Teacher asks bullied 11-yr-old boy with special needs to write down reasons why he's disliked by classmates, puts humiliating list on display
DERBY, ENGLAND: A 'bullied' special needs child was forced to list down all the reasons why his classmates disliked him and then had the list pinned on the wall for a year.
Caein Powell, 11, confided in his parents—Damian and Lindy—that he was being picked on and they told his teachers that they were concerned about him.
The couple who are from Derby were shocked and horrified when Caein came back home with a cartoon drawing of himself along with the caption, "How can I get the other children to like me?"
Around the drawing of him were a bunch of speech bubbles with suggestions his fellow peers had given him in a group discussion.
The bubbles read things like "stop annoying us", "stop shouting", and "he needs to not shout at you," reported by DailyMail.
The incident took place just four months after Caein suffered the loss of his grandmother.
One of the comments addressed how upset he was and read "be happy, not sad".
Upon complaining to the Allenton Community Primary School in Derby, the couple was told that the teacher defended the picture as "restorative justice".
Caein has some traits of autism due to a condition called oppositional defiant disorder which his father says can make him seem noisy to other people.
"I'm upset and angry. I'm trying to figure out how best to support Caien but with him not really understanding how horrific this is I don't want to raise his awareness of it too much as well. I'm disgusted at the behavior of the school and heartbroken about some of the things written," the couple shared.
The parents added that Caein had told them that he had some fallouts with the other children and had gone to the teacher and said, "these children are picking on me".
The teachers then sat Caein down with the children and had the picture drawn with the other children adding what they did not like about him.
Caein was also told that if he overcame all these things then the others would like him.
"It's essentially telling someone to change because they're being bullied. It had been on the school wall for a year and they were having a clearout ready for the end of the school year. My son is leaving the school at the end of next week and they asked Caien if he wanted to take it home. He doesn't quite realize how negative it is. I've got a teacher friend who said that if a child is struggling, they do this and name positive things about the child and then they try and talk to the child to work on those positive things. However, it appears to have been done in the reverse with my son," the parents said.