Case: Grandma’s Boy

Characters:

Helen Jamison – Second Grade teacher at C.E. Conners Elementary

Cindy – Roommate and fellow teacher

Justin E Richardson III – Second Grade Teacher

Mr. Richardson – Justin’s Dad

Granny Richardson – The Grandmother

Ex Mrs. Richardson – Mr. Richardson’s former wife

Judy Cole – Justin’s First Grade teacher from another school

Setting:

Cindy & Helen are discussing Justin in their apartment. Both are relatively inexperienced teachers. Helen
is complete baffled and frustrated by Justin’s behavior and his parent’s (Father and Grandmother’s)
inability to deal rationally with the situation.

Background Experience:

Justin is annoyingly passive aggressive. He does not interact with the class in activities or socially. He
does not put any effort into completing his in-school or homework assignments. Helen has observed him
completing a test by randomly placing answers on the answer sheet. He daydreams constantly. Justin
does not normally act out. Justin neither responds to praise or criticism.

After consulting with Justin’s first grade teacher, Helen learned that Mr. and Mrs. Richardson had
divorced the prior year. After the divorce, Mrs. Richardson moved on and out of the state. Mr.
Richardson move in with his mother. Grandma Richardson blames all of Justin’s problems on his ‘no
account’ mother. Justin’s father seems to have abdicated his parental responsibilities and left the
raising of his child to the grandmother.

The grandmother’s preferred method of dealing with Justin’s emotional problems is corporal
punishment.

Justin seems to have problems reconciling with the divorce or obeying his grandmother’s request that
he ‘get that women out of his system’.

Episodes:

I. After observing Justin’s behavior and having little success addressing the problems
within the classroom, Helen convenes a conference. Mr. Richardson and the
grandmother, who was not invited, come to the conference. Mr. Richards offers little
 input. The grandmother rejects any action plan. She claims to have straightened him up
once by beating and asserts that it might be time to do it again.
II. Family counseling was not offered because Helen did not think it would work and it was
frowned upon the by the school system because it might cause expenditures on related
services.
III. After the ineffective conference, Helen brought the problem to the Child Study
Committee. The committee assigned itinerate psychologist Ron Saunders to Helen.
Helen and Ron develop an in school management plan that includes incentives for
improvement and consequences for non-compliance. The incentives and rules were laid
out in a contract. Their strategy included; self-recording of completed assignments, daily
recording sheets, and a plan to monitor performance. Rewards encouraged him to
complete 50% of his math problems.
IV. Justin skirted the contract by completing the assignments with not accuracy or any
attempt to complete the assignment correctly. When the contract was adjusted to
encourage accuracy, Justin began cheating off of his neighbors.
V. Helen confronted Justin about his cheating while the class was completing an
assignment. Justin screamed, “I didn’t cheat off nobody’s paper, you liar,” and ran into
the bathroom. He refused to leave the bathroom. Ron Saunders had to come down to
calm Justin down and get him to the office while the rest of the class took an impromptu
recess outside.

Central Problems:

Justin’s behavior problems stem from issues in the home environment. His behavior has
impeded his ability learn and in the final episode, interfered with the teaching act and the other
students right to learn.

Points of Intervention:

Points of Intervention:

1) Helen reads Justin’s Cumulative folder

2) Helen schedules a conference with the father
3) Helen and Ron (The school psychologist) put together a management plan
4) Helen confronts Justin about his cheating

Alternative Action:

1) Helen should have tried management plan prior to meeting the parents. In the end, it
required no parental permission or intervention. Simply informing them of the plan would
have been sufficient.
2) Helen should not have confronted Justin about his cheating while the class was in session. It
gave Justin an audience and embarrassed him in front of this classmates.
3) Scheduled sessions with the school psychologist may give Justin a neutral venue to get his
feeling out into the open and deal with them.