I need to know if anyone else has SEVERELY aggressive students. I am scared to give any details about my situation. What do you do to protect yourself? I have joined a teachers' association and am waiting for workman's comp to pay for physical therapy. One was recommended LONG TERM residential treatment in a psych facility. The other is just violent- at home and school. It is hard.
I took a non-violent crisis intervention class to help me learn preventative strategies and to learn how to properly restrain a student when necessary. The office was well aware that if I beeped them for administrative assistance that they were to get on their walkie talkies to get administration right away (my custodian was also on call). Thankfully he was also a screamer (you could hear him 9 classrooms away), so I always had teachers coming into my classroom asking if I needed help. Due to the size of my student it could take up to 4 people to remove him from my classroom. He would disrupt my class for over 3 hours a day. After 1 year, my school finally started suspending him to force a Panel Meeting with the county and his mother to determine a different placement since a self-contained class in a public school was not the answer for him. He ended up going to a special education school (the last resort school before home schooling or residential schooling) in the public school system. Document everything!!! Remove the other students from the classroom and if you need to restrain the student, try to always make sure that you have another adult in the classroom as a witness.
I took SAMA and have an aide now. Due to the level of violence from my 2 students we have had an "excessive amount of containments". I only contain them when they are going to hurt someone else (typically me) or themselves. The situation is a tar-baby. I was taught that you must reward positive behavior and not reward negative. A lot of what the boys do is to get attention or to avoid work. I am being told I need to have more "engaging lesson plans" so the boys will "be happy to come to school". The boys learned that aggression got them sent home from their regular classes. It also gets their way at home. So when I came along they couldn't get why I didn't call to get them out of class. They increased the level up and up and up. I never sent them home early. The pay off is now admin comes in and placates the boys when they are agitated. I feel undermined. The boys are on a point system to where they have to earn privileges. I'm going to remember to smile and say everything is great even when it isn't. I cannot have any containments.
I am not too sure what kind of lessons you plan and the only thing I can think of is more hands on activities (ie. manipulatives) and group work. Have you tried picture schedules and social stories? My student hated writing (he would be excited about the assignment and wait patiently for his piece of paper but will lose it within 5 minutes of the assignment), I let him complete his assignment on an Alphasmart. I also gave him break cards. He got 2-3, 5 minute break cards for every activity depending on the length of the activity. He got them when an assignment was given. We decided together what he could do during the break (read, draw, color, nothing, get a snack, get a drink of water...). He could use all 3 cards right after another if he wanted, but he was expected to work when he was not on a break. He never abused the break cards. Sometimes he did not compete an assignment but it was better than having him scream and disturb the other students and in the process not doing any of his assignment and the other students not getting theirs completed.
