My "WTF?" story of the day, 4 and 5 year old kids beat a teacher senseless...

[Archae]

I mean, what the hell can authorities do with these kids?

Students aged 4 and 5 'beat teacher until she was unresponsive in classroom'

Elementary school students aged four and five allegedly beat their teacher in her classroom until she was unresponsive. The students reportedly used their fists and feet in the attack at Pines Lakes Elementary in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/students-aged-4-and-5-beat-teacher-until-she-was-unresponsive-in-classroom/ar-AAUL2mG?ocid=msedgntp

[LT Barclay]

1. No details but the teacher must have been elderly or had an anxiety attack.

[meadowlander]

4. Or had Covid. She was gasping for breath.

"A police officer who arrived at the scene discovered the unidentified teacher sitting on the ground feeling ‘faint’ and ‘weak and dazed’, a police report states. The teacher began coughing and dry heaving, leading the officer to lay her on her side and hold her head straight to ‘prevent possible choking’."

[Archae]

7. Not elderly.

From a news article down thread:

"The victim, in her late 30s or early 40s, is about 5-foot-4 with a slender frame, Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco told NBC News on Monday."

[Kittycatkat]

2. Only in Forida kids. Or Texas

[Hortensis]

26. For the (special) prize.

[meadowlander]

3. As an ex-kindergarten substitute teacher I can believe it.

What I can't believe is the grown-ass adults who think prosecuting five year olds for assault and battery is a good use of taxpayer money.

[iemanja]

47. they won't be prosecuted as adults

but they need some sort of penalty.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Sounds like Lord of the Flies.

I'm confused. The article makes it seem like a bunch of them did it as a group but then they go on to say that the one child was responsible for the beating.

Was this a Special Ed class? I taught next to the primary Spec Ed classroom in my school and stuff was always being thrown against our shared door. My 1st graders wanted to know what was going on next door so I always told them that they were having a party. That's when my class got jealous of all the parties they always had compared to our class.

Kids were always hurting teachers and other students. The teacher couldn't even keep a stapler or scissors on her desk. Desks and chairs were thrown out the door many times. Our principal got shin guards the first year he was at our site since he was always being kicked.

Teachers don't get paid nearly enough.

[Hortensis]

28. I googled other articles. This teacher'd gone to the ER 3 times before!

Teachers don't get paid enough. And then there are special ed teachers in districts that don't act on special cases sooner...

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/teacher-hospitalized-after-attack-by-5-year-old-at-pembroke-pines-school/2707593/

According to the report, the incident began when two students, ages 4 and 5, started throwing things around the pre-K classroom and at the teachers, then started flipping over chairs.

One of the teachers took the 5-year-old into a smaller "cool down" room and that's where the student attacked her, the report said. ...

Fusco said the 5-year-old with special needs continued to attack the teacher, even after she was on the floor and unresponsive.

"She was caught where he ran and jumped on her and attacked her with his body weight, which caused the severe injury and she will need surgery," Fusco said.

The teacher's injuries were so severe she had to be intubated at the hospital, Fusco said.

Fusco said it's the third time the teacher was taken from the classroom in an ambulance because of injuries from the same student. Last time, the student pinned the teacher under a bookcase, and she lost consciousness and was treated for a concussion, Fusco said.

My best guess is that the four-year-olds' behavior may have been influenced by the five-year-old's. In any case, the entire class has serious problems and the entire situation needs to be investigated.

[BigmanPigman]

42. Same student 3 times?!?!?!?

It sounds like the student needs a different learning environment. I can't believe the teacher went back twice after it initially happened. I hope she won't be doing this a 4th time.

[Hortensis]

50. Amazing. A parent said this teacher's a sweet woman her own child likes.

Well, whatever extraordinary steps are needed will now be determined and authorized. Hopefully. I imagine this is supposed to be the different learning environment. Just hope the child's problems aren't nearly as profound as this incident might suggest. Teacher's home.

[Meowmee]

6. She should have quit after the first incident.

I hope she will be ok. She had a head injury according to the rep in this video and was on a ventilator and will need surgery.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-teacher-beaten-hospitalized-attack-5-year-old-student-police-s-rcna18961

[jmbar2]

8. It's the THIRD time the same teacher has been attacked by the same student

and hospitalized!

Sounds like a born psychopath. What can you do with a child this violent and sick? I feel sorry for anyone responsible for his care.

[Meowmee]

9. yes agree

the school is responsible for leaving her alone and not getting this child the help needed after 3 violent attacks.

[DURHAM D]

10. His parents will likely buy him a gun in a few years. nt

[smirkymonkey]

11. WTF!

This is the kind of stuff that makes me think that maybe mutually assured destruction might not be such a bad idea. FFS!

