch. (Praise God.) This is an amazing time to take a break from the classroom, sit down, and enjoy some food. Everyday my teacher and I head to the teachers lounge/work room. Each day seems to follow the same pattern.

Today I figured the teachers would be discussing the amazing long weekend and their fun family parties or at least current news events. Nope. Today they fell back into their pattern: talking/complaining about students. It seems like most day the discussion is in regards to one of my own students, yes the special needs students.

This discussion today was about the multiple absences of one of my fourth grade students. He seems to have a pattern of missing every Friday and a few days in between on most weeks. His own general education classroom teacher was in the lounge and my cooperating LD teacher was there. But, there were many other teachers who should not have been involved in the situation. After hearing the conversation it sounds as if our student (labeled L.D.) has the highest IQ in the house. This boy is smarter than both his parents. His mother especially cannot even physically restrain him or catch him because she has bad knees. This boy runs around this house in the mornings because his parents can't catch him. Many days he misses the bus. The bus driver has reported that he can see the students messing around. Some mornings our student goes out to the bus stop, then when his parents are not looking leaves and hides under the house. After the bus drives by the student goes back into the house. His mother cannot get him to school because they do not have a car. He can't walk because school is too far away. So he misses school many times, putting him farther and farther behind. My teacher commented that last year he only had 1 test score in a whole 9 weeks, because he was gone so much.


C. Analysis of Episode:
My heart hurts for this family situation of this student. I am sure it is hard to have parents who can't support you as well. He had learned how to manipulate and work the system. Some of the other teachers were making rude comments about this student and his family.

These rude comments seem to be an everyday occurrence. It is depressing only to hear negative comments about the classroom. I feel like I don't even want to go to the teacher's lounge because they only badmouth the students or the families or extended families.

I guess I just wonder whatever happened to positive, uplifting, and encouraging discussion. Some student issues should only be discussed between the special education teacher, general education teacher and the social worker if necessary. I fee like the students' lives should be more private than they currently are.