I meant to write a post about this story, but it slipped through my fingers. I’m very glad that Joanne Jacobs picked it up.

In Port Lucie, Florida, Wendy Portillo told kindergarteners to tell five-year-old Alex Barton why they didn’t want him in class. After telling him that he is “disgusting” and “annoying,” the children voted on whether he could remain in class. Alex’s best friend, who’d wanted to keep him, changed his vote when the teacher pressured him. Alex was voted out 14-2.

Alex’s sin that day was lying under a table and kicking it. He also was known for throwing and eating crayons, eating boogers, eating paper and chewing on shoelaces.

The kid is on the autistic spectrum. Yeah, he probably was a pain and needed an aide, but you don’t need an education degree to know that the teacher didn’t handle this situation deftly.

Joanne says that these situations are happening more often, as the mainstream movement is putting special needs kids in the classroom with untrained teachers and few support systems. The answer, she says, is better training for teachers and more in-class aides.

Increasing services for public education? I’m enjoying the lefty infiltration of Pajamas Media.

I’m not sure that teacher cruelty is isolated to the special needs kids. Last year, Jonah’s second grade teacher told his class that no one was going to graduate to third grade, because they did so badly on a math test.