Kathleen Garrett, 50, is facing felony counts. So what? This case is different. She is charged with physically abusing her four students who have autism. As a special ed teacher, I did not know how to react to this article because it made me feel numb. Abuse? Such a heavy word, especially doing this to children with disabilities. Sure, they could be quite a handful, especially those who are bigger physically and/or those who cannot really communicate their needs and wants. They have the tendency to physically hurt others, not really intentionally but accidentally, especially when they are frustrated.

As a preschool teacher during my early years of teaching, we have been told to not physically touch the children to avoid accusations of hurting them. We were shown how to physically hold them, like holding them on their back when walking, not holding the arms to avoid being misinterpreted as pulling. Fast forward to now, my younger students receive cuddles from me, we do lots of high-fives, we hold hands. The older ones too, we do high fives and high tens. Sometimes, I would even touch their arms, whenever I want to convey to them my thoughts or to stress a point, if they did something or tell me they did or their parents tell me they did something not good. I am thinking now if it is best to stop doing this lest I be accused to physical abuse. Hmmm…I hope they would not think as such.

Read the story here and here. Read some reactions here. Read the verdict here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 28th, 2007 at 9:11 am and is filed under Autism, Being a (Special Ed) Teacher, special education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.