After Ms. Portillo marched Alex to the front of the class and shortly before voting him out of the class by a 14 to 2 vote, the official police report released today states:
"I (reporting officer) asked Alex what the students said.... he said the students said he eats paper, picks boogers and eats them on top of of the table and bites his shoelaces," according to the report. The report then reads: "He (Alex) told me Mrs. Portillo said, 'I hate you right now. I don't like you today." The police officer asked Alex how it made him feel. "He said it made him feel sad."
"Portillo said she explained to them (the children in the class) that the students in class were all her priority and she would protect them like a 'bear defending her cubs'", according to the police report.
Portillo and the other children in the class said Alex was pushing a table up with his feet while he was under the table. According to the Suntimes, Portillo then got the school resource officer to remove Alex from the classroom. It was the second "discipline" referral for Alex that day, the report said.
To the left is what a school resource officer typically looks like. According to the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), the organization considers itself the first and most recognized organization for law enforcement officers in the schools. A resource officer isn't a "renta-cop", but a certified police officer with the power to affect arrest and custody. The main job of a school resource officer is to perform the lion's share of of the necessary law enforcement function on a campus. This function includes "proactive crime preventions, conducting criminal investigations, making arrests when necessary, developing intervention strategies and crisis planning." Does a 5 year old child pushing a table up with his legs require a police officer (a person with the power to arrest and imprison, whom is suppose to be investigating and preventing criminal acts on campus) to intervene? Ms. Portillo did not claim that she or the children were afraid of Alex's pushing the table with his legs. No mention was made in the police report that Alex was endangering himself or the other children in the class. No mention was made that Alex has in the past had a "criminal" record, been violent to other children or caused any child to be fearful of him. But apparently, the resource officer (who's main duties include a law enforcement function to protect the school and students from "crime...conducting criminal investigations and making arrests when necessary etc.") was required based on Ms. Portillo's judgement.
Simba vs. Scar
According to the police report: "When Alex returned to the class, Ms. Portillo said she and the class were not ready for HIM(my emphasis) to return." The police report then states that Portillo took Alex to the front of the class. "She said she then asked him to listen to what the children didn't like about the things he did, and she asked him how it made him feel," according again to the police report. "She said at this time, 'We polled the class to see how his peers felt about his return at that time." Ms. Portillo "polled" the class, after inciting fear in the other 5 year olds who had just seen their classmate dragged from the classroom by a real and certified police officer as well as Ms. Portillo telling the other children in the class that she was their "momma bear" only protecting her "cubs". Alex was voted out, 14 to 2.
It appears Ms. Portillo was using the children as a tool to address her frustration and inability to "deal with" Alex by playing on the visual images a typical 5 year old might ("Disney villains") have of momma's and cubs, its no wonder that the children voted Alex out. Ms. Portillo had painted Alex as "Scar" and the children as "Simba". What 5 year old would choose "Scar" over "Simba"?
Claims of physical abuse by Ms. Portillo
In a situation all too familiar to autistic adults and parents of autistics, the police reported that Alex told them that "Portillo scratched him, stepped on his shoelaces, grabbed his leg and pulled his shirt collar, but the report said Portillo and other children in the class refuted those allegations." According to almost all the scientific-peer reviewed literature, autistic children are incapable of lying. Its a developmental milestone many parents of autistics actually celebrate when their child can tell a lie.
The report states that after Ms. Barton talked to Portillo that day about the voting, Portillo "blocked the door for about five minutes to prevent me from leaving the classroom with my child, who was visibly shaken by the abuse."
Ms. Portillo calling the police on a 5 year old pushing a table with his legs is not in contention by any party. Having a vote to expel Alex from the classroom is not in contention. Ms. Portillo inviting other 5 year olds in the class to tell Alex how "they feel about him" is not in contention. Ms. Portillo manipulating Alex's classmates with visual imagery like "momma protecting her cubs" is not in contention. The fact that Ms. Portillo blocked Ms. Barton from leaving the classroom wasn't protested in the police report. Two different parties (the police and Ms. Barton) independently confirmed that Alex told them basically the same thing (i.e. classmates were instructed to bully him with derogatory descriptions and vote him out of the class). Ms. Portillo doesn't object to any of these allegations by deference to the police report. Ms. Barton was serving on an IEP team to get Alex additional services is not in contention. The only thing in contention seems to be that Ms. Portillo doesn't believe she did anything wrong and Ms. Barton does. Alex believes Ms. Portillo was mean to him. I believe Alex.
