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The Most Hideous Days of High School
Whoever came up with the idea of "mainstreaming" Special Education students with the student body at large probably had good intentions. But as far as we are concerned, she or he certainly paved a road to hell with this foolish scheme. Our American Heritage Dictionary defines "mainstreaming" like this: "To integrate an intellectually disadvantaged student into regular school classes." For Cecilia, mainstreaming meant she had to walk the hallways of her school among abusive, angry adolescents who reveled in teasing her, sexually propositioning her, and tripping her. It also meant sitting in classrooms in which she could not comprehend the subjects being taught. For instance, Cecilia's counselor enrolled Cecilia into Choir class, yet Cecilia could not follow the complex music, and she was forced to sit silently and listen to the others during class sessions. If this wasn't bad enough, Cecilia also had to contend each day with Miss Terri, the teacher's assistant in Cecilia's Home Room. Among the thousands of Special Education teacher's assistants in the world, there are bound to be a few dozen psychotics. You never really know where these people come from. Sewers have a way of hiding tracks after the beasts crawl out. Whoever hires janitors, bus drivers and teacher's assistants seems to be blind to the ways of child rapists and other abusers. Sadly, you read stories about these monsters and the damage they do to our children every day in the newspaper. Cecilia met one of these sewer monsters. The beast's name was Miss Terri. The moment Miss Terri set eyes on Cecilia, she must have felt that she had found the perfect target on which she could spew out her hatred of innocence and humankind. Apparently, Miss Terri's goal was to undermine any self-esteem Cecilia possessed, to make Cecilia feel ugly, stupid and afraid. We will not list all the traumatic incidence Cecilia reported to us. With a 6MB limit, this website is not large enough to contain them all. The gist of Miss Terri's daily attack was that Cecilia should stop being autistic (as if she had a choice!), that Cecilia should not have pimples, and that Cecilia should stop staring. Let's discuss the last issue first. Staring. Autistic people tend to stare a lot. It's one of the traits that make them recognizable from across a crowded bus to the trained eye. To insist that Cecilia stop staring is like insisting Cecilia stop being autistic. Which bring us back to the most startling point of Miss Terri's attacks. I don't know who trained Miss Terri to become a teacher's assistant for Special Education students, but apparently they failed to explain to Miss Terri that Special Education students are Special. She didn't like the students. They gave her the creeps. She said they were lazy, that they would be in "normal" classes, if they would stop "pretending to be stupid." Miss Terri told Cecilia several times to "stop acting stupid." (Where was Miss Tiffany, Cecilia's teacher, when the sewer beast dished out all this abuse? Miss Tiffany claimed she never heard Miss Terri say anything insulting to the kids. "She didn't mean any harm. She was always joking with them.") The most frightening moment in Cecilia's relationship with Miss Terri centered on a pimple. Miss Terri noticed a pimple on Cecilia's forehead, and she became enraged by it. It really set her off. She shouted to Cecilia, "If you still have that zit on your face tomorrow, I'm gonna squeeze it 'till you cry for your daddy!" When Cecilia tearfully related this incident to Joe, he immediately called the school principal and reported it. The following day, the principal had a conference with Miss Terri and Miss Tiffany. During the conference, Miss Terri confessed that she had threatened to squeeze Cecilia's pimple. But, she said, she intended it as a joke. When the principal pointed out that adolescents are sensitive about their complexions, Miss Terri put her foot in her mouth. She jammed it in far. She said, "Hell, these retarded kids aren't sensitive about anything. Half the time, they don't even know what I'm talking about." Thankfully, Miss Terri lost her job at Cecilia's school. Unfortunately, she is still working as a teacher's assistant somewhere. Hopefully, it's not with a child you know and love. (We wish we could tell you her real name, but we don't want trouble.) ------------------------ Please also read Cecilia Drops Out of School and Learns to Read and |
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