Assignment 2

Assignment 2: Interview the Participants

ESE548 : The Class : In Practice : Busy BJ : Assignment 2

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Put yourself in the role of each party in the case where the student was pelted with rocks during lunch. Write an imaginary interview entry for each of the subjects.

Talk to the youngster, forced to sit in the hall and be abused by peers. Get a flavor of his need for peer support, friendship, the embarrassment, even emotional abuse that may be occurring.
Interview each of the parents about the incident. See if you can get a sense of how much of a toll it has taken on each of them. You may also want to get the human interest angle by talking with them about life with a youngster who has disabilities. Has it taken a toll on the marriage, the financial expenses, and the support or lack of it from their own parents, from other children in the family? You may want to discuss that from a "birth to now" perspective. Has it disrupted personal life goals - kept one or the other from advancing, kept the family from having vacations, cost any promotions? Have there been fights between the parents about what was best for the child? How is each coping with their son's need for stimulation, for a peer group, for access to higher education? You may even want to interview another set of parents and make a comparison between this situation and the way others are handling life.
As you interview the teacher, work to get a sense of what it is like to be a teacher of special needs students. How hard is she working to provide a great education for these kids? Does she have an aide? Did she expect to be caring for youth who had such severe disabilities? Is it hard to change the diapers of adolescents? Is it back breaking work? Did her training prepare her for this work? Does she plan to stay in teaching? Does she have a good heart? Does she have a right to a peer group - to a lunch, a break?
Interview at least one person from a district position. You may want to ask them about financial issues, availability of support personnel or problems trying to provide an aide. Try to find out whether the administration knew some students were being treated harshly. Is there a policy about lunch monitoring, adult supervision? If not, why not? What role does the administration feel they should be performing for the good of the school or community? Is the district policy focused on the needs of individual students or is there a more generalized focus?
Interview a couple of students regarding the incident. Include individual and disparate perspectives that provide a student feeling about the district. You may want to include a range of peer feelings about students with special needs and what they think might need to be done. Did the students know the boy who was hurt? Did they know the kids who threw the rocks?

Now, write out an expose that includes a summation of each position and the feelings you believe the community might want to consider. You may want to focus it toward questioning the roles of schools, toward governmental and regulatory ideas that have a bearing on the situation, or as a call to more humane treatment of youth. You could take a shot at teachers who do not care enough - or turn it toward how much teachers care and how much support they need from others in the difficult job. You may want to write it as a social conscience piece about the behavior of youth. Take a stand, write the article, and let the chips fall where they may!

Position or role	State Law	Federal law or regulation
School and Administration
Regular Teachers
Special Ed Teacher
Parents
Student

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E-mail J'Anne Affeld at Janne.Affeld@nau.edu

Course developed by J'Anne & Martha Affeld