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What happened in Noah’s first day?

Yesterday, as reported in the previous story, was Noah’s first day back to school sense the China virus shut schools down in Washington State. As stated previously, Noah is an eight-year-old autistic third grader.

I gave you some of the procedures that all children face in order to attend school at the Mukilteo School District. These procedures came directly from the mouth of the principal at his school via orientation that I personally attended. What you read were the facts, and nothing but the facts.

What I didn’t give you was Noah’s academic schedule for the day.

This is what we were told would be his day.

First of all Noah would go through all the previously listed protocols. After arriving at the school and eventually introduced to his classroom, at 9:00 am Noah would go on Zoom for one half hour with his primary teacher to begin his day. At about 9:30 am Noah would have a brief break, (don’t know what that means, sense they don’t have recess), then he would have math for about 45 minutes, followed by another break, (???), followed by reading lessons for another 45 minutes, with perhaps another break??

School would end for him at 11 am where he would then go through the reverse protocols to get on the bus and be returned home.

Here is what actually happened.

All the afore mentioned protocols did occur, the masks, temperature checks, and hand washings. At 9 am no zoom with his primary teacher occurred due to the fact that his Para-Educator, (a fancy term for teachers aids), did not know how to properly connect the computer to the zoom class. The breakdown with zoom was not followed by math and math was not followed by reading. We don’t know why, Noah didn’t know why. He said he was bored because nothing was happening, and he was just sitting there. He told us that he told them, “I want to go home.”

At this time, I should also inform you of a couple other things. We were expecting Noah to be in a limited occupancy classroom with his pears, i.e., other third graders. What we found out was that he was in a classroom with fourth and fifth graders, absolutely no other third graders, no one that he knew.

Prior to my agreement to send Noah to school I expressed that under no circumstances did I want Noah to end up with a particular Para-Educator, whom I had witnessed as being harsh and mean to students. This was more an impression, not strong evidentiary.

It turned out that when Noah complained that he was bored and wanted to go home he was handed over to the very individual that I feared. She then took him on walks around the school, outside. Sounds nice until you find out that he was not given his coat and it was 38 degrees outside. When Noah got home one of the first things he said was, “I’m cold.” I didn’t think much of it until later, when I found out what had happened.

Needless to say, we sent an email to the teacher/para, asking for an explanation, and voicing our concerns, (trying, with much difficulty to be polite both in this post and in the email). The email was not addressed by the instructor it was sent to, instead it was responded to by the principal. In short, we were told that there are problems sometimes and that we needed to get on board with partnering up with the school and understanding that we need to continue to trust that the school is doing right by our child. Nothing about his classes and nothing in regard to being escorted outside with no coat on for long and repeated times.

I have been kind in the words I have chosen in this narrative of the events of Noah’s first day. A day that the school had the better part of a year to prepare for.

Noah is back at school as I write this, but without serious changes this will be his last day.

Noah say’s that he is sad, and I feel his sadness, and a few other things that I don’t dare express.

Noah is an eight-year-old autistic third grader who starts back to school today. Today is the official start-up of school in his district, a district that resides in the democratic socialist state of Washington.

In the state of Washington teachers have been programmed to recognize children as bio-hazardous material that may be deadly to them and therefore must be treated with utmost caution. Hence, they are not to bring so much as a pencil to school, it may be contaminated. In order to get on the bus, the child must first present to the driver a filled-out form signed by a parent declaring that the child is free of an extensive list of symptoms. This, of course, will not get the child on the bus. In addition, the child must be waring a government approved face mask. That is still not enough. The child is then temperature checked by the driver; a medically trained state approved medical screener. The child is then directed to board the bus and seat in a strict socially distanced manner, speaking to anyone is strongly discouraged, and closely monitored.

Once the child arrives at the school his/her medically filled out papers are handed to the awaiting attendant prior to disembarking from the bus. Before the child can leave the bus he or she must then be temperature checked again by another medically trained screener. If the child has passed all those hurdles then the child, socially distanced from the teacher or attendant, is immediately escorted to a separate location where any warm clothing, such as a coat, hat, and gloves are removed, by the child, and stored until departure. Because these items are considered potentially contaminated, they are not allowed into the classroom. The child is then escorted to the nearest sanitized bathroom where they are directed to wash their hands for the medically approved time, at least 20 seconds. To ensure that the child adheres to those instructions he/she must sing a government approved song out loud during the cleansing process to help regulate the acceptable time. The attendant is listening and monitoring throughout this process. Ironically, the song most recommended is, “Happy Birthday”.

Once completed the child is finally escorted, socially distanced, to the classroom, and seated, again, socially distanced from any other child. In front of the child is a sterilized desk and computer where the child is now directed to begin his/her zoom classes.

If the child exhibits any symptoms during the class time, such as sneezing or coughing the child may be removed to a sterile, isolated room where he/she will remain until a parent or guardian can be notified to come and remove them.

If this sounds traumatizing to you in any way, imagine what it is like to any child, let alone a special needs child.

Welcome back to school Noah.