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Teacher lets Morningside students vote out classmate, 5

tcpalm.com — After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn't like about Barton's 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote. By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex — who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism — out of the class.

Who dugg this? Made popular May 26, 2008

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  • reflex768, on 05/26/2008, -20/+799As an adult, how could you even formulate a plan like that to humiliate and ostracize a little boy. And a little boy who might be autistic at that. I'd want my own kids out of that class immediately. Clearly there are some vicious and ethically corrosive values being taught in the lessons.
  • WordsnCollision, on 05/26/2008, -12/+684Can the local school board now vote out that moronic teacher?
  • PolarBearCa, on 05/26/2008, -14/+653Digg needs a "Florida" tag.
  • kdfrawg, on 05/26/2008, -30/+601Good lord. what a disgraceful action!
  • yatinhat, on 05/26/2008, -35/+541This is horrible...I think the child's family should sue the school and the school should fire the teacher to send a message that this is not acceptable treatment of any school aged child.
  • inactive, on 05/26/2008, -24/+518St. Lucie County School Board
    District Offices
    4204 Okeechobee Rd.
    Fort Pierce, Fl. 34947
    Phone: (772) 429-3600

    The teacher: Wendy Portillo portillow@stlucie.k12.fl.us

    The principal: Mrs. Marcia Cully cullym@stlucie.k12.fl.us
  • SeaweedWater, on 05/26/2008, -14/+487"Alex, please bring your torch to the front of the class"
  • nahsrocketeer75, on 05/26/2008, -8/+253Here's my vote: Fire the teacher.
  • scurvydog00, on 05/26/2008, -3/+224Turn the class over to the two children that voted no.
  • philthetechie, on 05/26/2008, -6/+172"Alex, please pack your crayons."
  • dotlizard, on 05/26/2008, -11/+166this is heartbreaking and sickening. the teacher should be fired and banned from ever working with children again -- as terms of the settlement of the HUGE lawsuit the parents are hopefully filing as we speak.
  • yndy, on 05/26/2008, -9/+145Simply disgusting.
    This "teacher" is anything but... unless you consider teaching intolerance, cruelty, and isolation to be 'teaching'.

    I hope this woman not only loses her job, but her ability to work around kids. Simply horrid.
  • Alael, on 05/26/2008, -21/+147Part of the problem is that schoolteachers and kindergarten teachers are alway neurotypical (ie, the opposite to autistic) people. They see autistic traits as 'faults' in a child that they have a mandate to correct.
    Another part may be the tendency for a teacher to side with the class against any unpopular classmate; in turn, this may be due to the teacher's own insecurity and need for approval.
  • doctorfungi, on 05/26/2008, -2/+110That is utterly disgusting. The age of 5 is a prime time for permanent insecurities and emotional problems to seed in children's heads as a result of things like this.

    Fire the teacher and give her a mental evaluation. How could anyone do that to a kid and sleep at night?
  • GemStar38, on 05/26/2008, -3/+111It doesn't matter if this child has difficulties acting appropriately in class, the teacher NEVER should have asked/let the other children express their negative feelings aloud to the boy and vote him out. Simply disgusting and that teacher should be fired. I wouldn't want her teaching my kids even if they followed all of the rules.
  • dood, on 05/26/2008, -5/+101I'm not a fan of suing (since it'd just cost the school and community money, money that won't "fix" the problem) but if the story is true then yes, the teacher should be fired. That's a serious lapse of judgment.
  • TheAkolyte, on 05/26/2008, -0/+87I think the school should have an assembly where all of the employees tell the school what they don't like about the teacher, then they should fire her.
  • deathweaver108, on 05/26/2008, -8/+91Plato argued against democracy. His principal reasons for doing may be summarised as follows:

    1. Democracy leads inexorably to “mob rule” with those in power pandering to “pleasure-seekers” whose principal goals are the satisfaction of their immediate desires.

    2. Democracy leads to rule by the stupid (sophists), who while they may have fine rhetorical skills (that can exert some control over the masses) have no true knowledge itself.

    3. Democracy leads to disagreement and conflict, which is something that is intrinsically evil and to be avoided.
  • HenvY, on 05/26/2008, -8/+84She looks like a ***** hippo. A hungry, hungry hippo.
  • HenvY, on 05/26/2008, -15/+89Let's get the digg steamroller started, and steamroll this ***** out of a job.
  • sylvok, on 05/26/2008, -4/+78We do this is getting pathetic. How long till we can revoke statehood
  • Zoltair, on 05/26/2008, -8/+73Hey, if the kid was disruptive to the rest of the class, then yea, remove him. The teacher went about the removal in the wrong way.
    I find it amazing that people with very real problems and some serious behavioral problems can be minimized by others with very obvious discipline problems, it hasn't been proved this kid is autistic.... It should of been handled in a far different manor.
  • inactive, on 05/26/2008, -4/+69Dealing with an autistic child can be very demanding. That being said I don't see why they would ever consider a vote like that and I hope the NASCAR drivers who are members of Autism Speaks mention this in their interviews next weekend.
  • keyme, on 05/26/2008, -2/+64The Internet can be a very bad place for people like her...
  • inactive, on 05/26/2008, -6/+66Though completely inappropriate, i laughed.
  • Rainemaker, on 05/26/2008, -3/+55"The Lesson Plan for today Children includes Intolerance, Bigotry, and the letters "W", "T", and "F"; we are going to put a spin on it by adding a Civics lesson about voting too.... neato hunh!"

