Teacher lets Morningside students vote out classmate, 5

Melissa Barton said she is considering legal action after her son’s kindergarten teacher led his classmates to vote him out of class.

After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn’t like about Barton’s 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.

By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex — who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism — out of the class.

Kid may have Asperger’s which may mean he’s a genius which may mean he’ll eventually show them by becoming rich and famous. That’s after he becomes rich from the lawsuit. Haha!




  1. Les says:

    I think the moran in the room is the teacher.

  2. QB says:

    I know kids with Asperger’s and they are a handful at that age. However, the teacher, school and board has completely buggered this since there are alternatives.

    Having a bunch of 5 year old kids “vote” and then hiding behind their “decision” is particularly loathsome.

  3. Poet_in_Pause says:

    …and here I thought it might have been the water in Florida that was the cause of the “wackyness”! They are actually teaching them from an early age to act like this! And to use a tool of democracy to emotionally scar that poor kid for life? What are they teaching in the sunday schools there? Stoning? That school district should move that teacher to the high school level where they can sleep with students to mess them up and not involve a whole class.

  4. 655321 says:

    Here’s her e-mail address:

    portillow@stlucie.k12.fl.us

    I think everyone should send her message to let her know what we all think of her.

  5. Said says:

    The kid is probably an asshole like his parents.

  6. dvdchris says:

    What…the…hell, Florida?
    Teaching social interaction is one of the purposes of kindergarten!! You don’t let 5 year olds make classroom management decisions!
    Who is running these schools?
    Oh. Superintendent Michael J. Lannon. Good luck finding an email address or phone number.

  7. Miss_X2b says:

    The teacher is probably a bully and she’s now teaching her kids in class to notice “differences in others” and learn to be bullies. She should be fired on the spot.

  8. Miss_X2b says:

    #5, By that logic it’s safe to assume that your parents are assholes too.

  9. gquaglia says:

    Could have been worse. If the kid had been in the wizards class, he would have made his disappear, like he did with the toothpick.

  10. QB says:

    Miss X2b: Nicely done…

  11. James Hill says:

    Sounds like Mom thinks the rest of the class is at fault for having a problem with how her disabled child behaves. Too bad that’s different than having a problem with the disability itself.

    $20 says this is turned into a script for the next season of Boston Legal.

  12. barovelli says:

    I’ve got to take the minority here – when I was in grade school, the special kids went to special school (fewer of them, smaller school bus – where “short bus” came from..).

    In middle school they started this practice of placing the special kids with the rest. Damn it was annoying. Much time wasted and loss of concentration all because of the special kid’s outbursts.

    Please don’t hate – but find a better way. I’d feel the same if the kid was just a normal brat, don’t take my time away from education to be PC..

  13. Don says:

    Well, that school district just spent a million bux or so. They will Also have to send the child they emotionally scarred to special schools at their expense, at least till they can pawn him off on the local high school district.

    My wife is a teachers aide in a Special Ed classroom. I get daily stories of difficult students, and idiot parents. I don’t know how she tolertes it myself. But, no matter what, she still has to suck it up and not take it out on the students. It’s not their fault they are that way.

    Can we vote that idiotic teacher off of our country?

    Don

  14. QB says:

    barovelli, you aren’t in the minority. This school needed to either say:

    1. Yes, we can accomodate this student but we’ll need an aid (figure out $$ one way or another).

    2. No, we don’t have the ability the take care of our son. Let us help you find the right school.

    Nothing wrong with integrating “special kids” including the gifted. It just has to be done right.

  15. comhcinc says:

    i know this sounds mean but maybe this will do the kid some good. if you read the whole story, it talks about how the kid gets in trouble alot. maybe this will help him to understand that there is a certain way you are surpose to act.

    oh yeah as of right now this isn’t a “special kid” either he is “in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism” to me that sounds like he may has Arperger’s syndrome he may not.

    now lets think about the other kids for a moment. if the one kid was always causing problems, as the story saids, then is it fair for the other children to have to put up with him? i wonder how many of them have been “emotionally scar” by something this kid may have done.

    now this isn’t the way i would have handled it and i do think it is a little mean, but a the end of the day i really can’t find fault in it.

  16. Mr X says:

    Miss X2b: I think I love you.

  17. Major Jizz says:

    Before we test the kid, lets test the kid’s parents for the crappy parenting disease.

  18. doug says:

    “But the state attorney’s office concluded the matter did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse, so no criminal charges will be filed, Steele said.”

    good lord – as shitty a thing to do as this was (and this teacher should be disciplined, if not fired), the notion that it even COULD be considered criminal is just insane.

    and subjecting a small child to this kind of Maoist procedure is just sadistic.

    on the up side, it probably embeds a deep-seated distrust of authority (in both the kid himself and some of the others) that could be eventually channeled for good use. the people in charge are not looking out for you. this kid learned it earlier than most.

  19. MattY says:

    #12 – Do you not think that if the special needs kids were integrated in with the other kids right off the bat, that you would have been a little bit more accepting by the time middle school came around?

    Not a jab, just a comment. It’s a tough situation.

    And by the way… I’m lovin’ Miss X2b also.

  20. Poet_in_Pause says:

    “I’ve come to the frightening conclusioin that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized”
    Dr. Haim Ginott

    I just hope Alex is able to find a school that will teach rather than tramatize…

  21. Said says:

    #8 – The kid has “learning disabilities” or is “hyperactive” or he just can’t STFU because he never had any discipline from his parents – so the rest of these kids should suffer? So instead of proper parenting they will drug this kid and he will become a bigger asshole. Please, click my name and blow me.

  22. Barovelli says:

    #19 – Noop. Starting them off assimulated right off the bat take away more valuable time to the rest of the average students and possibly NOT give the ‘special’ ones the special attention they deserve.

    Don’t isolate them totally – have the special classes in the same campus’ as others. Let them have recess & breaks with the rest, but give them teachers that are more skilled to work with them. After school is over with, the special kids don’t go to college, hold jobs with 99% of their class or join the armed services – they will be out of the mainstream for life, learn to deal with it early.

    last note – the parents are in denial.

  23. deowll says:

    Having the other students vote is stupid when you can’t even trust them to be alone or cross the road. It is the adults responsiblity to make a reasonible and prudent choice.

    Having said that I’ve known some kids that were pretty far gone this way and being in the same class room with them as a student or a teacher is bleep! Besides being an upleasant non learning environment it can be dangerous. If I had a kid in a class with one of the worst cases I’d transfer the kid if at all possible. It depends on the kid and I don’t know this kid.

  24. Stephanie says:

    How ridiculous. This isn’t f’n Survivor where a 5 year old gets voted off the island! A professional needs to be handling the kids fate which is obviously NOT the teacher. What a great way to teach the rest of the kids intolerance and how to cast off what doesn’t fit “perfectly” into our society.

  25. Said says:

    Stephanie, he wouldn’t have been picked for kickball either. It was a fair vote and he was kicked off the island. Boo-fucking-hoo.

  26. QB says:

    Said: nice troll. However you really do define “retarded”.

  27. Said says:

    [Comment deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]

  28. osamiface38 says:

    Ok, let’s take a vote- who wants to see the teacher eat a handful of ‘POOP’?

  29. Bill says:

    Prison for the teacher.

  30. Mr. Gawd Almighty says:

    Must be a lot of Republicans posting on this. No respect for the democratic process.

    Get the message idiots !!! The rest of the class didn’t like him. He kept distracting them from learning. From THEIR time and reason for being in school.

    In the process of being diagnosed? Right. And I’m in the process of winning the next big lottery.


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