Parents are fuming after finding out that a special education teacher posted comments online that appear to demean her students with disabilities.
Amber Russell who is a special educator at a Roachdale, Ind. middle school posted a series of comments on her Facebook page including, “I love dumb people. I call it job security.”
Though her page is not publicly available, some students’ parents are Facebook friends with Russell and brought the postings to the attention of school officials.
Now the school district is investigating Russell to assess whether or not her actions violated the district’s employment policies.
“If she feels comfortable enough to post that on Facebook having 425 friends, what’s happening behind closed doors? How is she treating children?” a parent of one of Russell’s students told 6News, the Indianapolis, Ind. ABC affiliate. To read more click here.
I think this needs more exploration. Was she referring to her kids as dumb? If so, that was really bad. I always told mine (severe/profound) that they were “very intelligent”. They loved that big, positive word.
It sounds as though the lady has burnout. Bad burnout, which is common in special ed, especially with those who teach mild disabilities, are in the wrong specialty or teach emotional/behavioral disordered classes can make people choose their words poorly. Middle school is the hardest level. Severe/profound teachers who are where they are suppposed to be fight to keep their positions. I never burned out on my kids in 27 years, just on bad co-workers and obnoxious administrators.
There is an issue of freedom of speech here. Her page was private. I think she should have put up a special page for parents and maybe a grouch page for friends and co-workers. I think what she wrote should be a trigger to observe her in class or secretly turn on the intercom and find out if she is verbally abusive, if she has high expectations for her kids, if she treats them like the children of God they are and like she would want her own child to be treated.
While I can absolutely see the reason the parents have taken offense, I can also see the humor. ALL teachers find job security in “dumb” people. Seriously? If nobody needed to be taught anything, they’d be out of jobs!
Personally, I think she needs to step away from teaching period – especially special needs students! Burnout or no burnout, there is NO excuse for even making her type of comment, in public and/or online – even in jest.
I’ve been teaching Significant Cognitive Disabilities (Sever/Profound) middle school students for 16 years, and previously worked in an ICF/MR with adults w/ cognitive disabilities. Ms. Russell’s comment would NEVER come out of my mouth and if said in my presence, would have resulted in an explosion! After 16 years, I definitely am burned out at the moment…mostly by a couple of parents, not their kids (who are certainly ‘challenging’ at times!) and am taking a break for this next school year. I love what I do – if I didn’t, there’s no way I could have stayed in this type of class…..I can’t imagine teaching anything else! It can be tough at times in these kinds of classrooms at the middle school level – dealing with aggressive or injurious behaviors, ‘runners’, sensory issues, meltdowns/tantrums, toileting duties, and yes, puberty onset being thrown in the mix – all the while attempting to keep up the academic instruction for 6-7 students ranging from the profound level to low moderate. I’ve been injured, aggravated, angry, physically & mentally exhausted thru the years but there is nothing in this world that could cause those kinds of words (dumb, stupid, the ‘R’ word, etc.) to exit my lips…if so, then I would have been in the wrong profession! I don’t even think that anyone teaching reg. ed. should say those kinds of things about any student………GO FIND ANOTHER JOB!!!!!!!
If we’re supposed to be teaching/showing non-disabled students how to accept and include students with disabilities in the classrooms, schools & communities, how could we not find this teacher’s behavior totally offensive and inexcusable? I hope they follow through with this and kick her silly behind out of the classroom and let someone who wants to teach children have job security!!!!!
She’s not dumb, she’s an idiot!