The Ghetto Awards

[AsheSkyler]

Northeast Texas middle school teacher gives 'ghetto awards' to special needs students - Houston Chronicle

When the school year ends, teachers send their pupils off with uplifting awards of recognition for jobs well done. But this year, some teachers' idea of a joke didn't go over well at a northeast Texas middle school.

A 14-year-old special needs student shocked his grandmother with the golden-embossed certificated he brought home. "8th Annual Ghetto Classroom Awards," it said. "The 'huh?' Award."

CBS 11 News in Dallas spoke with Debra Jose, who complained to officials at the Sulphur Springs Middle School when she saw her grandson's award last week.

"Tears just started falling out of my eyes. I was like, 'what did they just do to him again?" Jose told CBS 11. "I just lay in bed and thought about it all night long. I couldn't sleep very good."

Apparently, the "ghetto classroom" was in reference to the special needs class, and the "huh? Award" was a jest at Jose's grandson's frequent confusion.

Jerrika Wilkins, the boy's mother, told Fox 4 News she felt "pretty hurt."

"He feels pretty inferior. You know, he want to succeed. You know. It just kind of hurts his feelings."

School officials say they were unaware of the ghetto classroom awards. Sulphur Springs Superintendent Michael Lamb quickly condemned the certificates.

"It is not something SSISD is proud of. It is not acceptable. It is not anything we want to be a part of and we are addressing it today," he told CBS 11.

And he said that the school principal's initials which appear on the certificate were forged.

According to Fox 4 News, one of the teachers, Tim Couch, apologized, while another, Stephanie Garner, offered to resign. CBS 11 reported the idea of the ghetto awards, which the certificate indicates were distributed for seven years prior, was brought by Garner from the school district where she was previously employed. She is a second-year teacher at SSISD.

The article didn't say it, but the kid was autistic and he had a pretty mixed classroom of a bunch of special needs kids. So, eight years strong, huh?

 

[Wireless]

Incidents like this make me cry a little inside.
My feeling is that a lot of NT teachers are strongly at risk of allowing themselves to become bullies. They're in a position of power and that can become toxic. If I were a psychologist I would want to do research into the bullying behavior of teachers and identify any personality traits which highlight them as potential bullies.

 

[Judge]

I refuse to accept that professional educators were not aware that what they were doing was mean-spirited and offensive.

 

[watersprite]

This makes me cry on the inside too.

My son got bullied a couple years back by a teacher (due to his stutter) and she received no reprimand or punishment. I understand this situation, and often there is no recourse. The admin just cluck sadly and that's it. I just hope I never run into her around town.

 

[NTgirl4276]

This is absolutely abhorrent.

Though the mere thought of this sort of behavior/approach would never cross my mind (seriously, what on earth are these people thinking?!), I'm sure that my NT-ness has crept into my teaching practices in the past four years that I've been a teacher. I'm so thankful that I have been able to learn more about the spectrum, because I can now be particularly vigilant about how I do my job. I teach communication at a university, and I've realized that the way we teach communication is very NT-dominant. That's about to change!--at least, in my classes.

 

[Judge]

I teach communication at a university, and I've realized that the way we teach communication is very NT-dominant. That's about to change!--at least, in my classes.

You rock. That probably won't be easy, but I wish you all the best in trying.

 

[Aspergirl4hire]

Incidents like this make me cry a little inside.
My feeling is that a lot of NT teachers are strongly at risk of allowing themselves to become bullies. They're in a position of power and that can become toxic. If I were a psychologist I would want to do research into the bullying behavior of teachers and identify any personality traits which highlight them as potential bullies.

Well, I'd qualify that a bit. They may allow themselves to become enablers of bullies, and they may become bullies themselves by failing to recognize the difference between defiance and deficit in a system designed in the Industrial Revolution to produce people to work in factories,which then was required to create "environments" where all children can succeed, while starved for cash.

Aspies and similar types will make almost teacher in that context either fail or fail miserably.

It's not that I don't agree with you (I voted!) but that they do have severe pressure.

I would shudder at the notion of a personality test designed to limit employment. What does need to happen is behavioral performance reporting, using the standard disciplines: write it down, establish a pattern, report it ensuring there are both protections and tripwires in the event of retribution, and teach the vulnerable that they can take down the powerful by remaking their perception of the relationship.

I do not speak casually. I personally did this as a teen, and as an adult. It is not easy. It is not pleasant. But its outcome is one of the most self-affirming things that I can imagine, and it's a skill.

 

[Judge]

Quite disturbing what links exist if you google "special education" with terms like stigmatization and discrimination.

IMO, it explains just how this may have happened. Scary thing to ponder that some educators may look upon special education as a "gulag" to send those students to who might otherwise threaten the class curve.

Put them in a different category to statistically contain them. Suddenly I'm thinking of those professional educators recently sentenced to prison for deliberately altering students' test scores to improve the results.