Parents mad child is punished for writing erotic fiction about teachers. AITA?
A child's creativity is a wonderful thing to promote.
But...
In this case, one teacher feels that their student's creativity has gone too far. An 8th grade English teacher was very uncomfortable when one of her students started consistently writing fictional stories that included romantic plots revolving around him and another teacher. He tried to tell this student it was inappropriate, but she persisted. Now, her parents are accusing him of discriminating against their autistic daughter after he reported the stories to the admin and their daughter was removed from his class.
AITA for having a student removed from my class after she made an inappropriate story about me and another teacher?
I (30M) am an 8th grade middle school ELA teacher Recently I had a student who I'll call 'Becky'. Becky has autism and struggles to know what is socially appropriate to say and/or do, so I and many other teachers were more lax when she broke certain rules as she was not usually a repeat offender.
She is a very creative writer and I notice that a lot of the stories that she has shown me usually have romance themes. Recently, she wrote a very sexual story involving me and a fellow teacher (35M).
I do not feel comfortable describing it but it was uncomfortable enough that I wanted to keep a distance from this kid, as I have a wife and kids and feel uncomfortable with the idea of any world where I would be cheating on my wife.
She kept making different parts to this to show me, and on the last part I asked her to stop writing this because I am deeply uncomfortable with these stories. She did not, she started just passing the stories around to other people which eventually got back to a student who reported it.
I had enough and reported it to admin, who recommended that I request her to be removed from my class.
Her parents are livid and are accusing me of discriminating her, that she doesn't understand social situations and needs more help and punishing her for her disability is illegal. Admin is not backing me up. AITA?
Here were the top comments from readers:
NTA at all. As someone that has a family member that has autism and is also a child, autistic people are NOT incapable of learning social boundaries and what inappropriate behavior is.
Inappropriate behavior needs to be corrected and needs to have consequences. Not doing so just like you would to every other child, and coddling them as though they are incapable of learning, does not do them any favors in life and actually only sets them up for failure.
NTA. You’re requesting she leave your classroom due to sexual harassment.
I agree. My daughter is on the spectrum and coddling definitely doesn’t help her excel in life. It can be difficult because she is my life but I also understand I’m doing her a disservice if I constantly make everything a bubble for her.
To the OP this could also have to do with her trying to fit in with her peers. Not that it makes it right what she did but it makes me wonder what other kids are talking about and doing around her.
Girls on the spectrum have a hard time in social settings but genuinely want to be social so they will mimic other girl’s behaviors, it’s called “masking”. Regardless if this is the case or not you are NTA edit to add: you need to discuss an IEP for her. Not sure if you are in the US. Her parents would be the ones to do it.
If she's able to write about sexual scenarios, she's able to understand that she should not do so when asked.
NTA. Just as much as Becky deserves an education, you deserve a workplace where you don't have to be sexualized and have to be exposed to sexual fiction about yourself.
You're not doing anything to interfere with her education, just to stop the harassment from a student. Teachers aren't obligated to ignore students who are sexually inappropriate with them.