On what grounds?

The tweets cited here don't seem particularly offensive.

If anything has come up in the classroom, that's one thing, but this seems a tad McCarthy-like.

If you had a autistic grandchild you could see how inappropriate she was. What if the kids were deaf and she said she didn't have to watch her language "cause they cant hear anyway"

I have an autistic grandson, beam of sunshine in our lives, I don't think my response would have been as well worded as yours.

But teachers have a tough job - especially teachers of students with special needs. I would think a reprimand would be a reasonable response to this.

That she had been terminated. I agree she should not lose her job, we all get frustrated. But I hope she learns to stay the hell off social media. And appreciate the gift she is giving, of the opportunity to educate these wonderfull children. And make a real difference in a life.

I guess that is part of what I was responding to. I thought that was too harsh.

I pretty much agree with what you've written here. I have mixed feelings about "stay the hell off social media" - I guess I would need to see the actual tweets themselves.

I do think it takes a very patient person to handle the challenges involved with being a teacher of students with special needs, wonderful as those kids may be.

As long as she is doing her job effectively, I don't begrudge her the right to complain now and then.

This is where she could be some serious hot water, depending on what she wrote
If she is revealing events that happened in the school, she is probably violating privacy and confidentiality clauses in her contract
When you work with kids who have IEPs, you have to be very careful what you say or write outside of the school setting
Laws are pretty strict regarding IDEA

I guess, not seeing the actual tweets, it is hard to have a completely informed opinion on this. I am just going based on what I read in the article - they seem mild. Being a teacher of special needs students can be quite challenging, and the tweets cited in the article seem relatively innocuous.

If the teacher does their job well, then I think that is what matters. If the teacher is not doing a good job, then the tweets in question could serve to bolster the case perhaps.

to change her career path.

This is an emotionally hard job, but calling the mothers "monsters" is over the top and reflects a poor attitude and lack of empathy. The parents she's meeting with may already sense that she's no longer an appropriate teacher for their kids.

Considering the challenging nature of the job. Some parents do act like monsters. I would have to see the exact tweet to have a completely informed response, but it seems like the kind of thing many teachers say once in a while about difficult parents.

can expect career trouble for doing it.

"Monster" mothers may be the only ones advocating for those children. I've known parents who've brought tape recorders to ARD (IEP) meetings to make sure that what was agreed upon would be documented and implemented, including safety issues. Sounds to me like she's mad that parents are making her do her job.

If she needs to blow off steam, she needs a confidant, not a public forum.

I equate this to a nurse whining about patients who are in pain, or a cop who has to drop his sandwich to chase a bad guy. IOW, there are certain things that come with the job, like parents demanding school districts follow the law regarding their kids' education.

If you look at her blog, she seems like she takes her work pretty seriously.

to regroup, after which maybe she can teach another age group.

Face it, middle school kids are at the peak of savagery. It's where bullying and taunting are the worst for any kid and even the bullies are bullied by older bullies. When I think of pure hell, I think of being perpetually eleven years old with some sort of quirk.

I know teachers who love the age group. Apparently they have a gift she lacks.

Aren't quite like the others, but I agree that she might need a good break, maybe some fun seminars, before starting back in the fall.

Take a year off, regroup. A summer isn't enough to overcome burnout.

There would be no chance of being granted a sabbatical, and these tweets do not suggest that she is experiencing burnout. If you look at her other social media posts, she clearly loves her job and takes her work seriously.

It would give her time to consider her career path and maybe grow up a little.

They are usually given to teachers with at least ten years of experience.

How very silly.

This might be helpful to you:

Again, I would have to see the full tweet, but there are countless great teachers who have to deal with students who act like little devils sometimes.

Making connections with others who are going through some of the same challenges, for instance.

I think as long as you are anonymous, it ought to be okay to tweet in the manner this person did. It seems that it took some digging to connect this twitter account to the actual teacher. And then a local newspaper reporter published a story about it and off we go.

This teacher seems like a good person who takes her job very seriously. She has a sister who is autistic, whom she has blogged about with great love and sensitivity. She also has many blog posts about how much her work means to her.