Supporting Alex and Ms. Barton is a question of civil rights and the law. Hundreds of thousands of children and adults were excluded from an education before a law called PL 94-142 (Now called the IDEA) was passed in 1975. Schools were under consent decrees in the beginning years of PL 94-142, including Florida. See:
Title VI and VII Civil Rights Act of 1964
Office of Civil Rights Memorandum (Standards for Title VI Compliance) of May 25, 1970
Requirements based on the Supreme Court decision in Lau v. Nichols, 1974
Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974
Requirements of the Vocational Education Guidelines, 1979
Requirements based on the Fifth Circuit court decision in Castañeda v. Pickard, 1981
Requirements based on the Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, 1982
Americans with Disabilities Act (PL 94-142)
Florida Education Equity Act, 1984
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Before the enactment of Public Law 94-142, the fate of many individuals with disabilities was likely to be dim. Too many individuals lived in state institutions for persons with mental retardation or mental illness. In 1967, for example, state institutions were homes for almost 200,000 persons with disabilities. Many of these restrictive settings provided only minimal food, clothing, and shelter.
Public Law 94-142 guaranteed a free, appropriate public education to each child with a disability in every state and locality across the country.
The four purposes of the law articulated a compelling national mission to improve access to education for children with disabilities. Changes implicit in the law included efforts to improve how children with disabilities were identified and educated, to evaluate the success of these efforts, and to provide due process protections for children and families. In addition, the law authorized financial incentives to enable states and localities to comply with Public Law 94-142 (though this has never been fully funded).
Four Purposes of PL 94-142
"to assure that all children with disabilities have available to them…a free appropriate public education which emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs"
"to assure that the rights of children with disabilities and their parents…are protected"
"to assist States and localities to provide for the education of all children with disabilities"
"to assess and assure the effectiveness of efforts to educate all children with disabilities"
Over the last several days and the weeding out of countless comments on my previous blog entry, it is quite clear to me that there are a large contingent of people in the United States that don't believe students with disabilities have any right to an education in a mainstream setting, despite the law.
How can one remain neutral or display only a passive support to the outrage of what happened to Alex? What kind of advocates are we if we are worried about social niceties or only report part of the story? Or that we are concerned about someone that would deny future generations the rights under PL 94-142 that so many autistic people and other disabled people never had the opportunity to benefit from? PL 94-142 is the codification of our rights to be included in the mainstream. Any attempt to dismantle that is a threat to future generations and I feel we have a responsibility to protect, preserve and expand it. I didn't benefit from PL 94-142 but my son will. Call it mob advocacy if you like. Make a completely illogical argument that there are already too many laws (as if we didn't need civil law protection) and that private schools will somehow open their doors and their classrooms to autistic children when those same private schools are under no obligation to abide by either PL 94-142 or the ADA.
Sometimes advocacy can look "ugly". I believe that sometimes "ugly" is what is called for.
I sort of picked up this software not expecting much from it. I've tried similar software on a PC but just didn't get the same WOW factor. There are literally thousands of different template possibilities to make. Sort of fun to play around with it. It does seem to draw a lot of RAM memory to work with it, which for most computers might be a problem so be careful. I'd say you need at least 1 gig of RAM to make it work properly.
Click on a picture to see examples of this fantastic software called Comic Life.
The above video was made to reference a case in New England that occurred in September of 2007. In this particular case, a young middle school boy with Asperger's Syndrome was beaten up after he got off the bus by a group of other children and it was filmed by another child. In this case, the school system put the children on suspension. That case highlights a larger question about human mob mentality and where children learn to devalue lives of people of difference. Thus I think it appapro to the case of Alex Barton.
Mrs. Wendy Portillo is a Kindergarten teacher at Morningside Elementary, in Port St. Lucie Florida. On Wednesday April 21st, 2008, Mrs. Portillo likely caused permanent emotional scarring of one of her 5 year old students. In a story by Colleen Wixon of the TCPalm, Mrs. Portillo led her class in a "Survivor" type vote to exclude Alex Barton from the class. The 5 year old was placed in front of the class and each student was allowed to say what they didn't like about Alex (reportedly telling Alex he was disgusting and annoying) and then a vote was taken on whether Alex should be allowed to be included in the classroom or not. By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex out of the class. He was then sent to the nurse's office. When Alex's mother, Melissa Barton came to pick him up, she found Alex "shaken-up".