    ~Ms. Portillo
  • schotty, on 05/26/2008, -0/+51Since when is it the "classmate's" or "teacher's" role to choose who shows up to class?
  • leffunov, on 05/26/2008, -5/+54The smile just makes me more mad. It's understandable when a depressed or angry person misplaces their emotions and scapegoats an individual, but when a seemingly happy person confidently inflicts intentional emotional suffering on a five year old boy, I hope that person is never happy again.
  • MOJIRA, on 05/26/2008, -4/+49Hey, I live in Florida and even I want to filter this crap out.
  • Spoomeister, on 05/26/2008, -1/+46Pretty sad that I *knew* this was Florida before even opening the article.
  • inactive, on 05/26/2008, -13/+57WTF??!?! You judge all autists on the action of one single person???

    You are truely a stupid bastard! Go die in a fire!
  • ICD2k3, on 05/26/2008, -3/+47"Bet you're getting a lot of emails as a result of the news story. You're probably feeling quite ostracized and hated... Exactly how you made that boy feel. Enjoy!"

    thanks for the email address :)
  • NeoCortex, on 05/26/2008, -3/+46If his classmates actually voted him out 14-2, it's probably best that he find a new environment. Hopefully they can find a school and class that is not full of the types of people he's obviously been dealing with so far.
  • matthewjhughes, on 05/26/2008, -3/+44Dude, you are a moron. Seriously.
  • 55mph, on 05/26/2008, -3/+43This bitch is toast thanks to the investigative work of the diggers.


  • marx2k, on 05/26/2008, -3/+43We'd probably still end up with 8 years of Bush
  • se1zure, on 05/26/2008, -13/+53Guess what, the 14 who voted for him to leave will be working for the 2 who voted for him to stay some day.
  • lnf69, on 05/26/2008, -26/+66Ouch!! And here's a picture of her.
    http://www.stlucie.k12.fl.us/mse/staff/kindergarte ...
    I had all this rage built up when I read the story. Then I found the pic of the teacher and that put a human face on the object of my rage. I then felt bad for judging a person I don't know, basing my opinion on what may only be a part of the story.
    I still feel bad for the kid, but I wonder if we've all heard the whole story.
  • zephyear, on 05/26/2008, -7/+47damnit florida

    just when i thought nothing worse could come out of you, you prove me wrong
  • jumbalia, on 05/26/2008, -3/+43How exactly does not being autistic "alway"(s) equate with seeing autism as a fault that must be corrected? I'm neurotypical and I'm not so dense as to think autism is something that needs to be - or even can be - corrected.
  • laterthandawn, on 05/26/2008, -8/+48Wow, what a bitch.
  • gelato822, on 05/26/2008, -5/+44seriously tempted to write a nasty email...
  • APer3Caper, on 05/26/2008, -2/+37Why should the schoolmates be punished? The teacher forced them into this. The teacher forced them to say what they didn't like about the child and the teacher forced them to vote. Plus, what did their parents have to do with this?
  • purzzzell, on 05/26/2008, -4/+38The superintendent's name is Michael Lannon - I would speculate from the above e-mail addresses that his is:

    lannonm@stlucie.k12.fl.us


    He's really the person you want to contact and the person who can take SEVERE action about this, such as not only having disciplinary action taken against the teacher, but against the principal for (apparently) not as of yet taking appropriate disciplinary action against the teacher.
  • Erectile, on 05/26/2008, -2/+36Thanks. Email sent.
  • Speed, on 05/26/2008, -0/+34Yes, because emotional abuse is the proper way to discipline a 5 year child with a mental disability.

    For the love of ***** Christ, does no one on this planet have any ***** compassion anymore?
  • insanebrain, on 05/26/2008, -9/+43The '90's called. . they want there colors back.
  • joeanon, on 05/26/2008, -15/+49SUE SUE SUE.

    That teacher NEEDS TO GO
  • funkyloki, on 05/26/2008, -0/+34mob mentality rules everytime, especially when it involves five year olds that probably have no real concept of what they are doing. This teacher is a disgrace. She was in meetings where it was revealed that this particular child might have a learning disability, and what does she do? She has him voted out; not only that, she had the other kids CAMPAIGN on the platform of throwing him out by discussing why he should be "expelled" from the class. This kid will be ***** up by this for a while, but I hope not too long. And she should be fired and barred from working as a teacher forevermore.
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