[BlueLucy]

14. Expel him from public school indefinitely. nt

[SheltieLover]

15. Absolutely!

[BlueLucy]

16. It seems to me, other students could not possibly be safe with this kid around...

If he beats on a teacher he could be a real danger to kids his own age. Let him come back after the parents prove he has had help and a DR signs of on it.

[SheltieLover]

18. Of course they are not safe with this behavior disordered child there!

There are therapeutic schools for kids who behave this way. And there are partial hospitilization programs for such overt acts in public school settings. Participants live at home, but attend "school" at a psych hospital with some academic work, but their days are comprised mainly of group therapy sessions.

Why this kid is allowed to stay in a public school is beyond me.

[haele]

31. Most likely because IEP money in the district was limited...

And any local psychiatric facility that could provide a special needs teaching environment was either too far away or private and too expensive for the district to contract with on a case by case basis -and the parents couldn't afford a special school for their child.
Public schools have to take all children, regardless of condition, that aren't enrolled in a credentialed private school or home schooling program. That includes the pre-K,/kindergarten children.

Haele

[Dorian Gray]

51. While that is true

if his school is unable to provide him with the services he needs, the district needs to pay up to send him to the proper environment. That's their legal responsibility according to the IDEA act.

Having said that, however, getting him there is an issue on his own. Parents would have to sue the local department of education. Tuition (if it's a private facility) would be reimbursed, and that can take a whole school year. (So you'd have to put the money up front.) And you have to have parents involved and motivated to find the right place for the child in the first place. If that is not the case, the school and the Special Ed district team, would have to advocate for that.

At 5 years old, there aren't MANY therapeutic programs. Behavioral issues of this nature tend to crop up later.

What is obvious to me is that this teacher and child needs more support. There should be aides in that classroom. After the first attack, there should have been a protocol in place. If there was and it didn't work, after the SECOND attack, they should have re-evaluated.

This is insane.

[Irish_Dem]

40. Yes what has he been doing to his peer group if this is how he treats adults?

[Scrivener7]

25. And possibly leave him alone with parents who made him a psychopath in the first place?

We don't know if it is his home situation making him so nuts.

Also, expulsion would make him more difficult to track and monitor.

Also, public schools are simply not allowed to do that. Maybe a change of placement, but the public school system has to keep him if that is what the parents want.

Besides, 5 is a little young to write off a kid.

[Zeitghost]

41. I'm not sure

That blaming the parents for a special needs kid with problems is the best look.

[Scrivener7]

43. I'm not blaming the parents. Maybe I should have been clearer.

Last edited Tue Mar 8, 2022, 08:25 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm saying that kids behave this way for a reason and we don't know what it is.

It could be the parents. It could be something else in the home environment. It could be a chemical imbalance incorrectly treated. It could be brain damage. It could be unresolved trauma. It could be he's a brat and has gotten away with it before, and raging is fun. It could be any combination thereof.

Kicking him out of school is, first, not legal in most places. And second, might abandon a kid into a bad situation.

[More_Cowbell]

13. The 5-year-old weighed 50-60 pounds

Half the size of the teacher - that's a big child.

It doesn't seem like any teachers who heard the commotion came in to help.

[Scrivener7]

27. The article you link says she was released from the hospital.

The teacher was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood and has since been released, officials said.

The way this story is being reported is shameful. The same article gives two completely different outcomes, and the OP's headline has nothing to do with what actually happened.

[Meowmee]

46. I watched the video

I didn't read the article. In the video a union rep said that she was taken to er and had a severe head injury, was on a ventilator and may need surgery. I am not sure what the full facts are. She also stated that this was the 3rd time this child injured this teacher badly enough that she required treatment at an emergency room/ hospital.

The fact remains this child has severe issues that were not dealt with by the school and they failed to do what was needed to protect the teacher. Most people would quit after one such incident. Maybe she was not in a position to do that.

[Scrivener7]

52. I know. I saw that too. And it was completely different from what the article said.

So who knows what really happened.

I worked with kids with many different kinds of disabilities, and some of them were rageful and violent. I got injured a few times. Rarely the schools were being negligent, but it happened. More commonly, the school personnel had to go through years of stuff to be able to deal with the issues. Usually in cooperation with parents but sometimes in spite of parents, because parents always have the last word on what the school is allowed to do. And this little guy is young, so they are just beginning the work.

When you work with kids who are so troubled, you do come to understand that there is always a reason for what they do. Often there is some bad pain or trauma or brain defect at the bottom of it. Granted this is an extreme case, but you do tend to want to stick with them and help them get over or around whatever it is that is making them that way.

