Mar 5, 2018, Charlotte, NC, WSOC—TV: 9 investigates special-needs students getting suspended at higher rates http://www.wsoctv.com/news/9-investigates/9-investigates-special-needs-students-getting-suspended-at-higher-rates/711357459 They’re some of the most vulnerable students in the classroom, but a sobering school discipline report showed that students with special needs are far more likely to be disciplined than others. Almost 1 out of 4 students suspended last school year had some kind of special need. Garry Ginyard’s 8-year-old son Jeremiah has autism. He is one of more than 14,000 students with special needs in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district who are in what is called the exceptional children, or EC, program. Ginyard said everything was going well until this year. “The first time he was suspended, he was suspended for two days for honking the horn on the bus,” Ginyard said. Since then, he said, Jeremiah has been suspended four more times. Ginyard feels that instead of helping him, the school is simply pushing Jeremiah aside.
Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.