Sooooo, on Tuesday of this week, I was working away, reviewing student essays online and hoping to get my flex hour shift done early so I could have some time to do other things, when my cell phone rang. And of course it was the Vice Principal - yes, the selfsame vp who had rejected my suggestion that we take Robyn out of those two middle classes and let her work on her own. She had some very familiar words for me: "Robyn is not having a very good day." (Perhaps I should tell them just to call me on the days Robyn is having a very good day. That would save us all a lot of time. But, I digress.)

It seems Robyn had been having meltdowns in those very same middle classes. Again. (Just let's set aside, for the time being, the fact that I have begged teachers to puh-leeeze let me know if Robyn is not controlling her behavior at school so that I can address the problem, and that they apparently have not been doing so.)

Ms. VP told me that Robyn had yelled "shut up" at another student, with no apparent provocation. In addition, she had shouted some profanities and made an apparent threat to that same student. She had also put her feet on the desk, despite a teacher's repeated admonitions not to do so.* In short, Robyn had been the source of repeated disruptions. She would be disciplined by serving two days of In-School Suspension.

She wanted to emphasize that Robyn's meltdown seemed unprovoked. And then she asked me this question:

"Do you have any suggestions?"

Um,well, yeah.

Do I have any suggestions?!

Absolutely stunning!

(If you don't understand why I was so stunned, read my previous two posts.)

I want you all to know that, after reminding her that I had already given her my best suggestion only to have it rejected out of hand as beyond the realm of all possibility, I told her that I was nearing the conclusion that the public school system has no place for Robyn. And I want you to know that, even though it is illegal for her, as a public educator, to deny my child the services she needs to be educated in the public school system, she came damn near close to agreeing with me. I mean to say that, without directly saying, "yes, you should pull your child out of our school", she made it clear to me that she, for one, does not believe that they will be able to accommodate Robyn's needs at that middle school.

Well. Well, well, well. Well. I'm not giving up just yet -- I'll homeschool her if I have to. But there are a few things let to try. For one thing, there's still the ISP evaluation that the school psychologist is supposed to be doing. (I haven't heard anything about that this week.) Her therapist says he wants to get together with the ISP team at the school and explain to them what Robyn's needs are and how to meet them. There's also the possibility of some sort of medication to reduce her anxiety level and more occupational therapy to help her with her hypertactility.

I'm not sure how much more resistance from the school administration and teachers I'm interested in dealing with. It stresses me! The teachers don't believe Robyn has any sort of developmental issue - they just think Robyn's mamma hasn't socialized her properly and is now trying to cover up for her. The admins just want life to stay peaceful and easy at their happy little middle school and, frankly, I don't think they are the least bit interested in setting up accommodations for children who have special needs, ADA or no ADA. 

By the way, Robyn has since explained to me that the kid she was yelling at had offended her in band class six days earlier by responding unappreciatively to Robyn's show-offish display of her trombone-playing prowess. When asked why she chose to resurrect this conflict in Social Studies class, dear sweet Robyn had no explanation. So there's that, for whatever it's worth.