The Prof Is In

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Re: need advice/ help - school incident

From: Judy Kuster
Date: 19 Oct 2009
Time: 10:11:35 -0500
Remote Name: 134.29.30.178

Comments

The incident itself was insensitive and a foolish blunder on the part of the secretary. You had every right (and even responsibility) to call attention to it, to raise sensitivity about stuttering. At that point, an apology from the secretary and the principal would have been appropriate, and they could have asked you for more information, or you could still provide it, about stuttering. The SFA and NSA both have good materials to hand out, such as is available at http://www.stutteringhelp.org/Default.aspx?tabid=631 (a nice brochure that can be downloaded) and http://www.westutter.org/whoWeHelp/teachers.html There are additional links to materials on the Stuttering Home Page at http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/infoaboutstuttering.html#teachers Perhaps you can talk to your son's speech therapist about starting an education about stuttering program at the school. There are even ways your son can help do that when/if he is ready. But the part that really bothers me is when you wrote >>> Later the principal called and said he talked to her and she was very apologetic. We thought, Ok, people are going to make mistakes, case closed. Case was not closed. At about 3:30 that day the head of human services for the district calls and leaves a very obviously not friendly message. She needs to see my husband in her office by 4:00 in her office to meet with her and the district police officer concerning his behaviour! If she doesn't hear from him by 4:00 on Monday, the meeting will take place at the police station instead! <<< If the school escalates this any further, trying to involve the police, they are really over-reacting and you may want to seek legal advice - not for what the secretary said, but for what appears to be harassment (or hopefully just another "blunder") from the human services office for your district. There is a Chinese symbol for "crisis" -- it combines two other symbols - one for "danger" and one for "opportunity." I hope by now the issue is resolved, but still think that this incident has created a perfect opportunity for you and the school to educate about stuttering.


Last changed: 10/23/09