FL - Florida teacher leaves classroom on stretcher after 5-year-old’s attack, Pembroke Pines, 2022

[HMSHood]

Florida teacher leaves classroom on stretcher after 5-year-old’s attack | WFLA

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A South Florida teacher was carried out of her classroom on a stretcher after being attacked by a 5-year-old student at her school, WPLG reported.

The incident happened at Pines Lakes Elementary in Pembroke Pines shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 2, according to an affidavit obtained by the news station.

Police said two students, ages 4 and 5, were being disruptive in class, flipping chairs and throwing things at teachers.

Really disturbing a 4 and 5 year old start attacking teachers.

 

[killarney rose]

I’ve been reading about this. This was not the first time the child attacked the teacher. Special education students have the right to an education. But when does that right override the safety of the teacher? It’s my opinion this child should not be allowed in a classroom to do this again. If he is this dangerous at 5 years, he’s liable to lose control and kill the teacher when he’s older and stronger. He needs help that he cannot get in a mainstream school. He’s is a danger to staff and students,

this link describes the attack and injuries.
Florida teacher beaten and hospitalized after attack by 5-year-old student, police say

this link documents that he has injured the teacher in the past.
Fla. Teacher Hospitalized After Alleged Attack by 5-Year-Old Student: 'This Has Happened Before,' Says Union

 

[borndem]

SMH -- Oh my, this situations raises all kinds of questions. Apparently he is already in a special education class? If so, what's next?
What can the school do to prevent this? They can't put him in a cage or tie him to his desk. Is it possible for him to be at home online with the class? What if the parent(s) has/have to work -- could they get a sitter? If a sitter, the same thing could possibly happen to the sitter. What about private school -- a special school? Would the child repeat his actions in that classroom? Could the parent(s) afford it? What about him seeing a child psychologist or a psychiatrist, or some other unruly child specialist? Is he mistreated at his home, making him feel helpless, so that he strikes out at school?
It will be interesting to see what happens next...

 

[ChatteringBirds]

How tragic. This child needs a well-trained-and-supported 1-on-1 aide with him in the classroom at all times, at the minimum, and it's unacceptable that he didn't have one already.

 

[Laughing]

Wow. I've had a black eye, and a scratched cornea, but never anything like this.

Bless this young lady for working with these kids!

 

[HMSHood]

I understand the 5 year old is special education. I wonder about his home life is like. Most special education children are not violent.

 

[SunDevil]

<modsnip>

….My daughter is just beginning her journey into early childhood special education and so far she has been exposed to preschoolers and kindergartners with extreme conduct disorders. Very young children that are violent, filled with rage, and jeopardize the safety of the other children and school staff each day. I cannot speak to what is the “norm” - my experience is limited to the engagements of my daughter - but it does seem more often than not.

heartbreaking

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I hope we are not blaming the parents of these children. I know two wonderful families whose children have had violent outbursts in the classroom (preschool / elementary). They are both boys on the autism spectrum. I know many people on the spectrum are not violent, but these two boys struggle with impulse control. They both go to therapies and have aides.

I suspect not that children are becoming more violent but that they are being put into classrooms now they would not have been in the past, and they aren't being institutionalized and hidden-away anymore.

If your experience leads you to believe differently, I'd like to discuss this topic, though.

Please don't blame these kids' parents, unless evidence of abuse/ neglect comes out in a particular case. We need to know the whole story, for each struggling child/ family.

All IMO, of course.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

@SunDevil
Since your daughter is starting to study early childhood education, I'm curious what her view is about this, or has she talked to you about discussions she's had with more experienced teachers?

 

[Laughing]

<modsnip - quoted post was removed>
In the early 2000's, you'd have a kid or maybe two in a preschool classroom with a tendency to hit/shove/kick other students. As a professional, you would teach those kids -- and everyone else in the group -- to solve problems without violence. Peer pressure works, when one child has a fist drawn back & four peers say "Friendly hands, use words" the punch isn't thrown. Research, and meta-analysis of the research, shows that teaching these social/emotional skills is effective. Just one citation, lots available: Teaching Social and Emotional Skills All Day

This teaching takes time. There is pressure for pre-schoolers to master skills I learned in 1st & 2nd grade -- seriously.

By 2013, things had changed. Not just physical aggression, the kids in general had little ability to focus, little interest in learning any skills. More & more kids arrived without the emotional regulation skills most of us learn in our families as very young children.

Yes, their family situations are not like mine. I had a few very tough weeks when two 4-year-old boys in my classroom each witnessed shootings. Yes, in a small Midwestern city.

Yes, their families are not like mine, but public schools will need more funding and more local control and more local support to overcome this growing problem.

Maybe your community is different. I certainly hope so.

That black eye? A child punched me, then drew his fingernails across my face leaving 4 bleeding scrapes. This is learned behavior. The behavior works somewhere, for someone in the child's life. Over time that child did develop social skill & used aggression less in the classroom.

The scratched cornea? Dad died of an overdose, Mom was in jail from providing the substance.

Trauma scars children. Trauma-scarred children leave scars on others.

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[IceIce9]

I understand the 5 year old is special education. I wonder about his home life is like. Most special education children are not violent.

One of my coworkers has an autistic child who had to be institutionalized at a young age for the safety of the family. They had tried sending him to school, but even in a special education class with a trained attendant he was a danger.

He was very big and strong for his young age, and could be either very sweet or very violent.

I babysat for him one night and observed his violent behavior myself. So while most of our coworkers thought it was horrible for the family to put him in an institution, I sympathized with them. There were younger children in the home and once social services got involved they really didn’t have a choice.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Quote RSBM.

