George (random name for personal data reasons), a student at 1st grade junior high school in Greece (age 13), had certain learning disabilities:, not understanding the teacher\u2019s instructions during the class, not able to stay focused to remember what was said in class in the previous session or minutes before. He did not do homework; it took him more than 1 month to get a notebook. He also had dysgraphia. The boy was often complaining about something. For example that someone took the pen, someone kicks his chair, his bag was removed from his desk.
\nA common cause of his complaints was another student with whom he had a history of conflicts since primary school. Regarding that problem, the primary school headmaster had informed the high school headmaster during the newly comers registrations period. The teachers\u2019 board was accordingly informed that the 2 boys had conflicts, verbal and physical violence where George was the victim, and both parents had interfered in conflict too.<\/p>\n
Among George\u2019s complains, usual ones referred to the other boy, that he insulted him or that he was looking at him in a threatening way. When teachers asked the other boy, he usually replied that George was provoking him or that his behavior was being misunderstood.
\nThe climate in this class was always tense. Students were more anxious than the first graders usually are at the beginning of school year. After the first weeks passed, teachers realized that everyone’s interest was focused on these two students, as they were waiting for “something” to happen. There were times that other classmates addressed derogatory words to George. Their humiliating words focused either on his constant complaints or his learning disability. Words like idiot, worthless were heard several times in the classroom. The language teacher felt she needed – interrupting the lesson – to intervene through stories, examples and short activities to pass the message of respect to others, courtesy, acceptance of all members of a team, diversity. But some change was only temporary. <\/p>\n
All teachers of the class were concerned with the problem and discussed it individually or during teachers\u2019 assembly, The headmaster was reluctant to take action and ask for help. The language teacher tried to reach George and make him more active. She found out his drawing skills and designed a project including drawings. George asked the teacher to be friends on social media to show her his video productions, which was his personal interest. The teacher accepted his invitation. At his profile she found hate speech and humiliating comments under George\u2019s uploads. He did not reply to the comments.
\nThe student involved in the history of conflicts with George, was sometimes punished by the headmaster by expelling him from school for one day. The situation continued like that all the school year long, with no other measures. Each teacher dealed with the problem his\/her own way. <\/p>\n
At the first semester of the next school year, George\u2019s parents complained to the headmaster for their son was subject to hate speech and inappropriate behavior by classmates and they also reported officially to the local educational administration authority. Consequently, an official intervention took place some weeks later. Two school counselors visited the school and had a meeting with all students. They used team work techniques and gave the students examples of tolerance and respect. Later, the counselors met with the parents of the specific class, having invited them to talk generally, about students\u2019 difficulties at school and the importance of parent-school close cooperation. The parents of the two involved in the problem students, George and the other one, were more distant than the others and sometimes expressed themselves in curt manner.
\nOne measure that was suggested at the school was to increase students\u2019 supervision during the breaks and watch the two boys\u2019 behavior. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
George (random name for personal data reasons), a student at 1st grade junior high school in Greece (age 13), had certain learning disabilities:, not understanding the teacher\u2019s instructions during the class, not able to stay focused to remember what was said in class in the previous session or minutes before. He did not do homework; […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platform.amelieproject.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platform.amelieproject.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platform.amelieproject.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platform.amelieproject.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platform.amelieproject.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1583"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/platform.amelieproject.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1585,"href":"https:\/\/platform.amelieproject.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583\/revisions\/1585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platform.amelieproject.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platform.amelieproject.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platform.amelieproject.eu\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}