Lost at School Read Free

is just totally unacceptable in this building.”
    Joey slumped in his seat, again mumbling, “It was an accident.”
    “Joey, I can’t believe you did that,” said his mother. Joey’s eyes welled up.
    “On purpose or not, Joey will be spending the next five days at home,” said Mrs. Galvin.
    Ms. Lowell looked at the principal, eyes wide. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean he’s suspended from school for five days. We will not tolerate this sort of thing in our school. Joey’s classmates have a right to a safelearning environment, and that right was violated today. I also need to talk with the superintendent about whether other action needs to be taken.”
    “Other action? Like what?”
    “When a student assaults a teacher in this school system and threatens to kill people, our school discipline code says we need to notify the police. And Mr. Middleton and Mrs. Woods will have to decide whether they want to press charges.”
    “The police ?” shrieked Joey’s mother. “For an accident ?”
    “Based on what I’ve heard, I don’t share Joey’s view that it was accidental,” said Mrs. Galvin. “For now, you need to take Joey home. We can discuss other developments once I have more information. Joey needs to understand that this type of behavior is unacceptable.”
    “He already knows this behavior is unacceptable,” said Ms. Lowell.
    This observation was met with silence.
    Ms. Lowell had heard enough. “Let’s go, Joey.” She looked at Mr. Middleton. “I’m very sorry you were hurt.” Joey followed his mother out of the office, his hands jammed deep in his jeans pockets, his head low.
    The two administrators watched through the window as Joey and his mother got into the car and drove off.

    What are we going to do about Joey?
    More than ever, that’s the big question. Because there sure are a lot of Joeys out there. Kids who can’t seem to function in a classroom, have a hard time getting along with other kids, don’t seem to respect authority, aren’t responding to the school discipline program. Kids whose problems don’t get better. Sometimes we read about them in the newspaper and see them on TV, especially if they hurt someone badly enough or are led out of the school in handcuffs. The stakes are high. When we don’t help the Joeys, we lose them.
    How are we going to help Mrs. Woods? Another big question. Mrs. Woods’ classroom is full of kids with all kinds of academic, behavioral, emotional, and social challenges. She’d like nothing better than to be able to give all of them the help they need. She’s put a lot of time and energy into helping her challenging students over the years, but often hasn’t had much to show for her efforts. At a minimum,she needs some way of making sure the challenging kids in her class don’t disrupt the learning of the other kids. But she also has high-stakes testing to worry about, lessons to plan, countless meetings to attend, and the latest school system initiatives to digest and implement, so she’s pressed for time as it is. When we don’t help Mrs. Woods, we lose her, too.
    What about Ms. Lowell? It’s a scary, lonely, callous, frustrating world out there for parents of challenging kids, even more so if the kid is challenging at school. Ms. Lowell has grown accustomed to feeling blamed for her son’s difficulties, accustomed to the stares of people who identify her as the parent of “ that kid.” She’s all too familiar with the different medicines used to treat challenging kids, along with the books and TV shows that characterize her as a passive, permissive, uncaring, unmotivated, uneducated parent. There are millions of Ms. Lowells out there, all wishing there was a better way, one that actually worked.
    If we’re going to start helping Joey and Mrs. Woods and Ms. Lowell, we need to start paying much closer attention to what we now know about how kids come to be challenging. Then we need to consider some important questions. Does the way