Dear Mrs. Cully,

My name is Gina Minks. I am a Florida native, although I now reside in New England. I am a product of Florida public schools in Okaloosa county. My Undergrad degree in Information Studies in from Florida State University, and I am currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Instructional Systems from the Educational Psychology and Learning Systems Department at FSU. Currently I work as a Senior Technical Education Specialist at a global information company.

However, my most important role is as the mother of two children. My children also started their educational careers in the public school systems of Florida. One of those children was diagnosed as having Asperger’s Syndrome four years ago, right before she headed off to college.

I am writing to express my shock concerning a story that is circulating about one of your kindergarten teachers,  Wendy Portillo. From what I can gather from the stories, she used a student’s constant trips to the office as a way to enhance a classroom lesson on tallying. She had the boy stand at the front of the class, and had each student vote on whether the child should be allowed to return to class. Once the class voted him off for being annoying and disgusting, she had the boy figure out where he should spend the rest of his day, since “no one in the office liked him either” and he could not go home since his mom was at work.

As an educator,  I cannot fathom ever treating a student in this fashion. In fact, I would lose my job if I were to try this sort of instructional method with an adult. Apparently the boy’s behavior was disruptive enough to merit you recommending that he be tested for an ASD. I applaud you for sending this boy to testing so early, I would have given anything if my daughter had been diagnosed at that age.

Unfortunately, my daughter had to endure 12 years of taunting and teasing before we figured out why she was different. That bullying never came at the hands of the teachers, however. The teachers my daughter had always tried different ways to reach my daughter, and were receptive to trying different methods I found as we narrowed in on the cause for her different ways of behaving and thinking.

As a parent, I am just floored and speechless over the methods of this teacher. I cannot imagine what I would have done if either of my children had been treated in that manner, or if they had been instructed to participate in this type of group project. I fear your staff member has not only made an irreparable mark on the student who was “voted off the classroom”, but also has made lasting marks on the peers of this boy.

Please act immediately to repair the damage that has been done. I can’t imagine that a woman who teaches five-year-olds could have initiated this activity because she hates children. I believe she probably thought at the time that this was a good learning lesson. As a mom, I strongly suggest that your team gets training on what autism is, how it presents in children, the different ways that girls present, and what are the best ways of engaging these children in the classroom. The methods this teacher used had the opposite effect of what I believe the teacher was intending.

Please do the right thing by this boy and all of the other different minded children in your school. Please make sure your teachers understand that this sort of lesson is completely inappropriate for any child. Please use this as a teaching moment for the children in that class, so that they can learn about bullying and the effects it has on other people.

Sincerely,

Gina Minks
http://www.ginaminks.com