cardboard boxThis just in from the bad teacher files: a teacher put a cardboard box around the seat of an autistic child and labeled it the "bad kid fort." Oh, but she didn't want to embarrass the child! At least not according to the principal who is faced with cleaning up this rather embarrassing mess for her school district.

Principal Pam Goots says the bad kid box put around a Parkersburg High School student was "bad judgment," but she insists this wasn't meant to humiliate the child. All right, I'll bite.

What did she think was going to happen? What could be the other options? Hmmm?

I'm not coming up with any, how about you?

The kid was going to be made a spectacle in front of his entire class and absolutely no one would notice? In a world where we have a bona fide bullying epidemic, this would just be ignored?

Uh huh. And the word gullible is in the dictionary, right?

The denial is infuriating here -- almost as much as the actual "bad kid fort" incident -- because teachers are supposed to be on a kid's side, any kid's side.

But this child in particular has Asperger's syndrome. That should have set off a warning bell in this teacher's head, reminding her that this kid needs a tad bit more protection, could use a tad bit more compassion. An average of 62 percent of the kids on the spectrum report that they're bullied at least once a week in school. Once a WEEK, people.

If we can't even get the teachers to stop singling them out, how are we going to get cruel kids to get the hint?

Do you buy this educator's excuse or was this straight up meant to humiliate this child?

 

Image via Victor1558/Flickr