Earlier posts here and here.

Stephen Kuusisto, professor, University of Iowa: Letter to the principal ‘On being Alex Barton’

I still carry deep under my skin the barbs and taunts of mean spirited public school classmates who found ways to bully me simply because of my disability … Like many “baby boomers” with disabilities who helped to pioneer the concept of mainstreaming for disabled kids I keep hoping that the vicious and ignorant behavior that I experienced in public schools will at last become a thing of the past.

… I hope it’s not too much to ask that your school district will now take this opportunity to think hard about disability with a renewed sense that kids with disabilities are real citizens too.

Susan Estrich: Kindergarten is real life (FoxNews.com)

If the news reports of how Wendy Portillo treated Alex Barton are even partly right, if they contain even a grain of truth, this is a woman with no business in a classroom … Let her go work for a game show

Anthony Westbury: What’s really going on in that classroom? (TCpalm.com/Scripps Newspaper Group)

Should he have been in Wendy Portillo’s class at all? We simply don’t know.

Of the hundreds of online comments, both on our tcpalm.com Web site and others (including one at the Chicago Tribune), many people are demanding Portillo’s head. They want her fired — or worse. Many think she should never stand in front of a class of students again.

They might be right, but I’m not willing to bury the lady until I’ve heard the other side.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 7:58 am and is filed under abuse, autism, behavior, commentary, discrimination, education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post