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Sensitive Issue Re: disruptive pupil in class

  • 27-11-2015 12:59pm
    #1
    handprinter
    Registered Users Posts: 2 ✭


    hi all,

    there is a child in my sons Junior Infants class who seems to be very disruptive. Usually every day or so he hits and pushes my son and others and has recently been sticking pencils into a couple of children. The class is a mixed class and from what I am hearing he usually just does this to the boys. He has been reprimanded on a number of occasions and his parents brought in.

    one parent that i know of who's child was 'stabbed' with the pencil made a complaint and was told it would be dealt with but the boy is still there doing the same things.

    I was really just wondering before I go to the principal about him hitting my son, what is the general policy here? To be honest, it's at the point now where I feel the child should be suspended or expelled because my son and others are coming home upset and not wanting to go into school because of this one child. In other walks of life this would be considered assault, and whilst it's easy to dismiss this as just kids being kids, try telling that to several 5 year olds who are on the receiving end of this.

    I presume that a Junior Infant child would not be suspended though, so really I was hoping to hear other peoples thoughs/experiences etc about what I should be saying to the principal (we did mention it to the teacher a number of weeks ago).

    I've thought about not putting this next bit in, but actually I do feel it's relevant. The child is a member of shall we say a minority and from what I see (though it's really just my own opinion and the opinion of a few other affected parents), the childs parents don't seem to care despite being called into the school a few times already. I realise many responses now may focus on questioning the need for me to mention that but I feel it's relevant so I have included it.


Comments

  • #2
    Moonbeam
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 18,952 Mod ✭✭✭✭Moonbeam


    I would go and talk to the teacher again.
    It is possible to suspend a child in junior infants but not common.
    It sounds like the child may have additional needs. This could be anything from language barriers,emotional needs to ASD etc.


  • #3
    lazygal
    Registered Users Posts: 12,644 ✭✭✭✭lazygal


    No children should have to put up with a dangerous environment. I'd have a word with the teacher that if things aren't resolved by x date you'll need to escalate the complaint to the principal. Maybe the board of management too. Just because one child has additional needs doesn't mean everyone else has to put up with difficult behaviour.


  • #4
    handprinter
    Registered Users Posts: 2 ✭handprinter


    found out today after school that both teacher and principal have been spoken to by a few parents about this boy already. I'm sure their hands are tied to a certain extent but the child is still in class and still being disruptive to others today (pinching, pushing etc).

    the school is very good in catering for children with certain needs. clearly i'm no expert but i would think that in this case it's possibly a discipline issue, or in fact a lack of discipline. we live in a small community and the boy is behaving in a similar manner to other boys where he lives. His parents have been approached by other parents and they have subsequently been threatened. So this is what we are dealing with here.


  • #5
    byhookorbycrook
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 12,475 Mod ✭✭✭✭byhookorbycrook


    I would encourage you to document everything. The school can't really expel a child easily (and I know you feel this is not "easy" but in my experience it won't cut much ice with the DES) ,especially an infant for this, but they might be able to get an SNA/resource hours. The more documented incidents the school can have to support the need for extra resources, the better the chance.


  • #6
    Spread the love
    Closed Accounts Posts: 79 ✭✭Spread the love


    I had a a child in my class in Junior Infants exactly as you're describing before. He was very disruptive and violent to other children in the class and even other teachers. I think he hit the principal at one stage. The only person he didn't hit was me for some reason. We eventually got a psychologist in to assess him and he had a severe emotional behavioural disorder and he was allocated resource hours and eventually calmed down a bit. Anyway, I think I would be very careful with this issue as the child in question might have a special need and the school could be waiting to getting him assessed for example (waiting lists for psychologists are extremely long!). Especially if he has just started school. Like the previous poster stated, document everything but just be sensitive too. I'm sure his parents and the teacher are not oblivious to his behaviour but are waiting for the correct resources to help him to come into place. All of these services have been cut severely over the last few years and it's a disgrace!


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  • #7
    pwurple
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,449 ✭✭✭✭pwurple


    Is there any way you can teach your boy to stay out of his way? My daughter went to preschool with two boys with autism. They were fairly violent, and over a year older than her and the other children, so could hit quite a bit harder than her.

    The preschool did their best, but we told her to keep a distance from them, which seemed to work best. At the end of the year they were all best buddies!


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