October 29, 2007

  • It's a New Week

    I got a call last night from the woman in charge of figuring out the education plan for Tucker.  I love this woman, she calls on Friday night, Saturday afternoon, she never stops ... and this call was a good one.  She called to tell me what a great week Tucker had last week.  She also told me that she had gotten onto Tucker's bus on Friday afternoon and done her best to put the fear of God into his fellow bus riders.

    It seems that Tucker has been being teased on the bus and that a certain other kid has been picking on him.  In fact, this is the kid that Tucker complained about and got into a fight with earlier this year.   This is the kid that all the teachers interviewed and they concluded that it couldn't possibly have been his actions causing the problem, so they've spent a month trying to figure out why Tucker would inexplicably become aggressive with this kid who never did anything to him.

    After our last meeting, in which I told them again that Tucker has never done anything like that before and that I had no idea how to explain it, this particular teacher decided to rethink the situation.  She also had a reports from other team members evaluating Tucker and saying that he exhibited remarkable empathy, patience and understanding which didn't add up to fit the picture they had from the first of the year when this other kid and Tucker were involved in multiple skirmishes.

    So she started watching really close.  And she observed that the innocent victim of Tucker's unexplained outbursts, was in fact taking almost every conceivable opportunity to tease, poke, prod, boss, and otherwise make Tucker's life difficult.

    I didn't know that Tucker was having problems on the bus.  He didn't tell me anything about that.  And considering that the last time things came up about his problems with this other kid, I didn't show a lot of sympathy, I can understand why he didn't tell me.  But I feel badly.  I have some work to do with my son. 

    We're going to meet on Wednesday to construct a new IEP.  It's good to know that there are other people at the table who see things more the way I see them.  It's very good to know that it's not "Tucker and Me against the world". 

    Tucker chose the next book for our night time reading sessions.  And great belching beaver butts, it's funny.   I love the sound of my boys giggling while we read.  

Comments (4)

  • we have a scenario like that in our own house.  My middle son says all kinds of nasty things under his breathe and then my oldest son hits him, he whines and my oldest son gets in trouble for hitting.  But mommy is getting wise to this, and slowly rectifying the situation. 

  • What a wonderful woman!  It must feel so good to have her in your corner.    

  • The giggle of little ones, especially your own, can be the sweetest of music.

    *hugs* to you and Tucker

  • I feel for you and Tucker.  Went through EXACTLY the same scenario with Tristan on the bus, where the teasing was subtle and completely going undetected, but when Tristan reacted his autism was blamed - in other words, he would just explode at this other kid out of the blue for no (detectable) reason.  And of course this kid loved provoking Tristan until he exploded, just for the joy of seeing Tristan get into trouble yet again.

    I had to remove him from the situation in the end.  I hope you can find a workable solution - at least the situation was observed by someone else so that Tucker didn't get blamed the way Tristan did.

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