By 2013, things had changed. Not just physical aggression, the kids in general had little ability to focus, little interest in learning any skills. More & more kids arrived without the emotional regulation skills most of us learn in our families as very young children.

What do you think played the biggest role(s) in this -
An overall shift in the entire group of children with difficulty focusing and desire to learn?
And increasing numbers who haven't learned emotional regulation?

 

[Sunshine95]

Was the teacher alone dealing with the child having an uncontrollable rage? Staff should have been trained in deescalation and worked at minimum with another staff to ensure everyone’s safety. I’m trained and have experience with older, larger kids- restraining them when absolutely necessary. I’m very sorry for the teacher but I question the training, support etc. because hurt children sometimes hurt people. It may be a biological issues but my first gut response was he’s probably experienced trauma. Either way, we as folks in the educational setting have a duty to be prepared to help all children. He’s a baby at 5 years old and deserves help

 

[mickey2942]

Quote RSBM.

What do you think played the biggest role(s) in this -
An overall shift in the entire group of children with difficulty focusing and desire to learn?
And increasing numbers who haven't learned emotional regulation?

We don't know about this specific child, but I believe that it is a combination of things, not one, but a "trifeca" of items. The breakdown of family units, parents having to work longer hours, leaving children with older siblings or in less than ideal daycare situations. More preemie babies and children with disabilities survive, who don't have fully developed brains at birth, and have possible brain damage because of this. More babies exposed to drugs in uterus.

I taught Special Education for many years, in a variety of settings. In the early '80's, children came to school, even preschool with the skills to sit at a desk, color with crayons. When I left about 15 years ago, the kids I had, didn't even have the skillset to sit at a desk and color. They couldn't sit still, focus. Zero impulse control.

 

[Laughing]

@mickey2942 has worded this well.

 

[mom2chloe]

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) - Symptoms and causes

 

[SunDevil]

@SunDevil
Since your daughter is starting to study early childhood education, I'm curious what her view is about this, or has she talked to you about discussions she's had with more experienced teachers?

My daughter has been student assisting in a preschool on the campus of her University for several years now. The preschool is specific for preparing children with autism to move into a public (traditional) kindergarten. Now that she is in her Masters program she is also spending part time in a special needs classroom at a local elementary school. Both programs have had challenges for her and one thing she has definitely mentioned is that she didn’t realize how dangerous the job would be. Her mentor teacher has had black eyes and a concussion this year.

I don’t know that you can point to one single thing with these young children. In some cases there do seem to be parents who absolutely refuse to acknowledge the behavior issues. In some cases the child is provided with several resources (therapists and counselors) and is still very much a “wildcard”. My daughter will also say that the training in her specific program has provided her with a lot of different coping strategies and deescalation skills - as well as daily programming with these children - than the mentors and more experienced teachers she works with.

My opinion is that there is no substitute for continued education for our educators and behavioral therapists and we have to recognize that every child is different. No one solution fits.

One more comment is that when my daughter was 8-9 she surely went thru a period of time when she was really difficult to manage. I raised her alone. Luckily I was able to drop her off with my dad on days when I thought “one of us may not survive this day”. She had violent outbursts and was really a challenge. It took so much trial and error to find out what worked for us - so much! I never gave up, and now she is 22 living independently, almost completing her Masters program and has spent several years working with young children. Raising a child is the hardest thing I have ever done.

 

[Eloise]

I think some of it is that children who once would have been institutionalised, no longer are (where I live there just are no institutions. It's care with the family, or foster care, and no other options exist). I think the strong desire to keep kids in as mainstream an educational setting as possible is also part of it. But yes, bad parenting plays a role too I'm afraid. As an early childhood educator there are a frightening number of parents who will happily admit - with no idea at all that there is anything wrong with this - to sitting their child in front of the tv with an ipad for hours and hours. These aren't uneducated, poor families with no options either, it's parents with money and good jobs. It's just easy to give a kid a screen, and essentially let them raise themselves. Nobody teaches parents how to be a parent. If they don't live anywhere close to family to guide them then we as educators are the only people who can tell them how to do it, and what is best for the child, but that doesn't mean they take it on board.

There are lots of issues with attention and emotional regulation when children are denied playtime outside, denied time playing with toys and real equipement, time spent socialising face to face with real people. Some people dislike that kids spend so much time in care settings; for these kids we are often the only real interaction and real playtime kids get. At my last job we had so many kids with no diagnoses (though maybe they should have...) who simply could not regulate emotions or had empathy.

I say this as an educator and the parent of a child with autism, so I see both sides. I know parenting is hard. I know screens are here to stay and can be a part of life.

 

[mickey2942]

@Eloise that is very true. There isn't a lot of options for some folks. I have seen a lot of families try to figure out what to do with unmanageable children. At some point in time, there is an endless revolving door, from Foster care, group home, juvenile facility, back home. That definitely doesn't improve anything!

I have seen a lot of success with Job Corps, that is for older kids. Pretty much, if they realize Job Corps is their opportunity to get it "right" they can change the trajectory of their lives.

 

[Wild Rose]

I am old now but both my parents worked. We played but we also had the TV programs on for hours. My husband says he wasn't allowed to watch TV but he knows more shows and background music words than me!! I just think we have gone to the extreme of not lovingly chastising children, at home or in school. Years ago, a child who got violent was suspended at home with parent or patent agreed to a hospitalization for med evaluation. Most parents said call the ambulance. Today, forms are filled out. And many aides and teachers bear the brunt. It is sad.