I'd like to have a conversation with others, not just you - you've made your support of this teacher and her actions abundantly clear, maybe let others make their points without taking it upon yourself to continue to rebut every post on this thread?

I am just saying that there could be an upside from this person's perspective. If there wasn't, people wouldn't do it.

In terms of posting, this is a discussion forum, and I enjoy engaging with people on topics of interest to me. Not sure how my sharing my opinions with posters is problematic for you. If anyone else wants to share their thoughts, they are obviously welcome to do so.

DU is a great place to engage in interesting discussions with people about a variety of topics. There is no need to discourage participation.

You might want to let others participate, now that you've made your position clear numerous times.

Conversation implies making ample space for others to paricipate and you have more posts here than most of the other posters combined.

Honest thanks, no insult intended.

not a public one where her identity and that of her students can be "unmasked". The children and their families have a right to privacy.

I haven't said she needs to be fired, or reprimanded, and I would probably be happy with whatever Administration recommends to her. But I would be concerned if I was the parent of one of her students. I've been through something similar, dealing with a teacher who needed a break from her classroom, a decade ago as a parent of a special needs child.

However, I think the way this story was presented was unfair to her. If you look at the totality of what she has blogged and tweeted about her teaching, she seems like someone who really cares about her job and her students. I mean, if you put a camera in the teacher's lounge of most schools, you'd hear and see much much worse than this. I think the local reporter who made this story go a bit viral did a disservice in this case and made this teacher out to be something she isn't by using cherry-picked tweets that are really not all that bad.

Parent whose child is not disabled. It's very different when there is criticism of children who are unable to defend themselves to adults, parents, or other teachers for their behaviors in school.

We parents have to trust and rely on those teachers to provide objective information about cognitive abilities, social skills, behavior, and self-help skills. We use that information for continuity at home and in public places, and to report back to doctors and multiple therapists. Trust in that objectivity can easily be lost when the teacher whines about the children. This isn't like teachers gossiping or comparing notes on their neurotypical children in the Lounge.

I don't like to tell people they don't get it unless they've walked in our shoes, as parents, but I'm going to pull that card now.

And she has devoted much of her adult life to helping young people with disabilities.

If you read the totality of her social media posts, she comes across as a young teacher who cares very much about her students and about children with disabilities in general.

I'm speaking as a parent, not the person who wrote the tweets, or someone with a passing curiosity on a forum.

Again, we rely on the teachers to give us objective reports. If their communications about the students start looking like whining, we question their objectivity and the value of their opinion. The parents obviously have lost some trust in her, or they wouldn't be taking the matter to a higher authority. This has almost nothing to do with whether she is a dedicated teacher. It is about her behavior and the loss of trust.

Again, I don't think you understand all of the dynamics in this relationship between parents, students, and teachers. It is not like a triad with neurotypical students.

These are very small classes, usually 6-8 children to help with giving specific teaching and assistance and to reduce stimulation. Because of the small class and unique requirements of the job, it is not uncommon for the teacher to know much more about the family than in a typical classroom.

You have no idea how many times I've gotten a note or phone call asking me, "what has changed at home? Johnny is acting different this week." Sometimes it could be because a parent is travelling on business, or a family member is visiting. The illness of a sibling, causing mommy to redirect more attention to the other child, will be an issue. I can tell you that it can be very unsettling for someone outside your family to request and need information on the personal activities and relationship dynamics in your home, even if they aren't big or explosive like a divorce. The only way we can get through that type of invasion of privacy is if we have trust in the teacher and other professionals. You don't violate that trust by broadcasting generalities or specifics on social media.

Like I said, she broke trust with the people who trusted her with their most vulnerable and precious people.

By an actual conversation with this first-year teacher.

I think it is a real shame that she went through this. People who are willing to devote their lives working with students with special needs ought to get all the support and understanding we can give them.

And now the students in the class will have their lives disrupted, which is good for no one.

A reprimand from the administration, a meeting with parents, anything along those lines would have been appropriate and could have served as a learning and growing experience for all concerned.

The local media did not need to make this into a public shaming of this young teacher.