After eight years as a teacher, I left the classroom to return to law. Within a couple of years after that I was forced to return as a substitute. It was the only position that gave me the flexibility to work at my leisure while caring for my ailing parents. My parents lived in the south which was far from New York, where I was licensed as an attorney. My situation made it difficult to pursue the law further so, I returned to my previous career.
Falling back in line with the school routine was easy, it was like riding a bike except I was more experienced. As a result, my expertise was always on call from assisting students to teachers. The schools that I worked for now had access to a highly skilled consultant on a substitute’s salary. There was no digging in the budget for extra funds.
If you can recall from a previous post entitled, “The Conundrum of Special Education,” I was brought in to assist a student teacher with her final evaluation for college graduation. This class had many problems. What I did not mention in the previous post is that there happened to be another fragile situation that day that gave me reason to pause.
There was a female student who kept sleeping during the first two periods. Whenever the teacher addressed her behavior, she became very combative. She had to be forced to do the work all the while complaining and cussing. According to the student teacher, this was an everyday occurrence. Since this was a sixth grade special education class, my antennae did not go up right away. By no means am I insinuating that all special education classes are unruly. I know first-hand this is not the case. In an ideal situation, that student teacher would not have needed a substitute. However, I was placed in this class as the lead teacher for a reason, so I knew there would be challenges.
Eventually, I was able to coax the child to sit up and do the work. Since this was special education, I was assigned to the class for the entire day. So, I had the benefit of watching each student’s progression. When I helped the teacher revamp the lesson to something relevant and relatable to the class, there was more cooperation from this student. However, I cannot take the credit, because there was another underlying issue going on with this student that I had yet to pinpoint.
Late in the afternoon, during the final period of the day, I noticed a spark of life in this student. She had even become pleasant. Granted, lunch had passed, and we were in another classroom with a different teacher that was more engaging. Still, it did not fully explain such a transformation. Once again, I placed on my detective hat and began child whispering.
I cozied up to the student by offering to assist her. We both enjoyed figuring out the clues for the class exercise. Once we became comfortable with each other, I snuck in a few personal questions. I asked her about her behavior earlier in the day and what happened between then and now to make her so happy and amenable. I was totally unprepared for her explanation, but I managed not to cringe.
This 11-year-old little girl told me that her mother gives her medication every night to put her to sleep, then again in the morning before she goes to school. The medication makes her sleepy and she can not concentrate to do her work. This explained why she was so combative in the morning. By the afternoon, the drug wears off and she is back to her pleasant self. I did not ascertain whether she was in foster care or not. From our conversation I assumed the person she called her mother, was biological. That is why I became sick to my stomach upon learning her dilemma. It is easier to assume there is a beast when it is disguised as some foreign entity like a foster parent. However, if the beast shows up as a biological parent, it is harder to digest. Bottom line, this child was being intentionally drugged by her mother.
From the way that child behaved and comprehended the work as the drug wore off, I was willing to bet that she did not belong in that class. My only question is, how did I gather this information in one day while these teachers did nothing for an entire school year? No, make those six years. I can tell you that it probably took one lazy person or several to label this child and that label was added to her individual education plan (IEP). From there the ball was carried and the quarterback was never sidelined. Of course, the mother gets the bulk of the blame simply because she probably adhered to some complaints early in the child’s education then used it as an excuse to over medicate her own child. There is also the possibility that the mother initiated the move to have her child placed on medication because of unmanaged behavior. Who knows what caused that behavior? Once again, medication became the culprit, not the solution.
Now the issue becomes, what is being done to regulate the dosage and how often should it be administered? Who is regulating the parents and guardians? Should teachers be able to make recommendations to the school, parent/guardian, or case worker, without fear of reprisal? Should teachers be notified of the medication schedule so they can monitor the child’s behavior? Finally, have there been any studies to determine whether children who take ADD and ADHD medication for a considerable amount of time, have a higher propensity to become adult addicts? I want to know these answers; don’t you?
By: Paige Adams
A Paige from my Book 