Middle School Students Superlative Award Makes Fun of Her ADHD

[sarisataka]

Last edited Sat May 20, 2017, 11:04 AM - Edit history (1)

Middle School Student’s Superlative Award Makes Fun of Her ADHD

Superlative awards are supposed to be a funny way to acknowledge students for their personalities, talents, or other nonacademic achievements. A middle school in Georgia has illustrated how they can also be hurtful, after awarding “Most Likely to ‘Not Pay Attention’” to an eighth-grade girl who has been diagnosed with ADHD.

“I feel like it was very derogatory, I feel like it was humiliating, and this was held as an assembly with the school,” the girl’s mother, Nicole Edwards, told Fox 5 News in Washington, D.C. According to Edwards, the original award her daughter won was “most likely to ask a question that has already been answered,” which doesn’t sound much better.

“I find it very offensive and demeaning,” psychologist George Sachs, a New York-based specialist in ADD and ADHD, told Yahoo Beauty via email. “While it may not be the students’ job, it should be one of the [faculty members’] or teachers’ job to correct whoever awarded this and help them understand that ADHD is a real disability, like diabetes, and that making light of it is unhelpful and downright discriminating.”

Sachs adds: “Many individuals with ADD struggle with self-esteem, as their disability is invisible, and unlike others that require crutches, etc., ADD is often seen as not working hard or being lazy. But it is a real disorder according to the diagnostic manual.”
https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/middle-school-students-superlative-award-makes-fun-adhd-231813950.html

[csziggy]

1. The link at the end of your post is messed up

It sends me to a "Post a New Thread" window. Maybe this is part of the cautions after the hack?

ETA - How cruel that school is - if the "award" was students' idea, why would the administrators allow such cruelty?

[sarisataka]

2. Fixed, Thanks

Sounds like the teachers hand out these awards

[csziggy]

3. It's still not clear if the teachers made up the "awards" or just screened them

From your link: "The response from Memorial Middle School and Rockdale County Public Schools was swift, as spokesperson Cindy Ball told Fox 5 that two teachers involved with the awards will not be returning to the school district. “I can assure you that Rockdale County Public Schools will not condone anything that may cause student embarrassment or humiliation,” read a statement to the network."

So two teachers were "involved" but did they supervise or write the titles?

Thanks for bringing this up - this is bullying whether or not the teachers or some students came up with this idea. The stories from Reddit show this is not an isolated incident, also.