Devoted Reader Reginleif brought to my attention the sad tale of the 14-year-old student whose tendency to fall asleep in algebra class brought him some negative attention. It seems his "boring" algebra teacher took offense to her snoozing student and called the school police force in so that she could accuse this student of abusing drugs:
So my son fell asleep in alegba class today. Apparently, it's the third time this year he's done that, in that specific class. He's had no other trouble in school so far. He is not a disciplineary problem. Other teachers like him...
But he fell asleep in algebra class today. It is a class he hates and a teacher that he finds, in his words, "boring." It's the only teacher he describes in these glowing terms.
The teacher, apparently, extends the same love and affection for my son. For the infraction of falling asleep in her class, she has used the Full Extent of the Laws of the State of New Jersey.
She called the principal. She called the cop assigned to the school. She said that his falling asleep was "just cause" to use the state law against my son, as she suspected that surely, this sleep was caused by drug abuse.
Yes, drugs.
Ginny, the boy's mother, then goes on to point out that her son is learning disabled, is seated in the back of the room, and is most likely bored by and has trouble concentrating on the material. In a followup posting, she notes that her son gets 8 hours of sleep a night, and despite his diagnoses of ADHD and LD, algebra is the only class in which he falls asleep, and he's still earning a good grade in it:
Despite having so much stacked against him: a learning disability, teachers that he feels uncomfortable with and a class that he finds tedious, the boy is getting either an A or a B in this specific class. He finds it difficult to concentrate as a matter of course for his particular learning disability. When combined with the sheer monotony of the subject matter and teachers seem less than supportive, my son manages to pass the class and the only problem that we seem to have is that this particular teacher lulls him to sleep once a month.
In response to this problem, My son is accused of drug abuse and is suspended for a day. I have to take my son to the hospital and have him urinate on command and be examined for track marks on the back of his knees while a doctor tells him not to worry about this incident being in his record, even Presidents Clinton and Bush managed to become leaders of our great country after having used illegal drugs. What kind of statement is that for a physician to tell a child?
I'd be enraged, too. It's very hard for me to believe that, in one of the "good schools" in New Jersey, there is an algebra teacher who has neither the insight to wonder if her teaching style could be more engaging, nor the compassion to ask a dozing student if he's feeling okay, or if he needs to go see the school nurse. The fact that this teacher brought down the full extent of the law and the damning charge of drug abuse in response to a sleepy kid suggests to me that this teacher is incompetent and well aware of it (as evidenced by the teacher's hypersensitivity and hostility).
Ginny is writing a letter to the school superintendent about the incident. You can leave comments to her at both of the postings linked above; I would urge you to do so if you've ever had to deal with school officials for these kinds of incidents before and you can give some advice.
Posted by kswygert at November 15, 2003 12:16 PM