The following night (Thursday), Alex's mother, Melissa, overheard Alex saying "I'm not special" over and over again. According to his mother, Alex is reliving the incident. Mrs. Barton stated "He was incredibly upset" and "The only friend he has ever made in his life was forced to do this".
One fact that makes what Ms. Portillo did especially egregious is that since February, Ms. Portillo has known that Alex was undergoing an evaluation by the school system in St. Lucie County for a disability covered under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"). The IDEA is a law ensuring that students with disabilities receive services throughout the nation. Alex was being evaluated for possibly having Asperger's Syndrome, one of the five pervasive developmental disorders associated with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. The IDEA requires that the school system evaluate the child and if found to have a covered disability, an IEP (Individual Education Program) is to be created by a team. The team consists of the child's teacher (for Alex it was Ms. Portillo), a special education teacher, parents, and the school's specialized professionals such as a speech pathologist, occupational therapists etc. According to reports, Ms. Portillo had been participating with the IEP team since Alex was identified as a child possibly covered under IDEA.
I find it incredible that Ms. Portillo, knowing that Alex most likely had a disability affecting his ability to communicate and socialize in a typical way, would nonetheless do exactly what is possibly the worst thing she could do and that is to subject him to public humiliation and to teach the other children the dynamics and acceptability of a mob bullying. Even if Alex didn't have a disability, the implications of what Ms. Portillo did is nothing short of outrageous. What she did was aggressive and anti-social. She used her authority to organize what was essentially a psychological mob lynching of a five year old.
Mrs. Barton has attempted to find redress with Morningside Elementary's resource officer. According to Michelle Steele, the spokeswoman of the Port St. Lucie Department, an investigation was done and the state attorney's office concluded the matter did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse!
MS. PORTILLO'S EGREGIOUS VIOLATIONS
Violations of Florida's Child Abuse Law
According to Florida law code 39.202, 205; 39.201; 39.01 (2), emotional abuse is defined as "Willful or threatened act resulting in physical, mental, or sexual injury or harm, causing or likely to cause impairment of physical, mental or emotional health". Apparently, the state attorney felt that marching a 5 year old in front of a class to allow his classmates to denigrate him and then to exclude him from the learning environment was neither "willful" on Ms. Portillo's part nor likely to cause an emotional impairment for Alex. How the state's attorney came to that conclusion is simply mind boggling. The facts are that a public humiliation of a small child occurred, the child was "shaken up" and unable to attend the school and was heard repeating "I'm not special" which indicates to me that he has internally processed the exact message Ms. Portillo intended (i.e. that he is not a good person). Ms. Portillo has created a hostile environment for Alex in his classroom and thus I believe has created a "willful act resulting in mental harm and causing an impairment of emotional health".
Violations of Florida law HB 669
On April 30, 2008, the governor of Florida signed into law an anti-bully measure titled HB 669-School Safety, Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act". I believe Ms. Portillo has violated the following sections of this law: According to section 1006.147 (2), (2a) (3a), Florida Statutes, Bullying and Harrassment of any student or school employee of a public K-12 educational institution is prohibited; (2a) During any education program or actiity conducted by a public k-12 educational institution is prohibited; (2b) During any school-related or school-sponsored program or activity or on a school bus of a public K-12 educational institution; (3) (3a) For purposes of this section (a) bullying means systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students and may involve: Teasing; Social Exclusion: Threat, Intimidation: Stalking: Physical violence: Theft: Sexual or racial harassment: Public Humiliation; or Destruction of property; (3b) Harrassment means any threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gesture including written and verbal conduct directed against a student or school employee that: 1. Places a student or school employee in reasonable fear of harm to his or her person; 2 Has the effect of substantially disrupting the orderly operaton of a school. The definitions for bullying and harassment included in HB 669 that Ms. Portillo is likely to have commented are the following: in section (3d) include 2. "Perpetuation of conducted listed in paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) by an individual or group with intent to demean, dehumanize, embarrass, or cause physical harm to a student or school employee, by incitement or coercion and 4. "Acting in a manner that has an effect substantially similar to the effect of bullying or harassment."
