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Parents: Teacher made son sit on floor
By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff Writer
LECANTO -- Rita Lefke is under no illusions that her 10-year-old son Spencer is perfect. His grades have been slipping into the failure range, and he talks in class without raising his hand. But she doesn't think her fifth-grade son deserves the treatment he got for his behavior from his Lecanto Primary School teacher. Spencer had his desk taken away shortly after the start of the school year as punishment for bad behavior, Mrs. Lefke says. Since then, her son has had to sit on the floor in his classroom and tote his belongings around in a milk crate. "I have no clue what he did to get this, and it really don't matter to me," Mrs. Lefke said Tuesday. "They could have dealt with it real different than this." School officials will say little about the incident, citing confidentiality rules that govern student information and staff discipline. They met with Rick and Rita Lefke on Monday to answer the parents' questions about what happened. "There was very little communication between the teacher and the home," concluded Lecanto Primary School principal Steve Guyler. "The problem is the communication between the parents and the teacher." Guyler would not say whether the child was made to sit on the floor for four months and would not answer whether such treatment would be acceptable discipline for a child who misbehaved. Guyler said he could not comment on whether the teacher, Laura Simons, faced any disciplinary consequence for the incident. He said that the child's class used a special curriculum that involves earning points for privileges. Guyler said that students sit on the floor all the time, and he invited the parents and the media to visit the school at any time to see how classes are conducted. Lecanto Primary is unique in the district in that classrooms are arranged in pods, and other teachers, staff and students can easily see into the rooms. Mrs. Lefke said allowing students to sit on the floor is very different from requiring them to sit on the floor. She also said she doesn't have a problem with giving special privileges to students who do certain tasks, but taking away a child's desk was not a fair way to deal with a behavioral or academic problem. "My son doesn't have the privilege of using a desk and I pay taxes," she said. "If I took away his bed, don't you think (the state) would be all over me like white on rice?" The Lefkes learned of their son's situation last week. He had gotten into a paper wad war on the school bus, and they were concerned about his grades, complaints about his teacher and the incident on the bus. They asked for help from the school's guidance counselor, who visited the classroom and found Spencer sitting on the floor doing his schoolwork. He told her he had lost his right to use his desk. His books and belongings were on the desk beside him in a milk crate. When the Lefkes learned of the situation, they pulled Spencer out of school. Mrs. Lefke said she worried what that treatment would do to her son or any child who had low self-esteem. Spencer had not told his parents of his situation because he was afraid he would face more disciplinary consequences at home, Mrs. Lefke said. Since the Monday meeting, Mrs. Lefke said she and her husband decided to put their son back into the class. He got his desk back, and his mother said she would more closely monitor his schoolwork. While their immediate concerns have been addressed, she said she and her husband want to see the curriculum pulled from the schools. "I just want to be rid of the program," she said. "It's not fair." Simons, the teacher, did not return a phone call seeking comment on the situation. Assistant superintendent Linda Kelley said she had encouraged the family to meet again with Guyler to get more of their questions answered about the curriculum. The district is reviewing the program to see how widely it is used. The "Life Program" has been used since the early 1990s. In the curriculum, children earn points for what they do. They pay rent, pay utilities and learn how to spend their earnings. That could mean hard lessons for students who don't spend wisely or don't earn points. "The program is not intended for discipline," Kelley said. Kelley said the program does not endorse having a student sit on the floor for months, although she cannot say whether that actually happened in this case. If the Lefkes want to argue formally that the Life Program curriculum be pulled from the district, she said, there is a formal process to do that. Kelley said she hoped the issue could simply be settled at the school level.
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