[Meowmee]

53. Yes we don't really know the details

I worked with special ed children also years ago. Most were on meds and some had to be restrained at times etc. I never had to do it, as I could not physically, I always had help. If I had ever been injured on any level much less have needed to go to er etc. I would have quit and made a complaint against the school. This should not be happening. A child who is sending people to the er needs to be in a different setting imo. There is only so much teachers etc. can do or should be expected to do.

[Scrivener7]

54. But again, we don't know. This school might BE the different setting. There is a dedicated

cool down room, and apparently the teacher had a "school radio" that allowed her to call for help. Some of my schools were specifically for children with severe emotional problems. Granted the schools I worked in were poor, but rank and file staff didn't have school communication devices. (Though some did have cool down rooms.)

[Meowmee]

55. Well in this case I have no doubt the school was wrong and negligent

This was the third severe attack on this teacher by this student apparently. So whatever they were doing it was not working and it was not ok to leave anyone alone with this child obviously.

[AdamGG]

12. Maybe it's like The Omen or a Stephen King story

These kids are too close to Mar-a-lago and the negative energy has possessed them.

[FSogol]

37. The Power of Trump Compels You!

[Emile]

17. It's okay, they were probably standing their ground!

[Whiskeytide]

19. Did ANYBODY read the article linked in post 6? He is ...

… a special needs student in a special needs class. He was taken to a “cool down” room because he’d become agitated. Apparently he tackled the teacher in a rage, knocked her down, and she was concussed when she fell. He then kicked and hit and bit her while she was essentially unconscious.

Not exactly the story initially reported. Who the fuck is Jessica Kwong with Metro News?

[malaise]

20. Just watched a report on Local 10

I only looked up because the anchor said the five year old won't be arrested/ Who arrests five year old kids with special needs/
The entire system is fucked up. The poor teacher now needs surgery.

Meanwhile a 24 year ol will be in court this morning for raping an 80 year old woman.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article259163088.html

No words

[Whiskeytide]

21. What an awful tragedy further compounded by bad reporting. n/t

[malaise]

23. Agree

[Demsrule86]

32. Some kids do not belong in a classroom.

[Caliman73]

44. Where do they belong and where would you put them?

There are definitely children with needs that exceed what can be delivered in a traditional school setting, but the question remains, where do those children belong? How would you help them?

[Scrivener7]

24. MSN ginned up the click-bait title till it has nothing to do with what happened.

A single child, not "4 and 5 year old kids." This is not a societal issue. This is a poor child with special needs.

Children, especially children with special needs, always have a reason for what they do. Mostly they can't process things that have happened or are happening to them.

A teacher or school personnel going into a cool down room is always in danger of having something - including furniture - thrown at her or him.

This is not the child's fault or the teacher's fault. This is what happens with children with special needs. As someone else pointed out, this was the third time she was hurt by this child She must have a particular devotion to him, which sometimes happens when a teacher sees that no one else is trying to help a child with terrible problems.

I hope she recovers.

[Demsrule86]

33. That child is a danger and needs to go residential most likely...my sister in law worked in a

group home for kids like this.

[Scrivener7]

38. I worked with kids like this for 20 years. About 75% of them need some good meds and/or

to get out of whatever situation is making them so out of control.

A very few do need to go to residential schools, but most do not.

[sl8]

34. I think Metro gets the credit for the clickbait title, but MSN.com gets the assist for spreading it

MSN online now seems to be more of an aggregator than anything else and they don't seem to be very particular about their sources.

[JI7]

30. Does it say anywhere how old the Teacher is ?

i'm thinking maybe a petite elderly woman ? Or maybe a teacher that did not want to strike back at a child ? I also wonder if the kids are bigger than the average kids that age .

[BeerBarrelPolka]

35. Someone

Someone posted an article stating she was in her 30's or 40's.

[AdamGG]

39. I'd guess the teacher not wanting to hit a 5 year old was a part of it

Not good for a teacher's career to kick a 5 year old in the head. I'm not saying that I think it's the correct answer, but in old time Catholic school, the nuns would have whooped his ass.

[milestogo]

36. And they're worried about the books.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

45. Another link:

https://www.fox13news.com/news/florida-teacher-hospitalized-after-attack-by-5-year-old-needs-surgery-union-says-its-childs-3rd-attack

[iemanja]

48. I blame the disrespect legislators and parents

have toward teachers. That coupled with the ever-increasing frequency of violent attacks shows the degradation of our society.

[GaYellowDawg]

49. That wouldn't influence a 5 year old special needs kid.

What do they know about legislatures? If it’d been a middle or high school student I’d agree.

[iemanja]

56. If they hear their parents talking about how worthless teachers are

It could.