Robbie

Robbie’s parents have worked hard to raise him as a polite, well-dressed young man; still his behavior often gets in his own way. The underlying cause of many of his problems, his learning disabilities, was recognized by his school district. As a result, he was placed in small, special classes for English and Math. A consultant teacher accompanied him to his other classes to work along with the regular classroom teachers.

Robbie’s school work improved with these supports but he still had a difficult time shaping his behavior to school expectations. He had a history of cutting classes although he is only in the seventh grade. His behavior problems frequently brought him into conflict with the Assistant Principal, Mr. S., which resulted in many in-school suspensions.

One day, a teacher gave an assignment for the students to use the term organizing in a sentence. Robbie blurted out “Me and my friends are organizing to kill Mr. S.” The teacher reported the incident and Robbie was suspended from school. He was charged with threatening an administrator.

His parents, who were surprised to find themselves in this situation, immediately sought help and found Student Advocacy. Our Educational Advocate represented Robbie at the suspension hearing which concluded with a referral to the Committee on Special Education. This group had to determine if Robbie’s actions were a manifestation of his disability.

At that meeting, our Educational Advocate reviewed comments in the school evaluations which had been used to determine his need for special help. The school psychologist had written: “Robbie has word finding issues. He is impulsive and doesn’t think before acting. He seeks attention in inappropriate ways and needs to learn to behave more appropriately when relating to adults.” Since these phrases seemed to accurately describe the incident, the charge of threatening an administrator was dropped.

Instead, the Committee on Special Education decided that Robbie needed additional support and instruction to learn to control his behavior. To help, the Committee agreed to conduct an assessment

of his behavior to analyze how the school could intervene earlier to prevent inappropriate behavior. This assessment resulted in a Behavioral Intervention Plan which would guide the school staff when intervening with Robbie’s inappropriate behavior.

In addition, Robbie was provided with counseling. Our Educational Advocate was successful in obtaining a much more appropriate school response to Robbie’s poor behavior. Rather than simply being punished, Robbie will now have the opportunity to be educated and supported as he works to become a less impulsive student.