Yesterday I had one of my days from hell.... I particularly have a nightmare year 9 class. ( long story - silly immature naughty boys who think things like throwing bits of pencil across the room as hard as you can at someone else is amusing!!!) Well this boy pulled a face like he was in pain or had been hurt so I asked if he had a problem or was he all right..... He replied laughingly No I am a spastic - well I was about to let him know how inappropriate that was when this boy piped up - nah he has down's syndrome and another piped up nah up syndrome!!!
Well this set all 6 boys into full blown laughter..... Me - as you can imagine - I was so enraged .. I had to take a breath and then I let them have it - first of all told them to shut up and to get on with what they were supposed to do.... ( had been told about 10 times already) the good kids in the class were stunned to hear me roar like that... as they had been working in silence.... I then turned to the boy who had made the comment about Down's syndrome and very calmly ( whilst still shaking with anger) told him that my daughter had down's syndrome and I was offended by what he had said. I also told the original boy that his comment was also offensive. Then I sat at my desk and had to wait until I had calmed down.
The pity is - the boy who made the comment about Down's syndrome is generally a good kid - somewhat bright but he just wanted to take the joke a step further and be the funny one with the last word so the other silly boys would think he was funny and cool.
He was spoken to by the Deputy Head of Year and came back to apologised but I was still so angry all I could do was thank him for his apology and tell him to leave as I was still so angry.
I am not sure what to do next - I have been discussing my daughter with my year 11 form class as they have met her but we have not discussed the Down's syndrome - I have decided to broach the subject with them by sort of saying what happened in the class and that they may hear things about my daughter and I want them to know the correct information.
What do you think I should do with the year 9's..... you know I am still so angry - part of it is at putting up with ridiculous highly inappropriate and dangerous behaviour lesson after lesson..... ( not the only teacher who has to do so form this class) but the rest is at their ignorance and stupidity. You know we have a number of kids with special needs including Cerebral Palsy ( no down's syndrome) and children in wheel chairs.... so it is not like these kids are not around children with special needs.
Sorry this is so long.....