The following facts are clear and not in contention according to the TCPalm report. Ms. Portillo, admitted that she held Alex out in front of the class ( 2a: during any education program or activity and incitement or coercion), encouraged his classmates to participate in an exercise to cause public humiliation (by asking the students to identify him in derogatory ways) in violation of 3a (inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students), 3b (Harrassment means any threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gesture including written and verbal conduct directed against a student) and 4 (Acting in a manner that has an effect substantially similar to the effect of bullying or harassment). Finally, Ms. Portillo allowed the "mob" she created to exclude Alex from an appropriate educational setting in violation of 3b2 (has the effect of substantially interfering with a student's educational performance, opportunities, or benefits).
In a review of how HB 669 defines bullying (means systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students), Ms. Portillo seems to have violated nearly half of the 10 definitions of bullying in HB 669. She committed the following in accordance with the definition:
1. Teasing
2. Social exclusion
4. Intimidation
9. Public humiliation
Investigators should look into whether she has chronically committed acts listed above more than once in order to establish a violation under the definition. If I were a betting man, I'd bet that she has.
It's unfortunate that Ms. Portillo's acts didn't occur after he was formally identified as qualifying under IDEA because she has violated multiple rules under the IDEA.
Violation of The Florida State Board of Education Rules on Ethics
Ms. Portillo violated basic ethical tenants that are outlined by the State of Florida Board of Education. In particular, Ms. Portillo violated Rule 6B-1.006, FAC. By bringing Alex in front of other students, and subjecting him to group humiliation, as well as giving tacit permission to the students to harass Alex, she violated the Ethics Code that teachers place themselves under when they apply for a Florida Teacher's Certificate.
1) The following disciplinary rule shall constitute the Principles of Professional Conduct of the Education Profession in Florida.
2) Violation of any of these principles shall subject the individual to revocation or suspension of the individual educator's certificate, or the other penalties as provided by law.
3) Obligation to the student requires that the individual:
a) Shall make reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning and/or the student's mental and/or physical health and/or safety.
e) Shall not intentionally expose the student to unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement.
g) Shall not harass or discriminate against any student on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, political beliefts, marital status, handicapping condition, sexual orientation, or social and family background and shall make reasonable effort to assure that each student is protected from harassment or discrimination.
In Obligation 5 (Obligation to the profession), Section D states: Shall not engage in harassment or discriminatory conduct which reasonably interferes with an individual's performance of professional or work responsibilities or with the orderly process of education or which creates a hostile, intimidating, abusive, offensive, or oppressive environment; and further, shall make reasonable effort to assure that each individual is protected from such harassment or discrimination.
According to State Board of Education Rule 6B-1.001 FAC: 1) The educator values the worth and dignity of every person, the pursuit of truth, devotion to excellence, acquisition of knowledge, and the nurture of democratic citizenship. Essential to the achievement of these standards are the freedom to learn and to teach and the guarantee of equal opportunity for all.
2) The educator's primary professional concern will always be for the student and for the development of the student's potential. The educator will therefore strive for professional growth and will seek to exercise the best professional judgement and integrity.
Violation of Port St. Lucie's Mission Statement
The St. Lucie County Public Schools has a mission statement and it explicitly states: "The schools of the St. Lucie County School District in partnership with parents and community will become premier centers of knowledge that are organized around students and the work provided to them. St. Lucie County School District's name will be synonymous with the continuously improving student achievement and the success of each individual. Our school district's promise is to move from good to great focusing on our core business, the creation of challenging, engaging and satisfying work for every stuent, every day. This is the St. Lucie way!" Somehow I doubt the school system would consider the actions of Ms. Portillo (creating a humiliating and dehumanizing environment for a kindergartener and subjecting him to the "mob" mentality) is in accordance with the school system's mission statement.
Violation of FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act)
I must say though that Alex's rights under the Family and Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) were apparently violated by the school district itself. FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student educational records and applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. According to TCPalm's report, the school resource officer Michelle Steele released some of Alex's personal education records when she stated "Steele said the boy had been sent to the principal's office because of disciplinary issues." This is information that would be a part of his school records and thus protected under FERPA.
