After four years of teaching special education, Regina Arakaki said she's never going back, because of a traumatic period in which she repeatedly was bitten, scratched, hit and cursed at by one of her students. The incidents started on the second day of school last year at Mililani Uka Elementary with a blow to her foot that left her limping. In all, Arakaki recorded 73 times when the girl lashed out at her, at teacher aides or at the other students in kindergarten through second grade. Her case is one piece of what those involved in special education describe as a complicated picture of discipline.
Teachers tell of children with emotional disabilities running amok in class.
Parents say their disabled children are being punished rather than helped when their disability causes them to act out. Principals talk about overwhelming demands and stretched resources. The issue is complex enough in a normal school year, but in the charged atmosphere resulting from federal oversight of the state's effort to improve special education, teachers, parents and school administrators feel engulfed by a climate of confusion, tension and fear of being sued. In severe moments, I had to evacuate the class. There were desks thrown, chairs thrown, furniture knocked down, posters ripped off the walls.