Ryan

As the fire alarm blared, Ryan stepped off the school bus to a sea of fingers all pointed at him. Given his short temper and defensiveness, this situation immediately turned from bad to worse.  Ryan had been returning from a BOCES program that allowed him to spend the first half of his school day in a vocational program for automotive mechanics. Ryan really enjoyed this program as he loved working with his hands, and would get restless sitting in a classroom all day.

Now, as he stepped off the bus to the accusing stares of other students and the angry voice of his principal, Ryan completely lost his temper. Littered with swear words, Ryan began proclaiming his innocence. He was promptly suspended for insubordination.

Ryan’s explosive personality had been a long-standing problem. Matters as small as disagreeing with a point a teacher made would completely set him off, and his only way to cope would be to immediately exit the classroom.  As a result, Ryan had been suspended several times after overreacting to a typical situation at school.

At this point, Student Advocacy stepped in. Sara Carr, an Educational Advocate, suggested that Ryan’s parents request an evaluation for Special Education due to his frequent emotional outbursts.  When these evaluations offered no information about Ryan’s difficulties, Ms. Carr recommended a psychiatric evaluation. This is when a breakthrough was made. Ryan was classified as Emotionally Disabled, also revealing signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  The school had been reluctant to identify Ryan as a student in need of special education services because he had admitted to using marijuana. However, after Ms. Carr pointed out that Ryan self-medicated so that he could control his own behavior and that the right interventions would be able to do so instead, everyone was able to move forward.

Ryan received an individual plan for special education services that allotted certain breaks throughout the day for him to cool off.It also provided him with counseling once a week, and complete access to the school psychologist, as needed.  In addition, now that Ryan’s teachers saw his behavior in a new light, they began to understand his difficulties and respond in a different way. Instead of punishing him, they tried to support his efforts to learn better ways to respond to stress.

The secret behind Ryan’s emotional difficulties and post-traumatic stress are a matter for Ryan to deal with outside of school. But in school, recognition and understanding of his problems allowed school staff to respond to his poor behavior in a new way. As a result, Ryan is on track to graduate next June.