Every now and then, our children’s or grandchildren’s schools do something that we don’t particularly agree with. Usually it’s just one of those things and we forget about it in the next day or so. But sometimes, those schools can do something that just makes us fighting mad.
Think about this one: How would you feel if a teacher moved your child’s or grandchild’s desk… into the bathroom. Lucas Goodwin is autistic. And one day at the beginning of the school year, his mom, Danielle, accompanied him to school, which is Whatcom Middle School in Bellingham, Washington. They found his desk in the boy’s bathroom.
Says his highly agitated mom: “I was so shocked, I just took the picture because I didn’t even believe what I was seeing…The teacher informed us that he would be…studying in the bathroom.”
For her, this was disturbing, to say the least. All summer long, Lucas had been looking forward being in the sixth grade. It was a pretty big deal for him. And once he got there, it was quite a let down. And he sure didn’t feel good about school at all any more. Danielle tried her best to work with everyone over her son’s condition. She wanted him to fit in like all the rest, but she knew he was different. It would have taken a little tolerance, that’s all. But they moved his desk to the bathroom because, they said, it was the only quiet place they could put him.
Lucas also has Pandas, an autoimmune condition, and working from a bathroom was certainly not a good place for him to be.
Says Danielle: “It’s not an appropriate place for anyone…especially for Lucas who…with his PANDAS condition can’t really be around germs, that’s something that can really effect his body.”
So she posted about it on Facebook, saying: “Mad, stressed, embarrassed…I was like, how is this happening, how am I in the bathroom, why?…That’s not fine, you don’t do that.”
So would the school change things? They said, “No.” So what’s your opinion?
