Sydney Bell

English 2010

Professor Brandon Alva

Editorial Assignment

Teachers Have Special Needs Too… Needs for Rights That Is

It was a regular day in classroom K107. The students were working busily, and somewhat

noisily, on their math assignment. Well, most of them anyways. As some of them can be a bit

stubborn, it becomes necessary to prompt a few students to start working on occasion. Now, let it

be clear that this specific class was for learning-disabled students. Students who are behaviorally

disabled, or as the official label states, “emotionally disabled”, belonged in a different class. But

apparently that wasn’t so for this case, in this school district, in this school, on this day.

As the prompts came kindly, but repeatedly, for one particularly obdurate student, the

effects of such misplacement took effect. First flew the pencil. Then, the glasses. Next, the

notebook. The calculator. A chair. Panic started to sweep the other students and the teacher cried

out for a room clear. The other students ran out of the room, followed by the two paraeducators.

The teacher stopped one of them saying she needed to stay in order to keep documentation for

legal reasons. And with no other choice, that paraeducator had to sit and watch silently as the

teacher was violently beaten by the outraged student. Bruised and nearly broken completely, the

teacher waited desperately for backup to come. After several slow, agonizing minutes passed, the

school officers finally arrived and removed the student in handcuffs.

As any narrative would have it, I was that paraeducator on that frightening day. And that

brave teacher ended up with a surgery to fix the damage caused by this student. But as for that

student, well, he ended up back in our classroom the very next week. No charges, no corrective
action other than a two-day suspension, and no disciplinary consequences. Something was

terribly wrong with having a behaviorally disabled student in a learning-disabled class. But it

was when the student walked back through our classroom door that something was more than

wrong. It was unethical, immoral, and nearly unforgivable.

We weren’t the only ones facing such challenges with special education. Soon after our

episode, Channel 2 News showed a week-long program covering similar incidents in Utah

schools with special education teachers being beaten by their students. According to Channel 2

News, in the three largest school districts in Utah, 70 percent of Worker Compensation claims

were from being attacked by special education students. This resulted in Worker’s Compensation

paying $900,000 total. This experience led me to question the extent of special education rights.

See, this cruel assault was not a result of this student’s disability. No, I could see it in his eyes.

This student was very aware of what was happening- what he was doing to that teacher. Of

course, I would never say that persons with special needs deserve any less than the average

person. However, teachers deserve rights to protect themselves, too. It has become nearly

impossible to find any special needs student guilty of anything. This particular student had

fourteen – let’s emphasize that, fourteen – charges that had all been previously dropped. The

number fourteen does not indicate that a person is not aware of what they are doing. In fact, it

seems to show that they are completely aware of what they are doing. And that they are also

aware that they can get away with it as well.

There are plenty of laws in place to protect the disabled. More than plenty. But there are

not nearly enough laws to defend teachers. According to special education teacher Mary

McLaughlin, 75 percent of special education teachers leave the profession within the first ten

years of teaching. Teachers in the state of Utah get paid annually an average of only $49,000.
However, there is not a high enough salary in existence to justify or compensate a teacher being

brutally beaten. In all literalness, teachers cannot afford such damage. Therefore, instead of

focusing time on rights for the special needs population, where an abundance of laws already

exist and clearly work well (if not too well), we must spend time on the overlooked teachers who

deserve more. These are the ones who hold the future in their hands. The hope of our world quite

literally depends upon them. Would it kill us to pay them more and protect them better?

It might if we don’t.