Help!!

[NewSPEDTeacher]

I teach a low functioning autistic class. One of my students has been touching male and female adults and occasionally students in a sexually inappropriate way. I do not know my rights. My assistant teachers and I are very disturbed by this and the parents have not responded to written notification. I plan on calling home tomorrow in the event that the parents are illiterate. Has anyone ever endured this sort of abuse from a learning disabled student? I see and hear stories of teachers having desks and books thrown at them, kicked, punched, hit, etc but never this!

:confused::confused::confused:

[NewSPEDTeacher]

It's been over a week. No one has replied, but I really need some support please. The student ignores verbal requests to stop the touching and becomes agressive and persistant whenever I or other staff members try to push away his hands. Is it wrong for me to request to have him removed from the class? My staff and I are stuggling to maintain our sanity! :eek::eek:

[avid reader]

Have you talked with your principal or the school pshychologist?
You might want to get prmission from the parent and make a functional behavior assessment then you can make a behavior plan that addresses the behavior. I would continue to push his hands away and tell him it is not appropriate. How old is the student? Does he react at all when you tell him no or push his hands away? I had an autistic student who did some of all of the behaviors you have mentioned. Some of his behvior was frustration. He once unzipped his pants and peed on an aide, but the aide kept hurrying him and did not give him time to react to her demand to shut down the computer. It was no excuse for what he did, but I know that was why he did it. Some of his touching was for attention. So if you overreact it can prompt the behavior to happen again. Have you tried making the student sit away from everyone else.? You could also write what is called a social story. It is a story that is written for a specific student for a specific situation. Sometimes even though you have said it is wrong and not to do it, they do not seem to really comprehend it. The same student who I mentioned earlier loved to break glass. He would purposely drop anything glass on the floor and laugh about it, he loved it. I found a book titled "What Does it Mean When your Parents Tell You to Behave". In it there was a page about being careful in a grocery store so you don't break a glass jar. He had me read that page about 50 times. The next time he found a mug he hesitated and then put it back on the counter. So if the child does not understand verbally sometimes a picture or written words can help. Let me know how you make out. I can probably come up with a few more ideas, if needed. I hope this helps.

[Chef Dave]

I do not know my rights.

I am not a special education teacher and cannot offer you advice on how to deal with this student.

However - regarding your rights, if you have a special education director in your district, check with the director.

If no such person exists, contact your state office. There must be someone in your state's department of education who should be able to give you the information you need.

You could also talk to your building administrator and/or superintendent.

[smithmt]

for reference, is this a life-skills student (extreme-low functioning)? I would possibly entertain the idea that this is a display of observed behavior. Meaning, someone has done this to him, or he has witnessed this kind of behavior. I agree with Chef that this is definitely something you should ask questions about.

good luck to you, only a few more weeks/days until a well deserved break!

[bella mundi]

I know this is an old post, but I happen to know a lot about this topic, so I figured I'd answer anyway.

I work with a high school population with autism and developmental disabilities, and I have a few who have these sexual behaviors.

The main problem is that these kids have hormones too. But they have no idea what to do with them. They lack a sense of appropriate or inappropriate touch and often don't know that it makes people uncomfortable. All they know is that it feels good. Instead of pushing his/her hands away, use an alternative for them. Try getting some thera-putty that they can squish it around. We have OTs at school, and they also help coming up with a variety of sensory strategies. But putty works really well, I've found.

In my class, we do a lot of discussion of personal space. I use social stories and modeling to get my point across. For a while I even had a visual that said "I need space" that I attached to my ID badge and would flash when certain students got too close.

You can't just say no, you have to give them something else to do. On the rare occasion, I even bring my student to the bathroom so he can "take care of business" in private. That sometimes helps.

There is a curriculum out there called Circles Curriculum (by James Stanfield). It uses a color coding system to teach kids about safe boundaries and appropriate touches. You can do a web search and find out about it.

Good luck.

[nikimcn]

I think that would be grounds for time out, if not principal's office. do you have a time out room?:idontknow:

[scooby]

try talking to the principal or go to the childs if the parents cant read

[NewTeach]

I had a student like this last year - with no response from parents. He would often go to the restroom to masturbate. The first thing we did was let him know that he could not hug or touch teachers or aides. We let all aides know that they should not physically touch this student except for with a handshake. We let our behavior specialist know and we spoke with the student, because he was able to know that this was not okay at school. If your student is low functioning it might be hard for him to know the difference - and how he should act in school! One of my other low functioning female student's did this as well - it's actually pretty common with special ed kids, and requesting him to be removed from your room is probably not going to help. Some students do it because they are bored and it is stimulating to them - try to keep the student super busy and provide other sensory and stimulating activities. That worked really well with our low functioning student - we removed her hand and placed a favorite toy in it - or changed her body position so that she could move or do something other than self stimulation. It took us about a month - but it was important for our other students to act like it was no big deal, and now she is fine and does not do this at all anymore. It's almost like she forgot, and unlearned the habit. It just takes time - you can work on it and possibly add it to the student's IEP so that his parents are aware that you are working on it at school. Let me know if you have any more questions!

[scooby]

i remember to this day a girl in my second grade did the self stimulation she sat right across from me at the time i didn't know what the hell was going on she did it for a couple of weeks then the teacher caught her
another thing my teacher was very abusive she would take her students over her knee and spank them one time she left nail marks in my arm because i forgot my home work:cry2: