rocky start to the year

Well my year has been interesting. There are 2 students that are the main ones to not listen. One is a boy who had a teacher who I was told basically had no business teaching. She had no classroom management skills and the kids basically did what they wanted. She didn’t particularly care for the boy and picked on him from what I was told. So now he thinks he can just do what he wants. He has left the room but the interesting thing with our door is once you leave the room you can’t come back in unless you have a swipe card. So we just left him in the hallway. He stopped doing that thankfully but still has a hard time listening. The other student is a girl. She’s a interesting one. She has Downs syndrome and maybe some other stuff going on. Last year at whatever school she was at they didn’t collect any data on her and the teacher just wanted her out of her room so they wanted to put her in a PLUS room which is where nonverbal and mostly kids in wheelchairs who have profound disablities go. Mom didn’t like that choice so she claimed that the district wasn’t educating her daughter but the problem is mom lives with grandma. Grandma believes that this girl will grow up to be a doctor. She’s supposed to be in 4th grade and doesn’t even know how to write her name. No offense but I think grandma is delusional. Plus grandma’s idea is to spank her with a switch like that’s going to help the girl improve. I believe in disclipine but it has to be with someone who understands why they are being disclipined and I don’t think she has the capability to understand that so grandma may be getting a response of sorts but I believe it’s the just the girls response to being spanked like she’s fearful of it but doesn’t comprehend why she’s being hit. So I talked to her para from last year and heard she’s a sweet girl who is just a little stubborn and will hit if she gets excited. What we got to see is a completely different girl. Last Friday she literally almost hit every kid in our class, she won’t stay seated, she tips her desk over so many times that she broke it. She destroyed our room and the principal’s office yesterday. Like something major is going on with this girl. I’m thinking she’s just having a tough time adjusting but I can’t blame the principal for not wanting to deal with this all year. Then the girl got a 1-on-1 para even though she’s already in a self contained class and I’m the class para. The para told me that she’s been a para for 19 years and that she did self contained for like 7 years got bones actually broken by students and that she didn’t want to work with this girl. The para is a building para which basically means you help students with special needs but you go to different rooms. She told another para they either make her a kindergarten para or she’s gonna quit. So we will see how that plays out. The principal said she wants to meet with me and the building para so I’m a bit worried. I will try to fill everyone in on that tomorrow after school. The poor teacher I’m working with is brand new to teaching so she’s at wit’s end and actually started crying to the vice principal on Friday because of the student going around hitting everyone. Something else I find interesting is that mom is convinced that she needs to be in a regular classroom. I hate to say this but if she was put in just a regular room someone will beat the living crap out of her when she decides to hit someone. I would rather my child be in a self contained room if they can’t keep their hands to themselves than in a regular room because for 1 it’s a smaller class size and 2 he kids are pretty understanding compared to a regular room. Some of those kids don’t care if someone has a disability if they touch them it’s on. So that’s been my first week and half .