Teacher lets Morningside students vote out classmate, 5
Teacher lets Morningside students vote out classmate, 5
Photo provided by the family
Alex Barton
After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn’t like about Barton’s 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.
By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex — who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism — out of the class.
Melissa Barton filed a complaint with Morningside’s school resource officer, who investigated the matter, Port St. Lucie Department spokeswoman Michelle Steele said. But the state attorney’s office concluded the matter did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse, so no criminal charges will be filed, Steele said.
Port St. Lucie Police no longer are investigating, but police officials are documenting the complaint, she said.
Steele said the teacher confirmed the incident took place.
Portillo could not be reached for comment Friday.
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Action UPDATE!
May 25, 2008 at 7:13 pm
That’s terrible! Everyone has a right to education, and it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got autism or not – you never throw an intelligent child out of a school class. I say – whack that teacher over the head with a book that explains autism.
I myself suffer from Asperger Syndrome.
May 26, 2008 at 8:28 am
This poor kid…whatever happened to Kindergarten being about finger paints and music… what a way to start your school years!
May 27, 2008 at 6:45 am
All kids deserve to feel loved and included. That teacher needs some counseling on understanding her role in the classroom.
July 18, 2008 at 11:19 pm
There needs to be some sort of action for this. I think the teacher should be fired, or at least taught on what aspergers syndrome is. A kid with aspergers syndrom at that age cannot really control his actions very well, and he cannot read the body language of others, as a common symptom of aspergers, so he couldn’t tell if his classmates were being annoyed.
I also have aspergers.