Children in classrooms across America go to public schools each day with backpacks, lunches, and many with severe mental illnesses including emotional disturbance and Schizophrenia. This particular group of children are categorized as special education and somewhere in their modifications and Behavioral Intervention Plan are tips, tricks, and ideas to ensure they can learn in the least restrictive and safest environment.
They are safe. I am just not so sure others around them always are.
This post isn't about them.
It's about the rest of us.
You see when a child with a severe mental illness suffers a psychotic episode in a classroom, there is little a certified and professional experienced teacher can do except press the office button and yell "code red!"
The administrators and nurse then run down the hallway.
We then wait for what feels like hours, escort our students into the hallway, and hope the pencils being stabbed into the desk won't find its way into flesh.
The student is restrained, calmed down, and taken away. The remainder of the students are then taken back into the classroom. Children's hands are shaking. Questions are being asked. We are told to simply proceed with the lesson and straighten up our desks as if nothing ever happened. We are told not to answer any questions our students may have because of child privacy laws.
The children have many questions.
The teachers have more like, are the rest of my students really safe? Is there anything else we can do to make sure this doesn't happen again? What would I do if he brought a weapon to school and I made him angry?
As the student is escorted out with his hands behind his back, many ask if he is being arrested. Many ask if he is okay. He is not. He is a child "with paperwork" and children with paperwork never get arrested.
They get to go to class the next period.
Look, here's the reality as teachers see it: paperwork, files, endless meetings, and the law do not keep teachers and students safe from children with severe cases of mental illness because we, as teachers, are ill-equipped, untrained, and God help us-flat-out afraid sometimes.
See, this is not about them.
It's about the rest of us.
This conversation is about ill-equipped, untrained, and fearful educators. Educators just like me.
I know I don't know what it's like to be a parent of a child with a severe mental illness but I do know what it's like to be an educator attempting to teach a child with a severe mental illness alongside 25 other children as we are all at the mercy of a parent that may or may not have given their child their morning meds.
I know what that's like and so do the rest of the school children.
And yes, I know they are children of God. I know that it is not the fault of the child. I know that but educators can't help it either when children in our classrooms with severe mental illness are not shown follow through at home or are having a "bad day" because of the weather change so they decide to cuss us out, physically hurt other children, or simply disrupt the learning of other students.
I love and care for all my students-even the one that almost tore my earlobe off because my shiny earrings caused him to lunge at me. I had no idea he suffered from a severe form of mental illness. I found out later when I signed for his file. I still have my ear and he still has a part of his frontal lobe missing.
More recently I recall quickly escorting my students out of the classroom and into the hallway because an emotional disturbed child was having yet another outburst in my Art class. For days I thought, "if that was my own child, what would I do? Would I want him to be given an opportunity to a public education or would I embrace his illness and give him the proper care and education that is appropriate for him? Would I take extra care of him and make sure to give him his daily medication and get the proper treatment or would I die a little each day at the thought of his future?
Would I be able, as his mother, to see past him being my child and consider society and the danger he might place on others? Would I be able to call and have him arrested in the middle of the night because I am afraid?
I never came to peace with any of those hypothetical questions as a teacher but what I can say is that teachers, administrators, and even most school nurses are inadequately trained and really unprepared for a child to come into our classroom that suffers from particular mental illnesses that escalate to dangerous and life-threatening situations for the rest of our students.
The annual beginning of the year mentally ill student lowdown goes something like this: we are given a red binder, told that it is confidential, read it, sign off on it, remember the 2,000 pages inside it, teach the remainder of the students, remember the 2,000 pages when a child has an episode. Oh, and don't forget to abide by the laws governing our classroom and student rights.
Meanwhile, we must keep the rest of the children safe, teach them the content, keep sharp objects like scissors away from the students, even if they need them for Art class.
So I read all the pages, highlight the hard facts, tips, and tricks and even research a bit to be overly prepared for the Schizophrenic child I will have in my class that year.
We do our part.
Their tired and frustrated yet loving parents don't always do theirs.
I know many children are on medication that assist them in preventing a psychotic episode and yes that works but I also know many parents do not give them their medication. They send them off to school with educators assuming children are being properly treated at home.
They are not.
I also know that at school we try every intervention, every piece of magic we can pull out of our hats that day but when we send our students home there is no follow through. We then have to start over the next day in school.
Starting over oftentimes means danger.
Allow me to interject and say that I am not a mental health professional but an educator and observer I am. I know there is a broad spectrum for mental illnesses and within that spectrum are children that do place themselves and other students at risk for real dangerous life threatening situations daily in our classrooms even when a teacher successfully implements all their individual plans and Dr's recommendations.
Across the country school supplies are used as weapons. Innocent bystanders are sent to the hospital and the offender comes back to class the next day because they "have paperwork" allowing them to. That's not a good enough answer for me when a child throws a binder at my face and overturns his desk because I asked him to take a seat. He then walks into my classroom the next day with no repercussion.
I, however, along with my students learn in fear.
He overturns another desk when I pass by, "because I fucken piss him off!"
Your paperwork, your laws, and your research don't keep us all safe. Sometimes, as teachers and students, we are are not afraid of intruders coming into our school- we are afraid of those that are already inside them.
We are not looking for you to pass a law that allows us to carry guns- we are asking that you consider alternative options for children that place others in danger daily because of their mental illness within the school. We, as teachers, are okay with playing the role of parents, nurses, sponsors, coaches, proofreaders, counselors, and more recently heroes.
We are not okay with being expected to teach students that yell in our classrooms, cuss at us mid lesson, and throw items across the room all in the name of a mental illness we know little about.
We need you to keep the rest of us safe too.
We can't throw our big fat binders of rules and modification at a student when they are charging at us- though come to think of it they can throw it as us and be seated in our classroom the very next day.
We need training. Real training, not a 30 minute PowerPoint so you can check off a list to get more special education funding. We need to know our rights as educators and the rights of other students around us who consistently have their instruction interrupted because a mentally ill student must mainstream into a class. We need to be able to exercise our rights without being pressured not to speak up. We need more safety courses and practice interventions. We need to give parents other options besides calling the police on their own children. We need to make sure parents of mentally ill children are also kept accountable and cannot be allowed to neglect their children's mental needs because doing so places the rest of us in danger.
Our safety needs to count too.
In memory of all the victims of Sandy Hook and to fellow educator, Victoria Soto.
May we be see the Light in the darkness for it seems so far. Dalinda Alcantar, founder of
eJucomm
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