>

Heads need to roll here. I don't think you can even call it a serious error at this point, as it's worse than that.
It's one thing to say "well he has a gun so we gotta be careful about how we approach this". It's another thing entirely to ignore it and wait for the school day to end first. Especially when the student had threatened others multiple times. This isn't incompetence, this is negligence. >

The weird thing is, you'd think administration would be highly motivated to find the gun. Besides the obvious safety issue (which should have been enough), bringing a weapon to school is one of the few things you can expel a student with a disability for without going through all the procedures that are usually in place to protect disabled students. It basically would have been a free pass to get rid of this kid. You'd think the crass motivation to offload a problem student would have gotten them to act, even if protecting elementary schoolers/staff from being shot wasn't enough. >

So, this is how you know this administration didn't know what the fuck they were doing when it come to this kid:

The family also said in its statement that the boy has an “acute disability” and was under a care plan “that included his mother or father attending school with him and accompanying him to class every day.” The week of the shooting was the first when a parent was not in class with him, the family said.

My mom and sister are both SPED teachers, my sister in particular is an adaptive curriculum specialist, and I can tell you just from my casual exposure to their work and in no uncertain terms that "a parent needs to tag along with him" is NOT an acceptable behavioral modification plan for a kid that's this unhinged. Full stop. No teacher or administrator should ever think that such a step is going to work long-term. Seems pretty fucking clear from what we know at this point that they didn't want to do what needed to be done with him, which was force him into some sort of adaptive learning environment properly equipped to handle a kid as awful as this one--i.e., alternative schooling. This sounds like an especially deadly mix of apathy and negligence, and it is truly a goddamn miracle he didn't shoot a classmate. >

Right?! I've got 16 years of experience with mostly "bad kids" with severely traumatic home lives and various disabilities. A few have a legally-mandated 1on1 paraprofessional who is trained to deescalate and teach coping skills. 
We might invite a parent to passively observe their child a few times to "see for yourself" but in no way would they be permitted to or asked to follow the child to every class as a behavioral solution. Shit's bonkers. >

I would quit if I had a student with that accommodation. >

My sister said exactly the same thing over the phone just a little while ago. "I would walk away that day from any job where that went down on the IEP." >

To be fair, I fear my walkout will be any day now. I love my students, and the feeling is mutual. I love teaching. But the environment is maddening and the laws they are proposing in Indiana are atrocious. The latest one is that administrators will not have to discuss classroom issues with teachers or the union. This includes class size and problematic behaviors. If it passes, I am gone. >

The politics surrounding education makes me wonder how to approach my son's education. He's barely 7 weeks old, so it's still a while but I'm not sure if the arbitrary restrictions, inefficient administration, high level apathy and educator burnout will get any better by the time he enters school. >

Vote and advocate now for who will actually make schools better. Hopefully, they will be by the time your little one gets there. >

Also, at least in my case, pull zero punches when it comes to private schools. I am in Iowa where Republicans are fucking over the state and happen to have Learning Disabilities, have ADHD, and needed the Special Education that only public schools are required to have. If I didn't have those I would probably be dead or on drugs or in jail. Private Charter Schools aren't required to help kids like me. >

The teacher is unsurprisingly suing the district. >

In a just world, the compensation would come out of the paychecks of every single one of the administrators who failed to act, instead of the taxpayer. 
Because it will be the kids and the rest of the teachers who end up indirectly footing the bill, and that sucks. >

Don’t forget the “acutely disabled” child’s (who apparently needed a parent present at school but surprise surprise was left alone) obnoxious parents with their “secured” firearm. >

Yeah secured does not mean on a shelf thats 6 foot tall with a trigger lock.  According to the article this was the first week his parents didn't accompany the kid to school.  Maybe its just me but you would think there would be extra eyes on that kid given the circumstances.  And you would want to try to intervene earlier if something was possibly going wrong.
I know I shouldn't say anything without knowing the nature of the disability.  But I would either take extra care to ensure my disabled child could access a firearm.  Or just not have one in the house.  Hell even a non disabled child there should be a safe or something.  Not just chillin on a shelf. >