If the school district cannot abide by Federal Law itself, what can possibly be expected of them to hold Ms. Portillo accountable? Time will tell. The initial response has been rather bland and unextraordinary.
The Digital Journal highlights an important question in this case when they ask:
"Exactly what is being taught when a child - any child- is verbally attacked by classmates and then excluded? This is the mentality of reality television shows, and has no place in school. Deliberately subjecting a child to verbal abuse and rejection is a violation of the trust that teachers are given by parents, a violation of the most basic ethics we expect from anyone who has children under their care."
It's not unusual for autistic people to suffer from abuse and bullying, in fact it's the norm. When it comes at the hands of a trusted public servant such as a teacher, it's doubly hurtful because we expect an adult to know better. But when a teacher solicits participation of a group of 5 year olds in what is essentially a psychological mob lynching, one can legitimately conclude that this person should not be around any children at all. She "raped" a child of his dignity and has created an atmosphere of exclusion, intimidation and fear. This type of act on the part of Ms. Portillo shouldn't be allowed to happen again and anyone who cares about the psychological lives of children should demand her immediate and unconditional resignation. If she refuses, she should be fired. There should be no second chances in a situation such as this.
If you would like to send a message to the school board, the principal, the county school system, the media, and the Florida State's Attorney, I have created a customized letter that you can use by clicking on the links below. You can modify it to your liking. Let's send a message that no second chances are warranted in this situation.
"Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Elie Wiesel
Update: 5/27/08 12:30pm - According to the Fort Pierce Tribune, Ms. Portillo has been reassigned on an interim basis to administrative offices and removed from the classroom pending investigation. Worldwide outrage over what happened to Alex and no doubt a deluge of letters and emails has caused the school to reevaluate its position because as of last Friday, nothing had been done, two days after the incident took place. Ms. Barton stated in the comments that the school system didn't seem to be taking the matter seriously. I know this website has been viewed, and letters downloaded thousands of times since it was first posted. Countless good hearted people were moved to outrage over this incident. I would urge those who are just coming to this story to continue to send letters and emails to the officials below. The school year has just about ended and there will be competing interests involved in this situation. The school system needs to know that while they decided to move in the proper direction (albeit only through public pressure) that we still intend to follow through to make sure that if the investigation confirms what was in the original complaint, that Ms. Portillo needs to be removed from the classroom permanently as this situation does not deserve a second chance. My concern is that Ms. Portillo will simply be moved to another school in the Fall and that would send the wrong message to others that would bully children. I also hope the State Board of Education, that has the power to revoke a teaching license will also follow up with an investigation. The State's Attorney needs to explain his/herself as to why this incident did not meet the emotional abuse statute outlined above and how in one day they could make that determination. Can a proper investigation be done by the State's Attorney in a day? I don't see how that is possible. This situation warrants a thorough and thoughtful investigation and I'm concerned that neither was done. Children's emotional well being should not be treated in what appears to be such a flippant manner.
Pattern of Abuse in the St. Lucie County School District
Added: May 28, 2008 at 9:00pm: The St. Lucie County School system seems to have a history of hiring employees who abuse children. In September of 2007, an aide, Ms. Belinda Daniels, hired to help disabled students on they're bus, is facing felony charges of child abuse after alleging hitting a 7 year old boy. Apparently what precipitated the incident was the young boy dropping his bookbag on the floor of the bus. The bus Ms. Daniels was working on was equipped with recorded video monitors. The aide, Belinda Daniels, is heard on the bus video say "Boy, what did you do?" Get in that seat." according to Cherie Lucas of the Port St. Lucie Police. Ms. Lucas states that Daniels "reaches into the seat where the victim was, and she 'swats" something in the seat, but you cannot actually see what her hand connects with? Lucas said one witness reportedly saw Daniels' hand make contact with the victim. Lucas states "Daniels then yanked the victim up and 'roughly' put him in the seat." At the time of the press report, some 14 days afterward (and despite the district being aware of a police investigation being conducted based on witness testimony and video from the bus), Ms. Daniels was still an employee of the Port St. Lucie School System according to district spokesperson Janice Karst when contacted by the press.
