• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

School apologizes after boy with autism given ‘most annoying’ award

Butterfly88

Jello Queen
V.I.P Member
School apologizes after boy with autism given ‘most annoying’ award

GARY, Ind. — An Indiana father says he was “blindsided” after a teacher gave his 11-year-old son, who has autism, an award for “most annoying male.”

“We just weren’t expecting it,” dad Rick Castejon told the The Times of Northwest Indiana. “As a principal or teacher, you should never let this happen to any student.”

Castejon said a special education teacher at Bailly Preparatory Academy in Gary handed out the awards in May during an annual end-of-year ceremony and luncheon for fifth-graders.

The Times reported that the parents attending the event at a Golden Corral restaurant became silent as the boy received the trophy.

Castejon told the paper he tried to leave the engraved trophy on a table, but the unidentified female teacher reminded him not to forget it, and acted like it was all in fun.

He said his son is non-verbal, sometimes rocks back and forth and is prone to becoming emotional. Castejon says he now sees the school’s calls during the academic year, asking how to handle his son, in a different light.

Castejon and his family are moving before the next school year begins, but he told The Times he’s speaking up so other families don’t go through a similar experience in Gary.

Peter Morikis, an emergency manager with the Gary Community School Corp., told The Times in a statement that they don’t condone the behavior and “extend our deepest apologies to the impacted student, the family and anyone else who takes offense to this unfortunate occurrence.

“Just because they have special needs doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings,” Castejon said.

The Times is considering filing a Freedom of Information Act request to find out what disciplinary measures are taken against the teacher.


Source:
School apologizes after boy with autism given ‘most annoying’ award

My comments: What the hell? And the most annoying male, which probably means there was a most annoying female award too. How can people be so heartless?
 
giphy.gif


Yeah...that's pretty stupid... not to mention it'll whittle down a persons near non-existing self-esteem... my high school never had any of the special ed kids (myself being one such person) on any of the honors lists or anything like that until like... Grade 11 when there was a little meeting about it?

Another thing too is I hope that the School Board does some sort of investigation into this
 
Last edited:
Slightly unrelated, but I just read this morning about how Gary is one of the poorest ghost cities in the US. It used to be a big...steel? center, but now all the white people have moved away leaving only those who couldn't afford to move to deal with the urban blight.

...So I imagine that their public school teacher was probably not educated in dealing with autistic students. Not an excuse, but perhaps just a sad reality that American society continues to neglect and cannibalize its most vulnerable even while the economy supposedly soars.

Good for this family for getting out, too.
 
This was known about before the event.. It can't have been a surprise to the staff and management of the school. They actually had a trophy made! Funds were allocated to making the trophy for this planned event, and the public humiliation of disabled students.
So how many people had to give this their approval before it actually happened?
I wonder how many times this happened before it was reported?
 
IMO, educators who truly believe in humiliating a student as a "learning tool" of sorts should probably rethink their career altogether. -PERIOD.

From time to time we read about such events, but it galls me to see that all administrators and their educators haven't uniformly prohibited such practices.
 
IMO, educators who truly believe in humiliating a student as a "learning tool" of sorts should probably rethink their career altogether. -PERIOD.

From time to time we read about such events, but it galls me to see that all administrators and their educators haven't uniformly prohibited such practices.

Yeah, I highly agree... this isn't the 1900s anymore where you put the good ol "dunce" cap on the kid who's behind
 
When I was 16, I asked the school head teacher, if I could take some exams before leaving school. He answered with a laugh and said: there really is no point, since you won't pass anyway and that comment has stayed with me, to the extent that I have felt the need to prove I am not stupid and have got ridiculously complimented when told that I am intelligent, until recently, realised that it is in itself an insult. In fact it is saying. It is a surprise you are intelligent.

At least they have apologised and should be taken that way. One cannot take back something like that, but can improve and get better.

If I had had an apology, it would have changed how I thought.

Oh, just a bit of info: I went to a school for moderate learning difficulties and hence why I asked; rather than it being a part of the school system.

I went on to pass 10 exams in college when I was 22 and 23.
 
How did no one in this whole group of professionals at the school think, "Hm. Actually, I could see this as being a Not Good thing we're doing right now"? That is astounding. Even putting aside the fact this kid is autistic (which obvious adds a particular vile icing to an already disgusting cake), why would any teacher think it's professionally okay to give a kid a "most annoying" award? Bizarre.
 
Our pediatric doctor always let kids pick out stickers after a checkup and once the nurse gave my daughter a sticker that said "I pitched a fit". It was funny because it was true. The next time she also pitched a fit and I asked where that sticker was and the nurse said they had to get rid of them because parents complained. Okay - that was funny and cute, but even then they realized they couldn't do that because it might hurt someone's feelings. What this article wrote about is horrifying and public, humiliating and should never have happened. My heart goes out to the child and to the parents. Maybe the teacher was trying to be funny and trying to come up with a trophy for each individual, but she should have given that one a little more thought.

And whenever I hear Gary, Indiana I have to sing it. Gary, Indiana Gary Indiana Gary Indiana (That's all I know of the song).
 
Another thing too is I hope that the School Board does some sort of investigation into this
I HIGHLY doubt that they'd investigate at all! The school board most likely won't give a crap. When I was in brick and mortar school, the site for my district didn't even display any way for a student or parent to contact ANYBODY on the district school board. Which is most likely illegal.
 
I don't exactly remember but I'm pretty sure it's from like... Big Brother or something like that

It is. Britney Godwin. Who recently showed up on Amazing Race, along with her teammate (Janelle) who was also a former house guest on Big Brother.

As much as Mr. Weasley finds Muggles fascinating, so do I in watching Neurotypicals under social stress in "Big Brother". So sue me. :p
 
IMO, educators who truly believe in humiliating a student as a "learning tool" of sorts should probably rethink their career altogether. -PERIOD.

From time to time we read about such events, but it galls me to see that all administrators and their educators haven't uniformly prohibited such practices.

There are probably plenty of laws, regulations, and local ordinances already in place. All those rules depend on people to enforce them. If the people in charge don't exercise good judgement, it all falls apart.

I'm glad this article was published. When stuff like this makes the news, it shames those people back into behaving.
 
Wow, to come from the teacher makes that absolutely confounding. What the hell? Its one thing if a group of punks come together and make it up, but... yeah, I don't know. I can't comprehend how an adult, no less a teacher, would find that a good idea in any context.

Brought back a memory, but had nothing to do with the teachers, rather the students themselves. When I was 12 they were announcing the soft ball all-stars at my elementary school, and every student announced got an ovation... except me. I got jeered and loudly booed by most of the 600 students in the cafeteria, with the exception of my classmates (and teachers) that actually knew me. That kind of moment changes a person. At least in hindsight I have a better understanding of why someone wired like me would end up in that situation.
 

New Threads

Top Bottom