Last Wednesday, after 4 very good days for Oksana, I got a call from the principal. That is never good. I adore our principal. She has been an incredible support to our family, but I'd rather not hear from her in the middle of the day. When she has to call it is really bad and usually means that Oksana had to be restrained. She began explaining to me that Oksana was in the lunch room. She dropped a piece of bread. Now this was bread from Panera that I had sent with her to have with soup. She loves this bread. When she dropped it her para at the time did what anyone would do...she threw the bread away. Now I don't know what kind of mood or frame of mind Oksana was in before this but you can cue the rage at this point. She went insane and punched her para in the face. Fist? Open hand? These are things I've been asked and I don't know. In the end it doesn't matter. She went on to require 3 paras to restrain her to stop her from attacking them. Once they got her hands down she started trying to bite them. They finally got her back to the special ed room where she continued to rage. When it was over they let her sit down and eat at which point she started laughing hysterically (mania).
I think everyone was at a bit of a loss as to what to do. She is on an IEP so technically does not follow the same discipline guidelines as other children. The guideline for this is out of school suspension. The principal wanted to give it a try to see if it would have an impact. Of course we also feared that it would have the opposite effect and that she would like it. I assured her that if she wanted to try this I would do my best to make her day boring. So she spent the day here Thursday cleaning her room and sitting around doing nothing. I don't think she was happy but I'm also not sure it was a great deterrent.
The other conversation I had with the principal that day was about the possibility of finding another placement in the district for Oksana. We have discussed this before but it never went anywhere. I'm curious to see if it does this time. Our school has honestly done EVERYTHING possible to accommodate Oksana and help her. When she is still punching paras we are out of ideas and may need to look at a classroom setting that is more equipped to handle her behaviors. I don't know if, when, or where that will happen so I'm just sitting tight until the next episode. We have started the new meds since that day so hopefully they will help her too. I hate bipolar disorder.
3 comments:
I am so sorry! I can't even imagine what that type of situation is like, for you, Oksana, or the rest of your family. All I can offer are my prayers for all of you that whatever ends up being done it is the best thing for Oksana...God Bless
I'm just curious, so you don't have to publish this comment, but are you 1000% confident in the bipolar dx? We are just now pursuing an official dx for my kiddo (who is I always think is similar to O). We see the mania, rages, aggression, etc., also. But, in my very un-expert opinion, his behaviors are a result of institutionalization, probable prenatal exposure and PTSD. What makes me ask is the mania following a rage/restraint if she wasn't manic pre-episode.
When K was in a program that allowed restraint, he was similar. His behavior just got worse and worse. We discussed not restraining at all with the new school because it was obviously causing him to have PTSD episodes; the rages/aggression didn't stop right away--it took the entire year, but we've only had 2 major situations this year (at school...). It definitely didn't fix all of our issues by any means, but it made a much bigger difference than I would have ever expected.
Speechless, I don't mind posting this at all and my answer is I'm not confident in anything anymore! Something is terribly wrong with this child, that is all I am confident in. I can say that now that I've done tons and tons of research on bipolar I do feel like it explains a whole lot. Many times when I read things I am shocked at how someone seems to have gotten into my kid's head and written it down. I also think the institutionalization, PTSD, etc are all a factor so what does that mean? I don't know. As far as restraint goes they only use it in the most severe circumstances. She hasn't been restrained since the beginning of the school year and has still had many episodes like this so I don't think it is about the restraint. These things circle around in my head constantly. It's sort of gotten to the point where they can call it what they want to as long as they help her!
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