I had a somewhat surreal talk with one of the dozen or school psychologists for our district.

She was observing one of my emotionally disturbed students as he attempted to again run my class in circles.

The school has already attempted to expel him once, but because one of the necessary papers wasn’t signed, he’s back in school for another 60 days until another hearing can be convened. Problem is, the kid keeps skipping school, so he’s never IN school for 60 days. So it goes.

The poor kid can barely read, and is prone to violence, what he needs to have any chance of a normal life is for someone to work with him one-on-one. That’s the one thing that’s never going to happen.

The psychologist was detailing the extensive observations and paperwork that went into labelling a child emotionally disturbed. There are home visits, multiple interviews, etc.

After about 5 minutes of her explaining this I asked, “O.K., so after all of that work, what sort of changes in the child’s instruction does that ‘emotionally-disturbed’ label translate to?” “Oh, none really,” she replied. Ah.