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NBR: teaching question
I don't know where to ask this, but I ran into a kind of unusual situation today and since I dont' have an education background I was hoping some of your education ladies might be able to help me.
I was out in the hall today while my students did evals (last day of the quarter, wohoo!). This student kept walking up and down the hall while I was out there. At first I thought he was looking for a room and couldn't find it, but then I realized he wasn't looking around, just pacing up and down the hall, so maybe he was waiting on someone?
Well, then I noticed at the end of the hall he would literally run into the wall at the end of the hall, turn around, and repeat. This went on for several minutes, during which I turned to go see if someone knew this guy (I was unsure of how to approach him...hence my question). While I wasn't looking he disappeared.
So, how would you handle this situation? He really looked like he was in his own world that whole time. I felt bad watching it and not doing anything but didn't know if/how to approach him. Ugh, this is when I wish I had more of an education background for these types of situations.
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Re: NBR: teaching question
In that situation I suggest you call the office, the special ed. coordinator/facilitator, counselor, administrator, or any other veteran teacher there. Given the intensity of the student's behavior I guarantee you he is probably familiar to most of the staff at the school and they would know who to contact to deescalate him.
Do not try to restrain him in any way for two reasons 1) You might get hurt, 2) Any physical restraint of a special education student requires a load of paperwork and notification to parents and others. Restraining special education (or any other students really) should only be done by trained staff unless a child is about to run into traffic or some other immediate danger situation.
Believe it or not, this behavior might have been a comforting thing for the student.
This is my problem though, this is a college campus so unless someone right in that hall had him in class (and this hall is mostly teaching labs, no faculty on that floor), nobody would know him. I was going to take a gamble and run in the only office on that floor with staff. I wanted to call Disability Services who, like you said, probably know him, but didn't get the chance to when he disappeared. Do you think I should still call and tell them what I saw?
I wasn't about to touch him in any way, but I hated seeing him running into the wall over and over, he did it at least 4 times. This is when I wish campuses weren't so big, I felt helpless in this situation to really help and nobody around that might know the guy.
Was this an adult or college aged student? Or someone younger? That would determine what I would do...
If it was an adult, I would probably try to find another professor to be a back-up and then simply ask him if I could help him with anything. I would NOT have tried to touch him in any way and I also would have made sure that he saw me approaching before I spoke with him.
It doesn't sound like you really had time to do anything though.
I agree with Moesten, it sounds like he was comforting himself or calming down. Hopefully it worked.
It was a student, couldn't have been more than 20. Finals are next week so I know stress levels are high on campus right now.
I thought you were talking HS kids, sorry. I agree with Moesten (she's so smart). Taking backup is always a good idea. Whether it be another professor or a student - just someone that could help you if the person became violent. It sounds like a calming technique like Moesten mentioned.
This is the only reason I hesitated, he didn't look like he was hurting himself from what I could see (as for hurting someone else, I would have definitely have called or gone for help if that seemed to be the case). It just was such an abnormal behavior I didn't know if it warranted interrupting him or letting him be.
Sometimes autistic kids (or adults) will do this as a sensory reaction. It looks painful but it is a comforting technique in times of stress. It looks crazy and dangerous, but it can actually be an outlet for a student who is stressed or bothered. Chances are that this is not the first time he's done it, and he's probably been diagnosed with something, but autistic students or adults don't necessarily get an aide to be with them all the time.
I have an autistic student who slams his head against the desk or the wall when he is stressed or when a situation suddenly changes. It seriously scared the crap out of me the first time he did it, but I learned to "talk him out" of it so he could find better ways to cope. Very scary.
I had an autistic student lock his/her self in the bathroom once. At that moment, s/he did not need anyone around...
However, in this scenario, I would do what pp's suggested- find someone else to help you approach this student in a very calm manner just making sure that s/he doesn't need help. I'd have a cell phone on me just in case security needed to be called. Chances are pretty good the student was just calming themself down, so while I think everything would have been fine, I certainly wouldn't approach the studnet by myself.
I did end up calling Disability Services. They weren't 100% sure who the student was but gave me some suggestions if I should encounter him again. I am glad I didn't approach him by myself just not knowing the situation, but I feel bad that nobody knows who he is to give him some help or check up on him, especially with exams approaching. Thanks for all of the info, it was really helpful.
ETA: I also talked to a couple people in the department to see if anyone knew him, and no dice. Either he's still in the huge classes where you don't know most of the students, or not in our department at all but found himself in the BIO building.