Rochelle’s Special Education Tips
This Belies Credulity And Why Are People So Angry?
This picture is from a recent IEP team meeting held in Carroll County. Staff at the school took the “This Belies Credulity” to a new level by printing a T-shirt with a much-liked phrase from Tips and presenting it prior to the meeting. Really, some of the things that are said at IEP meetings and the way that team members are treated “belies credulity.”
Let’s see if we can connect the phrase to a recent matter: At a typical IEP meeting held the other day, the school system based members of the IEP team started the meeting with smiles and confidence. The student was making good strides in school, well-written reports were to be reviewed, and the team really understood the student’s medical and educational needs. Nevertheless, things went quickly downhill. The parents and their attorney came in angry and continued angry throughout the hours long meeting even though the child was timely identified and given the disability coding desired by the parents. The anger was clearly based on the communication of the results of the cognitive and social-emotional assessment. Experienced educators understood that the parents’ anger was partly a form of killing the messenger and grieving over their child’s needs and the attorney’s behavior was a put-on. Nevertheless, it is difficult for staff to get through these meetings when they are the targets of unwarranted anger and hostility. The reaction of a minority of parents and their attorneys belies credulity and is destructive of morale when the team is doing everything right and is met with hostility. It is really important that team members be positively defended by other team members and an effort made to stop the hurtful statements so that the team can concentrate on the development of a solid IEP.
