Was very surprised to catch this in last night's Phx Gazette:
---cut---
Dear Ann,
Our 12 year-old son fit the behavioral pattern of the lad in your
column.  We, too, had smashed furniture and multiple suspensions from
school.  "Don" had a near genius IQ but did poorly in school, which
posed a mystery.  One of his teachers said, "This is not a behavioral
problem.  Your son is mentally ill."  We took him for a psychiatric
evaluation, and, of course, she was right.  That was the day the healing
began.  We will be forever grateful to the teacher.
Somewhere in the Mid-West.
---cut---
I don't know about the rest of the teachers in this echo, but if the
above described teacher had been in my district, the parents at the best
probably would have ignored her advice & at the worst, would have
complained about her to her principal.  I suppose some parents might
have sued.
I was told by a social worker year before last that I couldn't even say
the words "Attention Deficit" or "hyperactivity" to a parent to compare
what I had observed about a student's behavior in class to the list of
symptoms of that disorder.  She further added that to do was to make a
diagnosis which would create liability for the district to pay for the
child's treatment.  I argued with her on the basis that a) I am not a
doctor & thus am not offering a medical diagnosis  & b) I am allowed to
assess a student's health & suggest a trip to the eye doctor or hearing
tests or a trip to the nurse for a headache or skinned knee.  Why can I
not be considered a reliable enough observer of a student's work habits
to reach a conclusion with regards to the student's lack of ability to
complete a task or to master urges of impulsive behavior.
I can't imagine how a suggestion of mental illness would be accepted,
unless the parents already had an inkling of it or needed the nudge to
get them out of denial.
Leona Payne
... Your family's Coat-of-Arms ties in the back - is that normal?
--- Via Silver Xpress V4.3P SW12194
---------------