The TCPalm discovered that Ms. Daniels was arrested in 1985 on a fraud charge and convicted and another charge of fraud brought against her in 1994 by an employer was dropped. When confronted with the criminal history of Ms. Daniels, Ms. Karst (school spokesperson) was reported as stating "Convicted felons aren't eligible for employment with the district, but those with misdemeanor convictions can be hired depending on what the misdemeanor was and if the applicant is forth coming with the information. Like Portillo, Daniels also showed school records showing "generally high evaluations" dating back several years and a 2003 evaluation notes she's a "very compassionate and caring individual." According to Officer Lucas, "I believe in my mind that any reasonable person looking at that video would believe that child was struck. It substantiated everything that the original witness, the complainant, told me." The school never bothered to remove Daniels from the bus until the TCPalm exposed the story, also similar to the current Portillo incident. To see Daniels arrest record click here.
Look to this website for an investigative report on systemic abuse occurring under St. Lucie County School's Superintendent Michael Lannon here. A story of drunkard's in charge of special education teaching and physical abuse allegations.
Welcome Guest. On this website, your going to find a lot about the JRC.
Click on Picture to the Left
Makes one wonder, do state governments pay the Judge Rotenberg Center to troll the internet looking for anything written about it? I would also urge the Mass. Attorney General to investigate whether the "Education Center's" internet records show a pattern of trolling the internet looking for stories on the center.
JRC (Matthew Israel) is known for its culture of total and absolute control over every facet from the monitoring of students and staff, to dictating and "encouraging" all to eat a special diet. When things don't go their way, they simply destroy evidence. The place is a true Gulag.
There are a lot of individuals that make the Judge Rotenberg Center operate. Lawyers, psychiatrists, accountants and banks to name a few. What might be interesting is if those that enabled (by their services) what goes on there were exposed. Wouldn't you want to know who it is that contributes to helping this center manage its business? I happen to know. It's all a matter of public record if you know where to look. Perhaps if others knew, then they could choose whether they want to patronize these businesses or not. If one of the people who spent they're days shocking children lived next door to me, I would want to know. I certainly don't want my family around folks that have become desensitized to what I consider torture. This is something I have been thinking about for a long time, I just haven't moved forward with it yet. I'd be interested in other's thoughts on this. Should I expose those that do business or are employed by the Center? It's a moral question.
Sometimes, for whatever reason, the human race feels the need to kill each other. It's made all the more easier when those being killed are "different" from those doing the killing. Often, the killer sees his victims as non-persons or person's devoid of equal humanity and understanding. Race, gender, religion, nationality, sexual preference and disability are typical internal and subconscious justifications. Somewhere, hidden in the psyche of all human beings, is the inclination to hurt those that are different. This hidden and dark nature in each of us that expresses itself in what is happening in Irag, Darfur, Somalia and many other places in the world. It explains what is happening at the Judge Rotenberg Center, countless institutions, the workforce, church/synagogue/mosque/temple, and daily life in every form and facet.
The failure of acceptance of differences leads us down the path of destruction and depending on the power structure, everyone will find at some point in their lives that they are on the receiving end of the label "non-person" and their/your humanity will be questioned. But, for many others, being viewed as a non-person is a life long experience.
To the left is what a school resource officer typically looks like. According to the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), the organization considers itself the first and most recognized organization for law enforcement officers in the schools. A resource officer isn't a "renta-cop", but a certified police officer with the power to affect arrest and custody. The main job of a school resource officer is to perform the lion's share of of the necessary law enforcement function on a campus. This function includes "proactive crime preventions, conducting criminal investigations, making arrests when necessary, developing intervention strategies and crisis planning." Does a 5 year old child pushing a table up with his legs require a police officer (a person with the power to arrest and imprison, whom is suppose to be investigating and preventing criminal acts on campus) to intervene? Ms. Portillo did not claim that she or the children were afraid of Alex's pushing the table with his legs. No mention was made in the police report that Alex was endangering himself or the other children in the class. No mention was made that Alex has in the past had a "criminal" record, been violent to other children or caused any child to be fearful of him. But apparently, the resource officer (who's main duties include a law enforcement function to protect the school and students from "crime...conducting criminal investigations and making arrests when necessary etc.") was required based on Ms. Portillo's judgement. 
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