I’d go as far to argue that if a child has such behavioral issues that they’re required to have a parent present at school…maybe they should be enrolled in a school that’s more specialized to deal with that. 
I went to a public school with some students with behavioral issues but have never heard of a situation where any student’s parents are required to be at school with them. >

Agreed. The law requires kids to be mainstreamed as much as possible, but when a kid can’t get through the day without the constant presence of a parent, it’s hard to say they’re ready to be mainstreamed. >

I went to public school in TN and my brother had some issues. It was common practice then that students who couldn’t be in the mainstream classes due to behavior would be “homebound.” My bro had a teacher come to the house a couple afternoons a week, drop off and review work he had done, and that was that. Granted he was in high school at this point. >

The "special" kids at my high school had their own wing just for themselves. >

Ours had dedicated classes but all were mixed together whether the issue was learning or behavioral issues. That definitely impacted the well behaved students who just needed extra assistance on coursework negatively >

That’s horrible! It’s like telling the kids with learning disabilities “having trouble reading
means you’re bad and need to be away from the rest of the other students” and telling the bad kids “just btw we not only think you’re bad, we also think you’re stupid.” >

Here’s the part about the search and threats. Sounds like administration had every opportunity to prevent this but did literally nothing, the search they keep touting happened wasn’t even done by them:

She said that around 12:30 p.m., one teacher told administrators that she had taken it upon herself to search the boy’s bookbag but warned that she thought he had the gun in his pocket. Toscano said that after 1 p.m., another boy told his teacher that the student had shown him the gun and threatened to shoot him, and that the teacher reported that to administrators.
Another employee later asked for permission to search the boy after hearing about the gun but “was told to wait the situation out because the school day was almost over,” Toscano said. >

Oh jesus. What kind of a MESSED UP 6 year old boy brings a gun and threatens to shoot someone with it?
Parents are fucked in the head here. That kid needs to be taken away for the good of society AND for the kid. >

The article said this was the first week the kid hadn’t had a parent with them all day at school as per a special education plan. Schools are especially bad with special needs children and they probably shouldn’t have had the kid in the class in the first place. Parents are definitely to blame for access to the weapon, but there may be more going on with that kid than bad parenting. >

If a kids parent has to sit with him in class every day, that kid absolutely does not belong in a regular classroom. >

That's a hard truth that some people refuse to wake up to.  There are kids who have zero place in classrooms.  "Accommodations" be damned.  If my child is treated like a minimum security inmate because we've removed all accountability and failure, then academia will continue with its death-spiral while the "haves" send their kids to private school.
I remember zero-tolerance hysteria post Columbine where drawing a gun would get you expelled for the remainder of the school year.  Now administrators will ignore MULTIPLE faculty members. >

yeah, as someone who attended a special needs school, there's even a extreme special needs group that should never been on school property in the first place. why? unable to understand anything beyond the basics, being violent, sexually harassing girls, or plainly not there in mind or body. in this cases most of the time it's because they're being violent or just bothering others like regularly pulling girls hair and giggling about it and keep doing it despite being told no. >

I used to pull security footage for my district.  I witnessed a repeat sexual assailant.  The assailant was back in the classroom in minutes.  The victims were often out for days or weeks with emotional damage.
I quit academia when I read a story about a shooting and asked myself, "well did the victim deserve it?".
I knew it was a bad headspace.  I knew if I saw that perp get shot I'd let them bleed. >

while we have nothing that extreme like raping, the strictly one on one IEP usually is because the person would beat someone up or go in girls bathroom to peep on them or just harassing to outright assaulting people that were likely innocent and being there on a wrong time and day. more often than not those extreme special needs ends up in a group home in school property because clearly the parents just can't take care of them. I never like that idea, but Canada don't have much of gun problems compared to US. it would be much more terrifying if it is in US.