On May 21, Alex Barton, age 5, was escorted out of his kindergarten classroom at Morningside Elementary in Port St. Lucie, Fla., by the local police department’s “school resource officer.” Alex, who is autistic, was taken to the assistant principal, to whom he promised he would “not kick students, throw crayons, eat crayons, crawl under the table, kick the table of other students … [or] disrupt the class,” according to a police report. (See excerpts below and on the following six pages.) The assistant principal tucked in Alex’s shirt, put his “shoes on the right feet and tied them,” and sent Alex back to class. During Alex’s absence, his teacher, Wendy Portillo, “gathered the students to talk with them” about the youngster’s misbehavior.
When Alex returned, Portillo, who has been teaching in Port Lucie for 12 years, directed the youngster to the front of the room and “asked him to listen to what the children didn’t like” about him. According to Alex, the children complained that he “eats paper, picks boogers … and bites his shoelaces,” and Portillo herself said, “I hate you right now. I don’t like you today.” (Page 2). Portillo next “polled the class” about whether to let Alex back in (Page 4). Alex lost the class vote, 14-2, and spent the rest of the school day in the nurse’s office. That night, Alex “did not eat dinner [and] would not sleep in his own bed.” (Page 2).
The day after Alex’s kindergarten show trial, his furious mother contacted the police school resource officer to report Portillo for child abuse. The police officer interviewed Alex (“Mrs. Portillo is very mean,” Page 2); the teacher (“the students in class were all her priority,” Page 3); and several child witnesses (Pages 5 and 6), and in the end concluded there was no “probable cause” for criminal child abuse (Page 6). The St. Lucie County Public School District is still investigating whether any department regulations were violated.
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