As a teacher, it is your job to do all that you can to ensure every student is learning as much as they are able.

What would you do if you had one young student who was significantly behind the others, which resulted in him being bullied and falling further behind?

That is the situation that the teacher in this story is in, so she told the parent that he may be better off in a school for those with special needs, and the parent got very upset with the teacher and filed a complaint.

AITA for telling a mother that she should consider moving her son to a special needs school, because he is getting bullied/left behind in a standard school?

I (25f) am a primary school teacher (for those who don’t know how the UK school system works, kids attend primary school from ages 4-11, and then high school from 11-16) and I usually teach kids who are 4-6. My class at the moment is 4/5 year old’s.

I’m sure this happens a lot.

There’s a kid who started with the class last month. He is 5 years old (just turned) and his parents are currently working on getting him a getting him evaluated for autism.

He has a mental age of about 2, and has many needs that his other classmates don’t have.

Unfortunately, he shouldn’t be in this class then.

He is completely untrained potty wise, does not speak very well, and does not attempt to do class activities. As a result of this, he has unfortunately been picked on by numerous children.

Of course, I have reprimanded all of the children who have been bullying this kid, but as soon as one child stops, another starts. Kids are brutal.

The teachers are doing what they can.

We have tried to make arrangements for him (such as not having to take part in PE so the other kids won’t see his diaper.

We tried having him change in a different room, but this did not help the picking on) but nothing has really helped.

This is unfortunate, but you can’t let one student hold back the whole class.

He does have a teaching aid here, but she only does mornings (budget cuts 🙁 ) and he just isn’t making much progress.

This, along with the bullying, makes me feel like he would be better with more help, and kids who also have special needs (he is the only special needs kid in his year group).

I’m sure this is where he belongs.

There is a great special needs school not far away, that I’m sure he would be able to go to and flourish in.

Last week, I pulled his mother aside after school and explained what was going on.

Parents don’t like hearing this type of thing about their kids.

She blew up, screaming about how we shouldn’t allow her son to be bullied out of school (I’ve explained to her a few times about this issue before, but she said he will be fine) and that he is ‘not that delayed’.

It’s not my place to tell her her son IS that delayed, so I just gave her the information for the school and she stormed off.

Hopefully her boss understands.

She left a complaint with my boss. He said that he agrees that the child would be better somewhere else, but also said it’s not my place to tell the mom how to parent.

I didn’t think I was telling her how to parent, just recommending something. I never said her son was being kicked out of school or anything.

AITA?

It absolutely is her job to keep the parents informed about what is going on, and that is especially true when it comes to this type of situation. She did everything she should.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about the unfortunate situation.

This would be a terribly difficult situation.

The mom is the real problem according to this commenter.

Good question.

I agree with this commenter.

This UK teacher says she didn’t follow the proper procedure.

She needed to tell someone, but was it her place to talk to the parent?

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.